Spurs To Rest Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili In Tonight’s Game At Rockets

Tonight is the San Antonio Spurs’ first nationally televised back-to-back of the 2014-2015 season, and the game happens to be against one of the league’s two remaining undefeated teams. Frankly, it would be a surprise if Gregg Popovich didn’t take advantage of this golden opportunity to rest his aging stars while indirectly trolling the league in the process. And that’s exactly what he’s done, as the reigning champs announced earlier today that Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili will sit-out Thursday’s marquee matchup at the Houston Rockets.

Here’s the injury report posted on San Antonio’s website:

Marco Belinelli (mild strain, right groin), Tim Duncan (rest), Manu Ginobili (rest), Patty Mills (right shoulder surgery) and Tiago Splitter (tightness, right calf) are listed as out for tonight’s game at Houston.

Justifications of Mills’ absence is fool-proof. He hasn’t appeared this season after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery and is scheduled to take the court for the first time in January. Reasoning behind sitting Belinelli and Splitter isn’t quite as ironclad, but both players went to the bench early in the Spurs’ win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. Neither is seriously injured, though, and could perhaps play if tonight’s game was of utmost importance.

But it’s not, of course, and Popovich and the Spurs are continuing to march to their own beat by withholding Duncan and Ginobili for simple rest. This long-held strategy has never bothered us. San Antonio’s judgement over the past 15 years has mostly proven infallible, and even if that weren’t the case, the team should be able to make its own decisions when it comes to player availability.

The Spurs also have the luxury of almost being assured a playoff spot. If other teams were similarly confident in their reserves and the unrelenting effectiveness of their systems, this would be a strategy far more commonplace. No squad plugs and plays like San Antonio, though; the rest of the league needs its stars to have a chance to win every night.

Still, we hear your grumbles from here. This was one of the most highly anticipated games of Houston’s home schedule, and should be a litmus test for how the 5-0 Rockets compare to the champs. Instead, James Harden, Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, and the rest will face a depleted Spurs team boasting Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, and not much else – people don’t love Boris Diaw as much as we do, apparently.

The league relies on competition for success, and San Antonio is selfishly flaunting that reality – again – by resting Duncan and Ginobili. But once again, other teams would employ such a strategy if they had reason to believe they could still play winning basketball. The Spurs certainly do, and adjust accordingly when they deem doing so advantageous.

Do we wish Duncan and Ginobili were playing? Of course. Do we understand the rationalization behind resting them? Definitely. And until Adam Silver takes the dangerous precedent of fining San Antonio one step further, Popovich will just continue doing it. More power to him.

What do you think?

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