That crash heard coming from the AT&T Center on Friday night was the sound of the Spurs opening their five-game homestand with a thud.
Ben Simmons scored 21 points and Joel Embiid had 18 points and 14 rebounds, leading the resurgent Philadelphia 76ers to a 97-78 rout of the lethargic Silver and Black.
The quote of the night came from Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
"If I was a San Antonio fan tonight, I'd ask for my money back," he said.
Popovich opened his remarks with a brief summation of the game, and did not take questions afterward.
"Philadelphia was great. They were physical," he said before praising 76ers coach Brett Brown, a former Spurs assistant coach and a good friend of Popovich.
"Brett has got them really executing well and playing with confidence, and they did it at both ends of the floor. Their defense gos us out of everything, and our defense wasn't great. Their speed got us and we didn't get back in transition."
The 76ers (24-21) snapped a 13-game losing streak in San Antonio, where they hadn't won since Jan. 3, 2004. Philadelphia is 10-3 since Christmas Day. The 76ers beat the Silver and Black 112-106 on Jan. 3 in Philadelphia.
The Spurs (32-19) were awful from the get-go, setting season lows for total points and points in any half (31). Their 13 points in the first period also matched their worst quarter of the season.
The Silver and Black, who slipped to 20-4 at home, host Sacramento at 6 p.m. Sunday.
LaMarcus Aldridge led the Spurs' scoring with 18 points. Pau Gasol (11) and Dejounte Murray (10) were the only other San Antonio players in double figures. Murray also finished with nine rebounds, a team high, and five assists.
The Silver and Black played without Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobili and Rudy Gay, all out with injuries. Still, they should have been able to win, or at least player better, without those players.
It's difficult to understand how a team could play so poorly at home. Murray talked about the importance of staying positive and now dwelling on the loss.
"You can't really sit on this loss," he said. "It's a long season. We're not going to make excuses about the guys we don't have. We have to go out with the guys we do have and compete. Like I said, it's a long season and you can't just be stuck on one loss."
The Spurs lost because they couldn't string together enough good offensive possessions to score consistently. They were cold throughout the game, shooting only 40 percent overall (30/75) and 12.5 percent (3/24) from beyond the arc. Philly shot 48.1 percent (39/79) from the field and were 9 of 21 from the three-point line for 42.9 percent.
The Silver and Black were 0 for 10 from beyond the arc and shot 35 percent (14/40) in the first half.
"We didn't help ourselves by not shooting the ball well," Gasol said. "I think early on we had a lot of good looks that didn't fall, which led to some good fast-break opportunities for them.
"They're a good transition team, and that's how they got their first lead early. Then we just tried to compete and get back into it, but we couldn't make enough plays on both ends to get back and cut that 20-point lead down."
The Spurs led only once, 5-3 on a dunk by Gasol, before Philadelphia went up by double digits with 1:35 left in the first quarter and extended the lead to as many as 25 points.
"They outcompeted us on both ends," said Murray, who made his third consecutive start at point guard. "They were running, getting what they wanted and they knew what we were doing on a lot of stuff. We just had a bad night and the best thing about it is that tomorrow we can figure out what we did, learn from it, get better and be ready to go on Sunday."
Long and athletic, the 76ers finished with a decisive 50-36 edge in rebounding.
Down 50-31 at the half, the Spurs gave up 31 points in the third quarter and trailed 81-61 going into the final period. The Silver and Black kept the 76ers in check in the first half, but they had problems making stops in the third quarter.
Philadelphia shot a scoring 63.2 percent (12/19) in the third quarter, and was 80 percent (4/5) from the three-point line. The game was pretty much over as the fourth quarter began.
Simmons was virtually unstoppable, getting his game-high 21 points on 10-of-11 shooting. He also finished with a game-high seven assists and two steals. Dario Saric (15), Justin Anderson (12) and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (10) rounded out the 76ers double-figure scoring.
The Spurs were so cold shooting the ball that they were 0 of 14 from the three-point line before Bryn Forbes finally nailed a long shot with 1:05 left in the third quarter.
The 76ers nearly ran the Spurs out of the arena in the first half, going up by as many as 21 points and leading by 19 at intermission.
The Silver and Black were awful offensively in the first two quarters, shooting only 35 percent (14/40) and going 0 for 10 from the three-point line. The Spurs had only six turnovers and didn't play that bad defensively, but the their anemic offense doomed any chance they had of rallying.
Aldridge led San Antonio's first-half scoring with eight points.
The 76ers shot 45.7 percent overall (21/46) and 35.7 percent (5/14) from beyond the arc in the first two quarters. Simmons was the top scorer for Philly with 10 points.
Up next for the Spurs: vs. Sacramento, Sunday, 6 p.m., AT&T Center
