National Basketball Association

Spurs surging on 9-game streak with unlikely cast

Published Feb. 17, 2012 11:34 p.m. ET

foxsports

So you like NBA players plucked from obscurity who help rejuvenate sagging contenders?

How's this: The San Antonio Spurs, winners of nine straight and now second in the West, are surging behind a supporting cast nearly as anonymous as Jeremy Lin was two weeks ago.

''There are a lot of guys out there who, if they get the opportunity to play, take advantage of it. Look at Danny Green,'' said Spurs guard Gary Neal, pointing toward his equally unheralded teammate Friday. ''He played, what, seven games his fist two years? And now he's a starter. That's just the way life works.''

It's never worked like this in San Antonio.

The Spurs, the NBA's bedrock of consistency, did fine without Manu Ginobili for six weeks. Tim Duncan isn't an All-Star for the first time, but San Antonio hasn't needed him to be one. Tony Parker is an All-Star, sure, but he hasn't single-handedly put the Spurs within two games of first-place Oklahoma City.

There's been Green and Neal. Rookie Kawhi Leonard and 7-footer Tiago Splitter. Just another revolving door of interchangeable role players orbiting the Big Three?

That's true to some extent. But what's unique is that the supporting cast in San Antonio has never been so inexperienced: seven players on opening day who had three or fewer years of NBA experience. The average age of 26.9 is the youngest in the Duncan era.

Duncan regards the group as maybe the deepest bench that's ever surrounded him.

Duncan is averaging 13.8 points and 8.3 rebounds, almost identical to what he averaged as an All-Star a year ago. He's hardly acted disappointed in not being picked - the 35-year-old would rather have the weekend resting at home - and has been grateful for the new crop of help around him.

''Kawhi's been a quick study. Danny Green's been thrown in the frying pan and done a good job. Gary Neal is trying to get back into his rhythm after the appendicitis,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ''They're all competitive guys and doing a good job while Manu is out. It's really helped Tony and Tim keep us afloat.''

Ginobili returned last weekend after breaking his hand Jan. 2 but still hasn't reclaimed his starting job from Green while easing back into playing shape. In the meantime, San Antonio's former leading scorer has conceded control to Parker after a dazzling two months that earned the Frenchman his fourth All-Star trip.

''He owns the team now. He really owns them,'' Ginobili said Friday.

Ginobili's simply trying fit back after the Spurs were remarkably fine without him.

The Spurs went 15-7 without Ginobili in the lineup. Before San Antonio began its nine-game tear, it was eighth in the Western Conference. The Spurs are now second behind the Thunder, who they manhandled at home behind Parker's 42 points before embarking on their current nine-game road swing.

For the last decade, the Spurs have reigned as the NBA's winningest franchise with a proven formula of role players surrounding the Big Three. Those pieces took on an outsize role with Ginobili out, and have given San Antonio a rare scoring balance that's been almost unseen since Duncan, Ginobili and Parker began playing together in 2002.

Last season, for instance, just 23 times did someone other than The Big Three lead the Spurs in scoring. Thirty games through this strike-shortened season, it's already happened 11 times.

Once the high scorer was Green, who was barely hanging onto his spot at the end of the bench when he scored 24 points two games after Ginobili broke his hand. Neal scored 18 points in back-to-back wins last week. Splitter, who only scored in double figures 10 times as a tentative rookie last season, already has nearly double as many games.

''The system is set up that you can maybe go without one of the Big Three and still be able to win games. That's the way the system works,'' Neal said. ''With Manu out, no one would have expected us to win the amount of games that we won. But with the system, you can do what Manu did, collectively. No one can do it individually, but when you throw me, Danny and Kawhi together, we kind of made up for missing Manu.''