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The San Antonio Spurs look to get back on the winning track and even the season series with New Orleans when they host the slumping Pelicans on Saturday.
Saturday’s game is the second of a home back-to-back for the Spurs as well as the finale of a four-game homestand.
New Orleans (18-49) already has been eliminated from postseason contention but San Antonio (27-38) still has a fleeting chance to make the Western Conference play-in tournament. The Spurs enter play Saturday 4 1/2 games behind the 10th-place Dallas Mavericks for the final position with 17 contests remaining.
The Spurs dropped a 145-134 decision to Charlotte on Friday, playing for the first time in a month without star guard De’Aaron Fox. The team announced Thursday that Fox would miss the rest of the season with a torn ligament in his left pinkie finger.
On Friday, San Antonio could not slow down Charlotte’s scoring from the perimeter, going down by 26 points at the break and never seriously challenging for the rest of the game.
Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 26 points on Friday while Devin Vassell scored 22. Jeremy Sochan hit for 14, Sandro Mamukelashvili had 13 and Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie each added 12 points for San Antonio, which has lost four of its past five games.
“This league is too good to think that you’re going to be able to turn that on or flip a switch (to get back into the game),” Spurs acting coach Mitch Johnson said. “We tried to make a run a couple of times — we were fighting. You could see the effort and the competitiveness lift a little bit.
“But that’s not how this works. You don’t get rewarded sometimes for that type of effort or competitiveness or intensity without execution.”
The Pelicans travel to the Alamo City after a 113-93 home loss to Orlando on Thursday.
New Orleans, which was led by Zion Williamson’s 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists, trailed by 30 points at intermission and could do little to make up that deficit in the second half.
Trey Murphy III added 17 points in the setback while Jose Alvarado scored 12 (all in the fourth quarter) for the Pelicans, who have dropped five of their past six games.
Jordan Hawkins’ consistent play has been a positive sign for the Pelicans, as the second-year guard has scored in double figures in nine of his past 11 contests.
“He’s getting healthier,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said about Hawkins on Friday. “We’re making a commitment to be consistent with our minutes for Jordan. That helps, when you know you’re going to play 20-plus minutes a game, you can prepare accordingly. It’s good to see him get out on the floor and look more like himself.”
San Antonio won the first game between the teams at home on Dec. 8 before the Pelicans triumphed twice two games in three days in February in New Orleans to take a lead in the season series.
–Field Level Media
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