Spurs home struggles continue with loss to red-hot Kings
The Spurs couldn’t handle the streaking Kings in the first of a back-to-back set on Monday. Despite cutting a big double-digit deficit to just three points early in the fourth quarter, they couldn’t complete the comeback and lost 132-115.
The matchup everyone was looking forward coming into this one was the battle between the reigning Player of the Week, De’Aaron Fox, and Dejounte Murray. It didn’t disappoint, as Fox made his presence felt before and after getting into some early foul trouble while Murray had the best half of his career, dropping 21 points in the first two quarter. Yet it was another, less heralded duel that proved to be similarly important to the development of the game early. Luke Walton decided to put Harrison Barnes on DeMar DeRozan to avoid doubling the Spurs’ top scorer while hiding Buddy Hield on Keldon Johnson. The decision paid off, as DeRozan couldn’t help Murray carry the scoring and was instead turned into a playmaker.
