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Spurs on bad streak

WASHINGTON — Forgive Gregg Popovich for not being in much of a mood to discuss the current state of the San Antonio Spurs.

Fact is, he’s just not used to losing like this.

Here’s how long it’s been since the Spurs dropped seven games in a row, the way they now have after DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge and the rest of the team were beaten by the lowly Washington Wizards 138-132 on Wednesday night: You have to go all the way back to the 1996-97 season to find such a rut for Pop and Co.

That was before Tim Duncan had even played a game for them — and that guy was in the arena Wednesday, sitting on the sideline as an assistant to Popovich. Before Popovich led the franchise to five NBA championships and 22 consecutive playoff appearances. Before folks such as Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard had come and gone.

After the latest setback, Popovich spoke to reporters only briefly.

“All in all, if you score 132 points, you should probably have a pretty good chance to win a game. The bad news is, if you give up 138, you are not going to win,” he said. “I’m a really smart guy. I’m figuring that’s logical. I could be wrong. … There’s not much else to say.”

His players didn’t offer a whole lot in the way of explanations, either.

DeRozan, who scored 31 points but missed a pair of free throws with 9.9 seconds left and a chance to cut San Antonio’s deficit to two, called the way things are going at the moment “extremely frustrating.”

“Every single game we’ve lost,” DeRozan said, “feels worse than the last game.”

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