Fans of the San Antonio Spurs(19-15), who were in the At&t Center for the first time this season, got a nice treat on Friday night. San Antonio, who trailed by 13 after the first quarter, outscored the Magic by 40 points the rest of the way to defeat Orlando(13-26) 104-77.
San Antonio was led by Rudy Gay, who scored 19 points off the bench. Before returning on Wednesday night against the Mavericks, Gay missed five games due to health and safety protocols.
On Friday night, in 20 minutes of action, Gay shot 6-9 from the field and scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter. According to Gay, when he comes off the bench, he wants to be aggressive.
“Well, just basically trying to be aggressive,” Gay said. “When me and Patty(Mills) come onto the court, our thing is to be aggressive offensively, and also, just play the right way and play with each other. Today, I got it going. Usually, Patty gets it going in the first half. I got it going today. It is what it is, next man up kind of mentality.”
After the first quarter(Magic scored 29 points), San Antonio held the Magic, who had only nine players on Friday night, to 10 points in the second quarter and 13 points in the fourth quarter, and Gay gave the credit to Mills and Dejounte Murray.
“I think Dejounte and Patty had the most impact,” Gay said. “They are the people that guarded people bringing the ball up. They start our defense. They started it, and we just fed off their defense.”
Over 3200 fans were in the At&T Center on Friday night, and according to Murray, who had 17 points against the Magic, having the fans back in the arena helped the team.
‘It was great for us because we do it for the fans,” he said. “The fans help us in every aspect. I feel like it was an adjustment that’s going to have to be made by us players. It’s something we have to get back used to because we kind of adjusted to playing with just no fans… To have them back yelling and supporting us was great, and I think it helped us get a huge team win.”
Notes:
The Spurs were without DeMar DeRozan on Friday night. DeRozan was back in California to attend the funeral services for his father.
The Spurs had all their players(Gay, White, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell) back, who were out due to health and safety protocols. White chipped in 17 points for San Antonio.
San Antonio is off on Saturday and will travel to Philly to battle the 76ers, who will be without All-Star and MVP candidate Joel Embiid. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the four-time All-Star will be out two-three weeks with a bone bruise in his left knee. Embiid suffered the injury against the Wizards on Friday night.