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Tony Parker out against Pelicans, but Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili will play

Two-thirds of San Antonio’s famed “Big Three” will be on the court Friday at New Orleans, which comes as somewhat of a surprise given that Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili have been rested during the second game of recent back-to-backs. However, Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said that both players will be in uniform against the Pelicans. Meanwhile, Tony Parker will be sidelined due to a hamstring injury that has bothered him this season, even though he played yesterday vs. Oklahoma City. The 2014 NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard, continues to sit with a bruised right hand.

Popovich said he may have opted to sit Duncan and Ginobili tonight if the veterans had played extended minutes in the Christmas Day loss to the Thunder, but they logged 29 and 25 minutes, respectively. Popovich did not allude to this, but the Spurs-Thunder game was also a 1:30 p.m. Central tip-off, meaning more recovery time than a conventional evening start.

Pelicans Coach Monty Williams on his team’s preparations for the Spurs, given their uncertain lineups and player availability: “They have a great system. They have a number of guys you can just plug right in. We have to make sure that we are right and that we play a style of basketball that allows us to win games. That, along with play hard, sharing the ball, defending and rebounding, when we do those things we typically give ourselves a chance to win.”

Other pregame notes from Friday:

  • Williams on what his team needs to do to be more consistent: “Two things. One, understanding the type of intensity you need to play against really good teams. It has to be an every-night thing for us. Two, moving the ball. When we move the ball, we get good shots, and other nights we don’t move the ball. I think what we dealt with in the last game (at Indiana) was we didn’t move the ball and we didn’t make shots. We were coming off a game where we had 30-plus assists (Oklahoma City), and we wanted to keep that going.”