abate

Spurs defeat Knicks, 109-83, extending win streak to 7

SAN ANTONIO - (AP) -- Three weeks after hitting a low point with a "pathetic" performance on Broadway, the Spurs hit a high note against the New York Knicks.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and San Antonio beat the Knicks 109-83 on Friday night to extend its season-best winning streak to seven games.

"It's more of a focus and them understanding that when we play good defense, we're a darn good team," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

DeMar DeRozan and Bryn Forbes each added 13 points for the Spurs, whose previous season high was five straight victories.

New York, which was without injured point guard Dennis Smith Jr., lost its eighth straight. Damyean Dotson had 21 points and DeAndre Jordan added 11 points, 13 rebounds and matched a career high with nine assists.

The Spurs hold the league's longest active winning streak and have won nine straight and 16 of 18 at the AT&T Center.

"It just feels good," San Antonio forward Rudy Gay said. "Things are clicking. Playing defense. Even when the ball is not going in like we want it to, we're still getting wins, and that's how you know we're getting better as a team."

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Gay had 12 points in 19 minutes after missing two games and losing 10 pounds because of the flu.

The Spurs dominated defensively, which was in stark contrast to what Popovich deemed a "pathetic performance defensively" in their previous meeting with the Knicks.

New York snapped an 18-game skid at home, routing the Spurs 130-118 on Feb. 24 as part of San Antonio's worst Rodeo Road Trip ever. The Spurs have had a greater sense of urgency since going 1-7 on that road trip and it continued against the team with the league's worst record (13-66).

New York had 16 turnovers and shot 41 percent from the field.

"When we beat them at our place, we limited our mistakes, our turnovers and stuff like that," Knicks forward Kevin Knox said. "So, they came in with a little bit of a chip and we just didn't respond."

San Antonio opened an 11-point lead in the first quarter Friday and maintained that double-digit advantage for much of the game.

The Spurs had 48 points in the paint behind the starting tandem of Aldridge and Jakob Poeltl.

Aldridge had 10 points and seven rebounds and closed with his 25th double-double of the season.

"(Having Poeltl start at center) kind of frees me up to float a little bit and kind of find my shot in different ways," Aldridge said. "I'm spacing the floor a little bit more. I'm not the focal point as the pick-and-roll guy all the time, so it kind of changes it up for me. He's been active."

Poeltl had 12 points, nine rebounds and matched a career high with five blocks.

Trailing 76-67, New York had an opportunity to pull closer but Kadeem Allen missed a contested layup as Aldridge raced back on defense following a turnover. Gay followed with a 3-pointer to extend the Spurs' lead to 79-67.

"We just had too many guys making too many mistakes and you can't play with holes in the dam when the Spurs have you going like that," New York coach David Fizdale said.

TIP-INS

Knicks: Smith missed the game with a sore lower back. Fizdale said the team is unsure how the injury occurred, but Smith is day-to-day. "His back just kind of went out on him," Fizdale said. "He had a couple of collisions there during the last game (Tuesday against Indiana)." ... New York is 7-30 away from home, which is one more road win than Cleveland, Phoenix and Dallas. . Mitchell Robinson blocked two shots, extending his streak of consecutive games with a block to 26. Among Knicks rookies, only Patrick Ewing's 28 straight games with a block is longer in franchise history. ... The Knicks' previous win in San Antonio was Jan. 2, 2014, behind a double-double from Carmelo Anthony. . Forward Noah Vonleh did not return after injuring his right ankle in the first half. Fizdale said Vonleh will undergo an X-ray when the team returns to New York.

Spurs: San Antonio is 24-1 at home this season when leading after the third quarter. The Spurs led 82-69 entering the fourth. ... DeRozan has 1,380 points this season, surpassing Dale Ellis (1,366) for third-highest total among non-rookies in their first season with the Spurs. Terry Cummings sits atop the list with 1,818 points followed by Artis Gilmore's 1,479. ... Forbes has 143 3-pointers this season after going 3 for 5 against the Knicks. He has the most 3-pointers in a season of any undrafted player in Spurs history.

SAVE THE BATS

With bats buzzing the court at the AT&T Center recently during Spurs games, Fizdale was asked before the game what he would do if he saw one.

"I like animals, I'm an animal lover," Fizdale said. "Hopefully we can catch it and let it go where it needs to go."

The Spurs' mascot, The Coyote, has emerged in three games in a Batman costume attempting to corral the winged mammals with a hand-held net. The Coyote successfully captured a bat on Feb. 2 during the team's game against New Orleans. Fizdale said he would want a net, too, if a bat emerged.

"Yeah, I mean we don't want to hurt it," Fizdale said. "It's just a little bat. Our guys will probably freak out."

Fortunately for the Knicks, no bats were sighted.

UP NEXT

Knicks: Host L.A. Lakers on Sunday night.

Spurs: Host Portland on Saturday night.

02

Abate: Cayuga County cancer services support national initiative

No result found, try new keyword!The Cancer Services Program of Cayuga, Cortland and Tompkins Counties joins others across the state to support the 80% in Every Community initiative, which aims to reduce colorectal cancer as a ...

03

There’s Still Hope for Oracle Stock On the Horizon

So far 2019 has been on fire for the equity markets. The December crash in stocks was on such a negative sentiment that the flip to positive hasn’t ended yet. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) is one of the leaders of the rally. Oracle stock came into its earnings report up 25% from the lows at all-time highs.

But this morning, investors are selling the stock because of the forward guidance. While the company exceeded the current metric expectations ORCL said that it expects less enthusiasm going forward. This is a natural reaction when the stock has been rallying into expectations of perfection.

ORCL stock is a long-term survivor and this selling from the earnings will pass. Forward guidance is less than perfect, but it doesn’t change the long-term thesis.

Meanwhile, in the conference call, ORCL co-founder called out Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). I find it strange to pick on a clear winner that surged out of nowhere to hijack the cloud from under the noses of those like ORCL, which were best set up to own it.

If things are going so perfectly for ORCL then why guide lower. This is not the same as me saying they are failures. It’s a pure statement on investors becoming over-exuberant with the ORCL stock price too fast going into the earnings event.

How to Approach Orcale Stock After Earnings

The stock had rallied so fast that it became a setup for failure on the earnings report. At all-time highs, ORCL would have needed to blow out the expectations on all counts, including the guidance. Since they didn’t, investors lashed out by hitting the sell button.

Luckily and to put things into context, Oracle stock was up 17% year-to-date. This dip merely brings them back into a breakout level that has been in contention since last September. This is normal price action that follows a stock break out. The bulls need to retest pivot levels for footing before they can proceed higher.

The rally that began on Christmas has been phenomenal and left several mini-levels of contention. Those act as support on the way down. Both bulls and bears usually want to fight over them again so they create price congestion, which helps the bulls.

The first such level is at $51 per share with a secondary level at $49.80. These are zones and not so much hard lines in the sand. I think of them as rubber bands, so I don’t expect perfection stops. But they do serve as excellent guides for those term traders.

Dec. 3 was an important day for the stock market last year. So for ORCL stock that coincides with the area around $47.50 per share. I expect that this level would be the strongest short-term support if the selling continues from this earnings report.

On the other hand, and fundamentally speaking, there is a reason to stay long the stock for the long term. Small moves like today’s are negligible over time. ORCL is a proven winner that survived the Dot com bubble burst and several sector-wide trend changes. So they are likely to continue executing on plans for years to come.

What also helps the bulls is that we now depend on technology more than ever before and the trend is becoming exponential. Tech begets more tech, so the demand on ORCL products and services should stay strong. There is plenty of business for all major competitors to thrive for years to come.

I don’t look for the experts on Wall Street for help. I’d rather develop and trade my own thesis. The analysts who cover ORCL are split between BUY and HOLD. And the stock is trading in the middle of their price ranges.

Nicolas Chahine is the managing director of SellSpreads.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him as @racernic on Twitter and Stocktwits.