Spurs defeat Hornets, 106-86: Recap, highlights and more

The San Antonio Spurs took care of business, defeating the Charlotte Hornets.

The Spurs handily defeated the Hornets 106-86 on Saturday night in Charlotte to improve their record to 12-7. They won both of this year’s matchups against the Hornets, sweeping the series for the 2nd straight season.

The game started off slow with the Spurs leading 15-14 at the end of the first quarter, and 40-29 at halftime. The Hornets couldn’t get anything going all game. They just looked out of synch and were held to 37 percent shooting. Dwight Howard and Kemba Walker had to do it alone, the rest of the starters shot a combined 3-19 for the night.

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San Antonio pulled away in the 2nd quarter and never looked back. They were fueled by a barrage of LaMarcus Aldridge post-ups and mid-range jumpers. Aldridge repeatedly set up shop at the elbow, got the ball, and went to work getting his favorite shot (a turn around jumper from a post-up) to fall. This was a total team win. Both the starters and the bench played quite well and 6 players scored in double digits. Aldridge and Pau Gasol led the way in scoring with 17 each. Rudy Gay also had himself a nice game, contributing 15 points while shooting 60%.

Aldridge and Gasol may have led the team in scoring but the Spurs would not have gotten the win without the contributions of Kyle Anderson. Anderson got the start tonight and had himself a heck of a game.

Slo-Mo foreverpic.twitter.com/nO7o0XXb4f

— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) November 26, 2017

? @KyleAnderson5 https://t.co/jdmXE6f7xE

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) November 26, 2017

Slo-Mo did a little bit of everything in this one. He scored 14 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, and set a career high in steals with 5. Anderson has really stepped up his game in Kawhi Leonards absence.

Game Notes

• Where was Brandon Paul all game? He only saw 3 minutes of playing time and all of them came in the 4th quarter when the win was locked up.
• Dwight Howard was fined $35,000 for doing this in last nights game against the Cavs. Nice.
• Kemba Walker briefly exited the game following a collision with LaMarcus Aldridge. He would return and didn’t seem to be affected by the injury.

Must Read: Top 5 point guards in Spurs history

The Silver and Black next play the Mavericks on Monday night. The Hornets get some time off and play the Raptors on Wednesday.