Spurs' homestand has them back in a familiar place Over .500

SAN ANTONIO -- Uncharacteristically, the San Antonio Spurs toiled for 14 days below .500 before walloping the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday to even their record.

The Spurs then padded the ledger by besting the LA Clippers 125-87 on Thursday for their fourth consecutive win in arguably the most significant test of their current six-game homestand. More importantly, San Antonio showed signs it finally might be turning the corner in familiarizing all the new faces with the "Spurs Way."

"I thought that we played a really good defensive game, and that fuels your offense in most situations," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I like to think we're getting better, more consistent defensively, and I think that showed tonight."

One of the main ingredients of the "Spurs Way," which has helped the team maintain continuity for more than two decades, was San Antonio's uncanny ability to spawn offense by consistently playing lockdown defense.

That seemed all but lost when San Antonio traded two All-NBA defenders in Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, only to lose another in Dejounte Murray when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason. Meanwhile, guard Manu Ginobili opted to retire, and Kyle Anderson bolted to Memphis as a free agent.

So San Antonio tipped off the season with several new players, 10 if you count the two two-way players. All the newness manifested itself on the floor most nights in the form of a lack of familiarity among the players, along with issues of communication and trust, resulting in missed assignments and blown rotations on defense.

"Defense is a matter of repetition and forming habits, changing some habits, and we hope that we'll continue to improve," Popovich said. "Some nights, we do it very well. Other nights, we don't.

"It's not just the system, it's them reacting to each other, trusting each other, communicating with each other, that kind of thing. So you just keep working at it. In years where we were first, second or third in defensive efficiency, I bitched and moaned just as much then as I am now. So it's not much different. [We] probably had to go back to more basics is the way I would put it because we [could] start a little bit further along the line with the corporate knowledge [in the past because the team had so many long-tenured veterans]. So if that dissipates a bit, then you go back a little bit more to the beginning if that makes any sense."