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Spurs look to get it right against Kings

Mar 21, 2008 - 2:19 PM Sacramento (31-36) at San Antonio (45-23) 8:30 pm EDT

SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) - With a four-game losing streak now over, the San Antonio Spurs can continue their playoff positioning on Friday against Sacramento.

The Spurs were able to avoid their first five-game winless string since 1996-97 with a 102-80 road rout of the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.

"It was just a bad stretch for us and this is a step in the right direction," San Antonio star Tim Duncan said after finishing with 22 points and 10 rebounds in the easy victory.

The defending NBA champion Spurs are locked into a continuously changing landscape in the loaded Western Conference. The Spurs are battling Utah, Houston, New Orleans, Phoenix and the Los Angeles Lakers for the best record in the West.

"The first seed could be the eighth and the eighth seed is as good as the first and that's no exaggeration," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "None of us is better than the other. So the seeds are really irrelevant this season more than any other time."

The Kings have been out of playoff contention for weeks, but have won two straight and four of their last five games. The two teams have split the first two games of the four-game regular season series, each winning at home. The series concludes April 14 at Sacramento.