WASHINGTON — About 15 minutes after his San Antonio Spurs handed the Washington Wizards their 12th consecutive defeat, Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich bumped into his Wizards counterpart, Randy Wittman in the hall. Popovich put his hand on Wittman’s shoulder and wished him luck.
Wittman will need more than consoling.
The Wizards are the 12th team in NBA history to start the season 0-12 according to STATS and are six away from equaling the New Jersey Nets’ record 0-18 start in 2009-2010.
San Antonio easily polished off Washington 118-92 on Monday night. In the Wizards’ first 11 games, they lost by 72 points, and never by more than 16. Washington was completely outclassed by the Spurs, who played their usual precise offensive game with pinpoint passes and lots of open shots.
“I’d like someday for us to play like that,” a wistful Wittman said after the game.
San Antonio took the lead with eight minutes to go in the first half and ended it on a 20-10 run for a 60-48 lead.
“It kind of took our will away,” Wittman said.
The Spurs increased their advantage in the third quarter and led 92-70 after three. San Antonio’s largest lead was 29 in the fourth quarter.
San Antonio had seven players with at least 10 points as they continued their successful road trip. Boris Diaw scored 16, Tiago Splitter had 15 points and 12 rebounds and Tony Parker had 15 points. Tim Duncan had 14, Gary Neal 13, Manu Ginobili 12 and Matt Bonner had 11. After winning the first four games of the sixgame trip, they’re now 8-1 on the road and 12-3 overall.
“They carved us up pretty good tonight,” Wittman said.
Popovich had some compassion for his counterpart, who had to play without John Wall and Nene. Wall has missed all season with a left knee injury, but Nene had to sit this game out after playing 29 minutes in a double-overtime loss to Charlotte on Saturday. It was just his second game back after he missed the first nine with a left foot injury.
“You know, you take Tony and Tim off the floor, Manu and Tony off the floor for us, and we’ll have a tough time. In the NBA, having your best players is really important,” Popovich said.
After Sunday’s doubleovertime victory in Toronto, Popovich’s team really needed an easy night. None of his players was on the floor for more than 26 minutes.
“It was huge for us to have a good start and make sure we play well right away. Don’t mess with them, because we knew they were 0-11. You don’t want to mess with that kind of team. You just want to from the get-go pound them and that’s what we did,” Parker said.
MONDAY’S GAMES San Antonio 118, Washington 92 Brooklyn 96, New York 89, OT Detroit 108, Portland 101 Milwaukee 93, Chicago 92 Memphis 84, Cleveland 78 Oklahoma City 114, Charlotte 69 Utah 105, Denver 103New Orleans at LA Clippers, (n) TODAY’S GAMES All times Central Phoenix at Cleveland, 6 p.m.
Dallas at Philadelphia, 6 p.m.
Toronto at Houston, 7 p.m.
Minnesota at Sacramento, 9 p.m. Indiana at LA Lakers, 9:30 p.m.
Sports, Pages 18 on 11/27/2012