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The San Antonio Spurs seem to have fallen out of the national consciousness, and that is completely insane from a journalism perspective. This is a team that has won five championships in the last 16 years. They also added the biggest free agent target on the market over the summer, and this should’ve gotten them a lot more attention, but it doesn’t seem to exactly work that way. LaMarcus Aldridge has been a great addition to San Antonio so far, and it is remarkable how quickly he has picked up on their system. He fits with Tim Duncan already, and this is backed up by the PF’s humorous words after Duncan was recorded for five blocks during their last game.
“I told him: ‘I only saw two.’,” said Aldridge to ESPN after a 92-83 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. “So I think he got some home cooking tonight because I only saw two blocks. I think the other three I had, and they gave it to him. So watch that film for sure.”
The crazy part is that the Spurs are 7-2 with almost nobody talking about them, and the only other team in better position to win home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs is the Golden State Warriors. That is a squad who came out this season with a chip on their shoulder, but it will be interesting to see whether rolling out of the gates so fast slows them down in the long run.
Duncan has gotten used to his new teammate quickly, and the numbers back that up. He is averaging 11.4 PPG, 8.4 RPG and 1.44 BPG while helping the Spurs maintain consistency. Meanwhile, Aldridge is laying down 16.2 PPG, 10.0 RPG and 2.0 APG to round out their big man rotation quite nicely. Kawhi Leonard may be leading the team in scoring with 21.9 PPG, but it is clearly the frontcourt that will be bearing the largest burden in the future. The bottom line is that Duncan is already comfortable with Aldridge, and this will result in more success for the Spurs.
Dave Daniels is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter: @AllDave_AllDay, like him on Facebook here or add him to your network on Google.
