San Antonio Spurs: Rudy Gay to sit out in Phoenix
By Andrew Ites
The San Antonio Spurs will be without one of their three best players on Wednesday night in Phoenix as Rudy Gay will rest his recent heel injury.
The San Antonio Spurs have hit a recent skid, and it’s no coincidence that their struggles began immediately after Rudy Gay was sidelined with heel soreness.
The Spurs were off to a 6-2 start with Gay in the lineup before his heel started bothering him.
San Antonio then lost two out of three games while Gay was on the sidelines, and they dropped another game in Sacramento as he was limited to 20 minutes of playing time.
Gay played extremely well in the Spurs’ first eight games scoring 13.3 points per game and grabbing 7.9 rebounds while raining fire from three hitting 56.3% of his shots from deep.
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He has also become more valuable as a defender with the loss of Dejounte Murray as Gay is now often guarding the opposition’s best wing scorer.
Gay’s been active on the defensive end with a steal per game and five blocks in his first nine games.
The Spurs destroyed the Suns 120-90 in their first meeting in Phoenix, so Gregg Popovich thinks this is a good time to give his 32-year-old small forward some rest before they finish a three-game road trip against the Clippers on Thursday night.
Gay suffered a season-ending Achilles injury two years ago, and heel soreness kept him out of the lineup for a significant portion of last season.
San Antonio will continue to proceed with caution in managing Gay’s minutes, and they’ll have to pick up a road win without him on Wednesday night.
Pau Gasol will join Gay on the sidelines as he nurses a foot injury.