It was great seeing the Spurs get win number one of the season on the Dallas Mavericks. It was especially good to shut Marc Cuban’s “they had what we wanted and we took it from them” mouth. I guess he wasn’t man enough to raise the second place banner because he was afraid of the Miami Heat effect after the Heat got a whooping by Ben Wallace & Co. on ring night.
The final score was 97 to 91 with Tony Parker overcoming a sprained right ankle to score 19 points on 5 of 11 from the field and 9 of 12 from the stripe.
Manu Ginobili filled up the stat sheet with 16 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and a blocked shot. I’m sure Christopher Stromeyer, who drafted Manu in the first round of the Project Spurs Fantasy Basketball League thanks you for that line.
Francisco Elson was also impressive in his regular season Spurs debut with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks.
For the Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki scored a hard-fought 21 points on 9 for 20 shooting from the field. Elson covered Nowitzki most of the night and did a good job on him. Elson combination of size and speed allows him to guard Dirk, while Bruce Bowen focuses on Josh Howard. You can expect to see that every time these teams meet and when they clash in the playoffs.
No time to celebrate though as the Spurs play the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. CST tomorrow night in the Spurs home opener at the AT&T Center. Lebron and the Cavs have been mentioned as the team to come out of the East, so it’ll be a good early season test for both teams. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and locally on KENS.
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