Without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, Spurs Push 76ers to 0-17

The embarrassing, tanking season of the Philadelphia 76ers continue as the visiting defending champion San Antonio Spurs hacked out an easy 109-103 victory over the Sixers on Monday despite playing without veteran stars Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

In lieu of the two starters, Kawhi Leonard showed he can carry the Spurs team turning in a big double-double effort of 26 points and 10 rebounds to help the Spurs improve to 13-4 overall for the season and 7-3 on the road. Leonard missed just 6 of 15 shots from the field and added 4 assists and 2 steals.

The hapless Sixers dropped their 17th loss in as many games in the 2014-2015 NBA season including 0-10 at home. Philadelphia’s point guard Michael Carter-Williams had a near triple-double with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists for the Sixers, which made the game close with a good second half effort. Philadelphia outscored San Antonio, 57-48 in the second half to avoid another blowout. The Sixers cut the lead down to five points, 101-96 with over a minute to go in the game but the Spurs held on to the advantage and the victory.

Leonard had a lot of help in this one with Corey Joseph, starting in place of Parker, finishing with 15 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists and Aron Baynes ending up with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Matt Bonner came off the bench to score 12 points on a perfect 5 of 5 field goal shooting while Manu Ginobili had 14 points in just 13 minutes.

Philadelphia might have a chance to finally notch their first W of the season with relatively easier opponents in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons in two of their next three games. Those teams have a combined 7-26 win loss record.

The Spurs stretched their winning streak to eight games and are winners of 11 of their last dozen games. They’ll face the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday before the marquee match-up against the NBA-best Memphis Grizzlies (15-2) on Friday.