Spurs begin annual rodeo road trip against Grizzlies

For the last 14 years, it's been a rite of February for the San Antonio Spurs.

The rodeo visits San Antonio and the Spurs hit the road for an extended period. Those road trips often turn into successful journeys, explaining the heading of "Rockin' Rodeo Road Trip" in the team's game notes.

The 2017 "rodeo trip" kicks off Monday night when the Spurs visit the Memphis Grizzlies in the opener of an eight-game trek.

This year's edition will feature the first six games in the final 10 days before the All-Star break with stops in Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, Indiana and Orlando. Then the trip ends with a weekend in Los Angeles before the real benefit is met with 16 of the final 24 games at home.

The Spurs are 82-35 since the trip started with an 8-1 mark in 2003. The only time San Antonio experienced a losing trip was two years ago when it lost five of nine game.

Last year the Spurs won seven of eight.

This year's trip will encompass 7,378 miles and three time zones but the location rarely matters for the Spurs. San Antonio is 20-5 on the road and 9-2 in its last 11 games.

The Spurs begin the trip after a milestone 121-97 win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. Coach Gregg Popovich picked up his 1,128th win, breaking the record set by Utah's Jerry Sloan for most wins with the same team.

"Growing up, Jerry Sloan was one of the big names, watching the (NBA) Finals and stuff like that," Spurs point guard Tony Parker said. "To have Pop up there, he's going to keep it going. It looks like he's not getting tired at all. He's not going to stop anytime soon."

Popovich is 1,128-496 since replacing Bob Hill 18 games into the 1996-97 season, which enabled the Spurs to get Tim Duncan. He and the Spurs will be going on this trip for the first time without Duncan but with some of the familiar names.

Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs with 19 points Saturday while Manu Ginobili and Parker added 18 apiece, delivering performances that made it seem like it was 2003.

"You have to adjust," Parker said. "It's a different stage in your career. You try to be a good fit for the team who is around you. I try to do the best I can with the guys around me."

Ginobili hit four 3-pointers and played only 10 minutes. Parker made all eight of his shots, marking the first time he shot 100 percent while taking at least five shots.

"That's not going to change," Popovich said. "You can't make someone that's competitive non-competitive. You can't extract that juice from them."

The Grizzlies went 4-2 on a six-game road trip in which they averaged 109 points and shot 47.9 percent. Memphis also made 40.1 percent from 3-point range on the trip and ended it by rallying from an 18-point deficit for a 107-99 victory in Minnesota on Saturday.

"It was truly a win built on our character tonight," said Memphis point guard Mike Conley, who averaged 22.3 points and shot 48 percent on the trip. "Guys really had to find it within themselves to find a way through this one because this is the end of the road trip, been gone for 10 days, a lot of tough games, back-to-back, guys in and out of the lineup. We all had kind of excuses to make up to lose a game, but guys didn't use that."

All-Star center Marc Gasol and guard Tony Allen rested, so Zach Randolph started at center and JaMychal Green started in the frontcourt.

While Randolph was 3 of 15, Green scored a career-high 29 points.

"It's been that way all year," Grizzlies coach David Fizdale said. "Every time somebody's gone down, this group finds a way to rally. The next man who's stepping into that spot usually performs at a high level for us. And I think they deeply believe that I have a lot of confidence in each guy, so they go out there and play well."

Green recorded his second game with at least 20 points. He is one of eight Grizzlies this season to score at least 20 points and among nine players to be Memphis' leading scorer in a game.

"It's always about next man stepping up," Green said. "Coach, he believes in one through 15. That does a lot to our confidence, just to know that your coach believes in you and don't really get on you about your mistakes, tell you to move on to the next play and continue to play. That's all you want."

The Spurs averaged 107.3 points in sweeping the four-game series from the Grizzlies last season. San Antonio has won five straight meetings and 16 of the last 20.