Spurs' Duncan sits out vs. Mavericks, to see doctors Wednesday

Feb 25, 2009 - 7:30 AM SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan missed Tuesday's 93-76 win over the Dallas Mavericks with a sore right knee.

It was the first game Duncan sat due to injury this season, though the seriousness of the knee problem is unclear, especially since the star forward was feeling well just hours before the game.

"He'll see the doctors (Wednesday morning), and we'll see what they say," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

"His knee didn't have any strength and he couldn't get it warmed up, he couldn't get it loosened up. It's very strange ... he was good this morning, but this evening he couldn't move it. So we sat him."

San Antonio was without two of its top three players, with guard Manu Ginobili out for the next few weeks thanks to a stress reaction in his right ankle.

A perennial All-Star, Duncan leads the Spurs in scoring (20.7) and rebounding (10.7).

Point guard Tony Parker stepped up in their absence, collecting 37 points and a season-high 12 assists for the Spurs.

"We found out that Timmy was not going to play," Parker said. "I knew that I was going to have to step up my game, be aggressive and make plays, make stuff happen."

San Antonio played Dallas in the opener of a three-game stretch at home, where the team had not been since January 31. It went 5-3 on its eight-game road trip while the rodeo was at the AT&T Center.