San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan out vs Cleveland Cavaliers
By Nick Ziegler
The NBA Saturday Showcase on ABC will be loaded with star players as the San Antonio Spurs face the Cleveland Cavaliers, but there will be one star missing the game.
Tim Duncan will be missing the showdown against LeBron James and the Cavaliers on Saturday night, as he continues to nurse a knee injury. Duncan has missed three of the last four games for the Spurs, which included the highly-anticipated game against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
INJURY REPORT: Tim Duncan (soreness, right knee) is out for tomorrow's Spurs-Cavaliers game.
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) January 29, 2016
With concerns about his knee, Duncan underwent an MRI and his timetable for a return is very unclear.
Stepping in for Duncan has been mostly David West and daily fantasy sports legend, Boban Marjanovic. West has been getting most of the starts with Duncan out of the lineup, as the frontcourt of he and LaMarcus Aldridge is still a very good one in the NBA.
The always unpredictable Gregg Popovich did recently experiment with a smaller lineup against the Houston Rockets, which featured Kyle Anderson starting at the power forward position.
Against the bigger lineups of the Cavaliers, it will likely be more of a combination between West, Aldridge, and Marjanovic getting the extra minutes with Duncan out.
The big concern for the Spurs, however, is the health of Duncan moving forward this season. The ageless wonder is now 39-years-old, and a bothersome knee for a 7’0” tall basketball player is never a good thing at any age.
This season, Duncan is averaging just 8.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, which are both on pace to be career-lows. The Spurs will likely give Duncan as much time off as he needs to get healthy, as they are still one of the best teams in the NBA without him.