Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on TNT the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks will rekindle their Texas rivalry after one of last season's most entertaining playoff series. Live stream the matchup free by clicking this link; Spurs fans can catch the radio broadcast on 1200 WOAI, while Mavericks fans may do likewise on 103.3 ESPN.
Dallas took the Spurs to seven games in Round 1 of the Western Conference playoffs, but this year the Spurs open the year without Kawhi Leonard. The Spurs have engineered many winning seasons with the famed continuity of their motion offense, and have chugged along without key pieces before, but those absences are tougher early in the season.
"It's all about starting at the beginning every year. Not skipping steps," coach Gregg Popovich said. "You've heard me say that a million times. It really is the truth. You have to build it all over again. You can't just assume you're going to start where you left off. Luckily, I've got a group that understands that and allows me to start at the beginning."
Coming into the season Tim Duncan hasn't been happy with the team's play. "We haven't played well, but it's preseason," Duncan said. "We'll hopefully chalk it up to that. We'll show up for the first game and we'll figure it out, and we'll have 81 after that."
The Mavs will look different than they did a season ago. Vince Carter, Shawn Marion, Samuel Dalembert and Jose Calderon are gone, while Jameer Nelson , Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons have been brought in. Parsons in particular injects some youth into a group that was fundamentally sound a season ago, but ultimately not quite good enough to overwhelm the Spurs athletically.
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