Leonard leads Spurs against Pelicans after fast start

The 2016-17 season couldn't have started better for the San Antonio Spurs, who began the post-Tim Duncan era with impressive back-to-back wins on the road.

Now the Spurs open their home schedule Saturday night at the AT&T Center against the New Orleans Pelicans, who dropped their first two games, both of them at home, despite two superstar performances from forward Anthony Davis.

San Antonio has been led in its first two games by forward Kawhi Leonard, who had 35 points in the Spurs' surprisingly easy 129-100 win over defending Western Conference champion Golden State on Tuesday and 30 points in a 102-94 come-from-behind victory over Sacramento on Thursday.

"Leonard was hitting shots over two guys," Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins said after Thursday's game. "I heard he was working with Kobe (Bryant), and there were some flashes of Kobe tonight. He's really good."

But Leonard's early-season success story has been as much about his defense (he is the two-time defending NBA defensive player of the year) as his scoring prowess.

Leonard, who always seems to get to the correct spot in the passing lanes and outworks most opposing players, had five steals in each of the first two games, in the process becoming the first player to put together back-to-back 30-point, five-steal games since Miami's Eddie Jones in December 2002.

It's also the first time a Spurs player has achieved that stat line in consecutive games since Alvin Robertson did so in 1986.

In the win on Thursday, San Antonio went on a 16-2 run and held Sacramento without a basket for the final 7:20 of the third quarter, with the Kings missing nine straight shots in that stretch, as the Spurs rallied to take a 76-71 lead into the fourth quarter.

San Antonio led by as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter before fending off a final Sacramento surge and rolling in the end game.

"Sometimes things are not going to be as pretty, but the bottom line is we dug in and found a way to get it done," Spurs center Pau Gasol said. "Experience is the heart of this team and we're resilient and kept fighting. It was a good win."

It's the flip side for the Pelicans. New Orleans lost at home to Golden State 122-114 late Friday night despite another video-game-like performance by Davis (45 points and 17 rebounds in 39 minutes).

That showing came on the heels of Davis' 50-point, 16-rebound, seven-steal, four-block performance in 41 minutes of court time in New Orleans' season-opening 107-102 loss to Denver on Wednesday. It was only the third 50-point performance in an NBA season opener since 1963-64.

Point guard Tim Frazier has been New Orleans' second leading scorer each game, scoring 15 and 21 points, respectively.

"I'm going to have to bring, probably not 50 every night, but get somewhere along those lines every game to give ourselves a chance to win," Davis said after the loss Wednesday. "That's the bottom line. I just got to keep finding guys and trust those guys that they're going to make shots."

The Spurs were 2-1 against the Pelicans last season, losing early in the Crescent City before winning in February in San Antonio and then in New Orleans in March.