The season will be commencing in less than 24 hours and surely everyone’s excited to find out who can dethrone the champions—San Antonio Spurs. But speaking of the champs, their starters—Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter—are unfortunately going to be missing their services in opening night against the Mavericks due to injuries, according to league sources.
Leonard is dealing with an eye infection from their preseason opener against Alba Berlin which still clearly bothers him, while Splitter continues to recover from a strained calf he suffered during training camp. Both of them will also be joining Patty Mills who underwent surgery on his right shoulder over the summer and is expected to be out till January.
From Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports:
Spurs say Kawhi Leonard (right eye infection) and Tiago Splitter (strained calf) will not play in Tuesday's season-opener against Dallas.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) October 27, 2014
With all these names still listed on the injury report, expect other Spurs’ players to step up and take the opportunity to fill in this void for the time being. Most probably Marco Belinelli will replace Leonard in the starting lineup, while Boris Diaw or Matt Bonner will start in place of Splitter, depending on the matchups that Greg Popovich would deem to be most strategic as his Spurs begin their title defense.
Benjamin Felix Santos is currently a senior college student from the Philippines. An aspiring NBA writer, who bleeds the purple and gold, and his love for the game will never die. You may find his other musings at the Lake Show Life.
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