THE SPURS ARE STILL WINLESS. IS IT TIME TO BE ALARMED?

The San Antonio Spurs stayed winless in the preseason after a 123-114 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday. When you consider that they faced a young, athletic, fast-paced Pelicans team, it’s even surprising that they only lost by nine points.

Win or lose, though, the Spurs will remain as a team with great poise, which is all due to the leadership of future Hall-of-Fame coach Gregg Popovich. Don’t expect the team to turn into a high-seeded team come playoff time, but don’t be surprised as well if they did – a normal type of anticipation for any Popovich team.

All-Stars LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan will remain in limited playing time, so three and mid-range specialist Bryn Forbes should continue being the main source of offense for the remainder of the preseason. The third-year guard is leading the Spurs in scoring this preseason, with 15.7 points per game on 57.5%-shooting.

A GOOD SHOWING AGAINST FOREIGN TEAMS

The Memphis Grizzlies won both of their games against visiting international teams this past week. They easily routed Maccabi Haifa, 123-88, and then dominated the New Zealand Breakers, 108-94.

Despite coming against less-talented teams, such wins are good confidence builders for any squad, especially if it’s a young core like the Grizzlies. Jaren Jackson Jr., deemed as a cornerstone of the team’s future, is among the guys that hopefully absorbed some boost, and he got plenty of that on both occasions. The versatile, 20-year-old big man scored 18.5 points, grabbed 8.5 boards, and swatted a pair of shots in the two outings, all while shooting 61% from the floor.

Jackson and the Grizzlies are hoping to get all the confidence they can get before the real action starts. The Grit N’ Grind era of Memphis basketball is gone and the fans are hungry to have new blue-collar, championship contending team to root for.

PREDICTION:

The Spurs will snap their losing streak and beat the Grizzlies in a hard-fought game. Forbes and veteran forward Rudy Gay could lead the team in scoring should DeRozan have another shortened night.

The match-up of the tall point guards should be exciting – the Spurs’ Dejounte Murray and Derrick White versus the Grizzlies’ rookie PG, second overall pick, Ja Morant.