The San Antonio Spurs have dealt with no shortage of key absences throughout the early portion of the season. That only furthered on Friday when coach Gregg Popovich was a late addition to the injury report.
Popovich was ruled out for Friday's matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans after undergoing what was described as a minor medical procedure. He is likely to be unable to coach the Spurs on Sunday when they take on the Phoenix Suns either — making the expectation of being a two-game absence.
It's not the first occasion that Popovich has missed a game this season. A few weeks ago, he could not coach during the Spurs' 123-92 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers due to an illness. He was at Crypto.com Arena and was a late scratch, causing assistant coach Brett Brown to find out he was leading the bench almost as the game tipped off.
Brown took over the head coaching responsibilities for the Spurs once again on Friday against the Pelicans. Brown gained seven years of head coaching experience with the Philadelphia 76ers after previously serving with the Spurs organization as a longtime assistant coach.
It has been a down season for the Spurs as they entered their latest outing having lost 14 of their last 15 games after getting off to a 5-2 start. San Antonio has more wins than only the Houston Rockets when compared to the rest of the Western Conference standings and only by one.
The likeliest projection for Popovich to coach his next game is on Tuesday when the Spurs take on the Rockets. Check back with InsideTheSpurs.com for more updates on Popovich's status.
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