San Antonio Spurs Fall to 6th Seed with Loss to New Orleans Pelicans

The San Antonio Spurs will start the playoffs as the sixth seed after their road loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, 108-103, in their final regular season game.

New Orleans, who could secure a playoff berth with a win, came out very determined in the first quarter, jumping out to a 34-19 lead after one.

San Antonio tried to battle back, closing the lead to as little as three in the final seconds, but was ultimately unsuccessful, losing their two-seed and home court advantage in the process.

Now that the game is over, let’s take a look at our studs and duds of the game, along with key statistics.

Studs of the Game

San Antonio Spurs

Boris Diaw came out determined to try to help the Spurs secure the second seed. Even though he was coming off the bench the French forward didn’t let that deter his production, finishing the game with 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting along with five assists and five rebounds. Unfortunately for Diaw and San Antonio, New Orleans came out on fire.

New Orleans Pelicans

Anthony Davis has been doing it all season so it was no surprise when he once again put the team on his back, leading them into the playoffs. The former number one overall pick is a big reason the Pelicans are in the playoffs and he put the final exclamation point on a great season with 31 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks. Davis also finished with the second highest plus-minus on his team, plus-10.

Duds of the Game

San Antonio Spurs

Danny Green continued his roller coaster end to the season, this time finding himself on the bottom rather than the top. Green had nothing to show in the scoring column for Wednesday’s game, coming up with zero points. What makes that zero point showing even worse is that the former Tar Heel didn’t even attempt a single field goal. Throw in the three fouls he picked up and it’s definitely a night to forget for the two-guard.

New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans are playoff bound but it’s not really because of Quincy Pondexter‘s performance against the Spurs. The 6-foot-6 forward had a quiet night, scoring only four points on 1-of-3 shooting. Pondexter didn’t do so well in other categories either, coming away with just one assist and one rebound. He also struggled to contain Kawhi Leonard who picked up a 14 point, 10 rebound double-double.

Key Numbers

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6: That’s the seed the Spurs will be heading into the playoffs. San Antonio had a chance to claim the two-seed with a win against New Orleans but was unable to. Now they will have an uphill climb in the post-season. It doesn’t help that most of their core four is on the wrong side of 30.

15: That’s the number of turnovers San Antonio had in this game. the Pelicans only had nine. That’s a big reason the Spurs are on the wrong side of the final score. Had San Antonio done a better job of protecting the ball, they could be looking at a first round match-up against Dallas instead of starting the playoffs on the road.

7: New Orleans was plus-7 on free throws for the night. Free throws are one way you can make up for committing too many turnovers, however, even the free throw battle did not go in the Spurs favor. San Antonio will have a lot to look back at when they review this game tape and free throws will probably be high up on that list.