Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News reports (via blog):
The Spurs enter tonight’s game against Orlando riding a 10-game winning streak, having not lost since Oct. 30 against New Orleans — a team that by night’s end Sunday had matched them at 11-1.
It is the Spurs’ longest winning streak since taking 11 straight from Feb. 11-March 6, 2008, so long ago that only four members of this year’s team were around to experience it.
The comparison from early last season is like night to day. At this time a year ago, the Spurs were 6-6 and had required a two-game winning streak just to get to .500.
At the time, the Spurs were integrating seven new roster pieces, notably Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess. They also had a few proven holdovers, such as Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, physically unable to pick up the slack while everyone else got on the same page.
In retrospect, it was a perfect storm for a disappointing start.
“It is time-consuming, and lot of patience is involved,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich reflected. “It’s a lot of concentration on the part of the players to try and pick things up quickly. It’s a communication-teaching situation that doesn’t happen right off the bat.”
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