Basketball in San Antonio hasn’t lived up to expectations as of late. The Spurs headed to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night on a five-game losing streak. Hoping to stop the bleeding prior to the NBA’s All-Star Break it was former Longhorn LaMarcus Aldridge who rose to the challenge.
The Spurs got off to a hot start outscoring the Thunder 25-14 in the opening quarter. Aldridge scored six of his 25 points in the first, he finished with a team high 25 points against the Thunder. They were able to weather the storm during the middle two quarters where OKC was able to outscore the Spurs 63-54 to close the gap to just two points.
The Thunder were able to tie the game up at 79 early in the fourth quarter thanks to a Hamidou Diallo basket with 11:46 to go in the game. It was the closest they had been all game since early on the first quarter. Thanks to Aldridge and Dejounte Murray, the Spurs were able to shut the door on a comeback victory.
Aldridge scored 12 of his 25 in the fourth quarter to go along with his 14 rebounds. That marked LA’s 14th double-double on the season for the Spurs. Murray also matched Aldridge with 12 in the fourth to give the Spurs the 114-106 victory.