San Antonio 118, Washington 94  //  45-9  //  1st in the West

Forty eight minutes of last night’s Spurs, 71; 24 minutes of tonight’s Spurs, 72.

That kind of says it all, doesn’t it? Some nights you have it, some nights you don’t. Not to take anything away from Philadelphia’s defense–which was good–but we just kind of stunk last night. And not to diminish Washington’s defense–which wasn’t as horrible as the Spurs offensive output might suggest–but tonight we just had everything going and we were, you know, actually making shots.

In the grand scheme of things, both of the game in this back-to-back set are quirky little outliers, with very little to offer in terms of full season analysis.

The real headline of the night from the Spurs’ side is Ginobili not starting, breaking the streak of having the same starting line-up for every game at 53. We’ve seen this game before, the yo-yo-ing of Ginobili from starter to 6th man. Due to the overwhelming success of the team up to this point, I’m wary to apply any meaning to the change or read anything into it. Perhaps Pop wanted to give Ginobili a little bit of rest; perhaps he wanted to shake things up from last night’s performance; or perhaps he was just bored. I think no real conclusions can be drawn from this one game, especially given the circumstances of the schedule and the opponent. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see something different in New Jersey on Monday. However, if the starting line-up is still different by Thursday night’s marquee game in Chicago, then perhaps some more thought should be given to it.