Spurs (5-10) vs. Philadelphia 76ers (9-5)
When, where: Friday, 7 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
All-time series record: Spurs lead 58-37
Last season: Series tied 1-1
Last meeting: Sixers 122, Spurs 120, Jan. 23, Philadelphia
Spurs' last game: Lost to Wizards 138-132, Wednesday, Washington, D.C.
Sixers' last game: Beat New York Knicks 109-104, Wednesday, Philadelphia
Spurs' last 10 games/streak: 1-9, lost seven
Sixers' last 10 games/streak: 5-5, won two
Spurs' injury/inactive report: Forward Drew Eubanks (G League), out; forward Luka Samanic (G League), out; guard Quindarry Weatherspoon (G League), out; guard Derrick White (left foot soreness), questionable.
Sixers' injury/inactive report: Forward Jonah Bolden (G League), out; guard Trey Burke (left ankle/knee, soreness), questionable; forward Norvel Pelle (G League), out; guard Josh Richardson (right hip flexor, tightness), questionable; guard Marial Shayok (right quad contusion, G League), out; guard Zhaire Smith (G League), out.
Notable: Friday night's clash with the Sixers is the third stop in a four-game road trip for the Spurs.
- The Silver and Black end the trip against the New York Knicks on Saturday. The Spurs opened the season with a 120-111 victory over the Knicks on Oct. 23 at the AT&T Center.
- San Antonio's seven-game losing streak is its longest since the 1996-97 season when Tim Duncan was a senior at Wake Forest.
- The franchise record for most consecutive losses is 13, set in 1988-89, the season before David Robinson joined the team. The Spurs won their first of five NBA championships 10 years later.
GAME PREVIEW
It hasn't been a month since the Spurs last won a game. It just seems that long ago.
Mired in their longest skid in 23 years, the Silver and Black have lost seven straight since beating the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 7 at the AT&T Center.
The Wizards added to the Spurs' misery with a 138-132 victory on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The seven-game losing streak is San Antonio's longest since the 1996-97 season when Gregg Popovich was in his first season as the team's head coach.
The Silver and Black led the Wizards by three after one quarter and by six at the half, but they gave up 75 points in the second half.
"You know, we started out better [and] that's what we wanted to do," Popovich said. "That worked very well. (We had a) bad third quarter. All in all, if you score 132 points, you should probably have a pretty good chance to win a game.
"The bad news is that if you give up 138, you're probably not going to (win). I'm just a really smart guy. Yeah, I'm figuring that's logical, right? Yeah, you know, 138 is probably going to be tough to win that game."
Guard Bradley Beal sparked the Wizards' surge in the third quarter, scoring 21 of his game-high 33 points in the period. He went 9 for 9 from the field in the third quarter.
The Spurs (5-10) continue their four-game road trip Friday night against the Philadelphia 76ers (9-5). The Sixers, coached by former Spurs assistant Brett Brown, are 5-0 at home this season.
San Antonio hasn't been five games below .500 since the 1996-97 season. The Spurs finished 20-62 and wound up in the lottery, selecting Tim Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft.
DeMar DeRozan led the Silver and Black scoring against the Wizards, finishing with 31 points on 9-of-13 shooting. DeRozan has been on a tear in the first two games of the road trip, scoring 67 points on 23-of-33 shooting (69.7 percent).
But the losses to the Dallas Mavericks and Wizards have left DeRozan exasperated.
“It’s extremely frustrating, especially being on this losing streak," he said after the game in Washington. "It sucks to lose. On the streak that we are on, every single game that we have lost has felt worse than the last one.”
The Silver and Black had their chances in the fourth quarter against the Wizards but, once again, faltered down the stretch.
“Just trying to get some stops," DeRozan said when asked what the team's mindset was in the final minutes. "Try to come down and get some easy buckets.
"Just try to at least tie the game up, give ourselves an opportunity. We made some mistakes at the end that cost us. That’s kind of been our habit these last few games and we've just got to figure it out.”
While the Spurs struggled, Beal found his stroke in the second half and scored almost at will after going 3 of 9 in the first two quarters.
“A guy like that, I think he had like six points coming out of halftime," DeRozan said. "A guy like that, you've got to expect him to turn it up, even if he misses shots. He’s not going to slow down and coast out there and not get enough shots up. So you've got to expect it.”
The Spurs end their four-game road trip Saturday night against the New York Knicks and host the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.
