Season 49, Game 36
San Antonio 123, Milwaukee 98
30-6, 2nd in the West

The Spurs, without Tony Parker in the lineup, shook off another defensively lackadaisical first quarter to put the clamps on the Bucks and win the road matchup by 25 points. After giving up 30 points in the first quarter, San Antonio held the young Milwaukee team to only 19 in the second while taking an 11-point lead into halftime.

As you may be well aware by now, the Spurs are not the kind of team you want to try and erase a double-digit lead against, and the Bucks – the first team to vanquish the mighty Golden State Warriors (almost twice!) – couldn’t stop the Spurs from winning their fifth straight game.

Kawhi Leonard continued his excellent 2015-16 campaign by leading all scorers with 24 while LaMarcus Aldridge dropped another casual 16 point, 11 rebound, double-double, but there’s a certain rookie who really shined in this game.


Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images

Jonathon Simmons had his best game as a pro, scoring 18 points off the bench, showcasing his astonishing athleticism in the process. Twelve of those points came during the Spurs’ big second quarter run, highlighted by two emphatic Simmons dunks. He also shot 6-7 from the free throw line and led the team in plus/minus with a +21.

A lot of us are high on Jonathon Simmons here at SpursDynasty, so we’re hoping he keeps it up after this potential breakout game.

A few other things that stuck out in last night’s road win:

• Danny Green, two nights removed from his best game of the season, fell all the way back to Earth, and then a bit deeper. Green shot 1-6, his one make a three-point attempt early in the game. His inconsistency is unnerving.

• Tim Duncan “bounced back” from his first ever scoreless game with a double-double, scoring 14 points to go along with 10 rebounds. I’m reluctant to say it was a bounce back game because, c’mon. The Spurs simply didn’t need him risking injury against Houston and had the luxury to sit him most of the game.

• Patty Mills handled his starting point guard duties admirably, and led a nice 9-2 run to really put the game out of reach toward the end of the third quarter.

• Another night, another butt-on-the-floor Manu Ginobili assist. Watching him this year is just so damn fun. He’s smiling, looks loose and relaxed, and he’s killing it on both ends of the court. He led the team with seven assists tonight.

• San Antonio is 8-0 in games either Duncan or Parker sit out this season.

• One more thing on Simmons: during his postgame interview, he told Sean Elliott that the Spurs “had to change the juice in the second quarter” and that immediately became my favorite cliché sports-ism for turning things around and making a stop on defense.

Seven Spurs finished in double-digits last night, which seems like a pretty good recipe for success in the NBA, if you ask me. Coming up, San Antonio looks to match its season-high seven game winning streak with home contests against the Jazz and the Knicks.