Spurs dent Knicks, attempt to tame Wolves next

The San Antonio Spurs got their first win since Tony Parker was injured on Saturday, defeating the New York Knicks 97-87 last night. Manu Ginobli scored 28 points for the victors and Antonio McDyess pulled down 12 rebounds.
San Antonio will return to the court tomorrow night against the Minnesota Timberwolves (14-51) at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central time. The game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest and heard on 1200 WOAI-AM. The Spurs won the first meeting 117-99 on December 29th and the teams will play once more on April 12 in Minneapolis.
The Wolves are a bad team and the Spurs should be able to dominate in all facets, even without Parker. Al Jefferson leads Minnesota in scoring at 17 points per contest and Kevin Love is the team’s leading rebounder, grabbing 11 a game. Minnesota isn’t very deep though, so once their lottery picks have to exit the game, the quality of player on their team drops drastically. Only Golden State (111.2) gives up more points each night than the Timberwolves (106.7) do.
Ian Mahinmi Index: High. He should get in this one.
The win over New York moved the Spurs to 37-25 on the season. It’s looking more and more likely that the Spurs will be locked into the 7th spot in the Western Conference. Right now, that is not a good spot to be in. If the playoffs were to start today, San Antonio would be opening with the Dallas Mavericks. The same Mavericks that have won 13 straight. While it may seem odd, Spurs fans should cheer for Dallas to keep winning so that they overtake the Lakers. I think San Antonio matches up better with them than the new look Mavs.