Tony Parker will play Sunday for the Spurs. (USATSI)
After missing the previous five games after the All-Star break with what Gregg Popovich described as a "variety of maladies," San Antonio Spurs' point guard Tony Parker will be back in the lineup Sunday night. As the Spurs take on the Dallas Mavericks at home, Parker returns after a six-game absence to take on the division rival.
Popovich informed the media before the game of Parker's return.
Tony Parker is in tonight, per Pop.
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) March 2, 2014Parker is the leading scorer for the Spurs this season with an average of 17.7 points. He's also averaging 6.2 points and 2.3 rebounds while making 50.1 percent of his field goal attempts and 37.5 percent from 3-point range. The Spurs were 5-1 in the six straight games Parker missed and are 9-2 this season when he sits out. Parker had hand soreness and different leg injuries when he was taking a break from playing.
The Spurs are 1.5 games out of the top spot in the Western Conference heading into Sunday's action.
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Too many late turnovers, too much DeMar DeRozan doom Warriors against Raptors
This showdown of teams with dreams of getting past the first round of the playoffs was shaping up for an exciting ending. For three and a half quarters the teams had traded runs, made some big shots and both sides played some defense. The Warriors had been up 5 with just under 9 minutes left, but then the Raptors went on an 11-0 run. Golden State worked hard and got back into the game to set up that ending.
Then the Warriors shot themselves in the foot.
Down two with three minutes left the Warriors possessions went like this:
• Stephen Curry missed a pull-up three, David Lee got the rebound and kicked it out to a wide-open Klay Thompson who had too much time and missed.
• Curry gets double-teamed 29 feet from the basket and ends up fumbling the ball out of bounds.
• Curry tries to rifle a pass to David Lee down on the low block but it gets tipped and ends up a turnover.
• A bad Andrew Bogut pass becomes a turnover.
It was an eight-point game inside a minute at that point and even a Curry step-back three couldn’t save the Warriors at that point. Toronto had executed better down the stretch — that included DeMar DeRozan capping off his 32-point night with a rainbow long two — and the Raptors got the win, 104-98.
At the end of the game guys who had been quiet all night for Toronto — Amir Johnson and John Salmons — were making plays. Salmons made a nifty pass to set up a Johnson dunk one possession then on the next one, when Andrew Bogut laid back to stop a similar pass, Salmons drained he pull-up jumper off the pick.
Curry had some rough patches — like the second quarter when he was 2-of-8 shooting — but finished with 34 points on 27 shots plus had 7 assists. Klay Thompson had a rough night (4-of-15 shooting) and David Lee had 20 points (on 18 shots) and 11 rebounds).
Golden State is going to look back at games like this and feel a little sick when they see their first-round playoff matchup and know they are starting on the road (they are currently the six seed but need to make up four games on the Clippers and Rockets to get a top four seed, that’s not happening). This was a game they could have won, but they fumbled the ball and the chance away late. The Raptors knew what to do with the gifts.
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