(SportsNetwork.com) - The San Antonio Spurs might be without their fearless leader once again when they welcome the Sacramento Kings to the AT&T Center Friday. Gregg Popovich missed the teams win Wednesday night over the Indiana Pacers with what the team called a minor medical procedure. Ettore Messina, a two- time Euroleague coach of the year, guided the team to a 106-100 victory at home. It is not easy to replace coach Popovich, even if it is just for one game, Manu Ginobili said. He needed this win and I am happy that we gave it to him. It is unknown how long Popovich will be sidelined. Ginobili scored 28 points off the bench to lead the Spurs. Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard both deposited 21 points for the Spurs, winners of five straight. Leonard also pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, and Tim Duncan went for 17 points with six boards. Following Fridays tilt, the Spurs hit the road, starting Sunday in Boston. They will visit Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Memphis during this sojourn. The Kings complete a four-game road trip in San Antonio. Sacramento will be back home for five straight versus Memphis, Toronto, Indiana, Orlando and the Utah Jazz. After a 2-0 start to the trip, the Kings were handed a dose of reality on Wednesday. They fell, 102-89, to the Houston Rockets and were done in by a terrible fourth quarter. The Kings managed just 16 points, lost the period by nine and had a three-game winning streak halted. Fourth quarter was disappointing, we didnt execute, Kings coach Michael Malone said. DeMarcus Cousins continued his MVP push on Wednesday with 29 points, 17 rebounds and six assists. Houstons Dwight Howard didnt play, but Cousins was still dominating. Ben McLemore and Omri Casspi each scored 14 in the loss. Casspi started in place of Rudy Gay, who missed his second straight game with right Achilles tendinitis. Starting point guard Darren Collison also missed his second in a row with a left quadriceps contusion/strain. Both are listed as questionable for Friday. The Spurs last loss came at the hands of the Kings on Nov. 15 in Sacramento. Cousins, Collison and Gay were too much for San Antonio to overcome. The Spurs have owned this series, especially at home. San Antonio is 21-2 in its last 23 versus Sacramento and 19-4 in its last 23 as the host in this series, including four in a row. Stan Smith Sale NZ . Portuguese sides Benfica and Porto also advanced to the last eight while Basel overcame an early red card to win 2-1 at Salzburg and progress from a last-16 second leg that was briefly suspended because of crowd trouble. Lyon, Valencia and AZ Alkmaar will also be in Fridays draw in Nyon, Switzerland, where the team to avoid will be Juventus -- even though the Italian champions made heavy work of their all-Italian last-16 match against Fiorentina. NMD Shoes NZ . The unrestricted free agent agreed to terms with the club on Thursday on a one-year, two-way deal worth $700,000. http://www.nmdshoesnz.com/adidas-stan-smith-cheap-nz.html. The club was unable to retain hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, who is bound for Atlanta. Seitzer replaces Greg Walker, who was assisted by Scott Fletcher this season as the Braves finished 79-83. Adidas NMD R1 New Zealand . Jamies number grades given are out of five, with five being the best mark. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers (5) – He had good saves on Giroux, Akeson, and Hartnell tonight. X_Plr Shoes NZ . Lack replaced an injured Roberto Luongo late in the first period then watched defenceman Chris Tanev score the winning goal midway through the third as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Jets 2-1 in a tight NHL game.INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - They have the games best player, back on his home turf. They have two other All-Stars, each capable of dominating any game. And the Cavaliers have sky-high expectations.This is supposed to be Clevelands year.However, Cavs coach David Blatt thinks all that talk is awfully premature.Anybody talking about us winning it all, I think theyre being unfair to those great NBA teams that are out there that have either won it or have been there to win it, and also to us as a team thats talented but new, Blatt said Tuesday following practice. We have a lot of work to do before we can start claiming anything before its time.The Cavs, re-shaped this summer by the return of LeBron James, the re-signing of guard Kyrie Irving and a blockbuster trade that brought them power forward supreme Kevin Love, are predicted to win their first NBA championship this season. Las Vegas sports books have picked the Cavs as the 3-1 favourite to win the title — ahead of the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, who are 7-2 to repeat.Cleveland opens the season at home on Thursday night against the New York Knicks. It promises to be an emotional night for James, who left the Cavaliers four years ago for Miami but decided to come home after winning two titles with the Heat.Like Blatt, James has preached patience amid the lofty outlook for a team that hasnt played one regular-season game together. While the four-time MVP has plenty of post-season experience, Irving and Love, two-thirds of the leagues newest power trio, have not logged one playoff minute.The key for the Cavs is how the James-Irving-Love triumvirate meshes, and even if all goes well theres no guarantee theyll be able to get by the Spurs or whichever team emerges from the powerful Western Conference.Blatt has deep admiration for the Spurs, who throttled James and the Heat in last years finals, and coach Gregg Popovich.They played beautiful, winning basketball and thats been a team that over the years has not only been successful but has contributed to the style of play that I think is becoming more and more prevalent NBA-wide, Blatt said.dddddddddddd. I give coach Pop and the players of San Antonio a lot of credit for the style that they play, and for the willingness on the part of the players to be non-ball-dominant and to play together.Blatt, a wildly successful international coach, has spent the past few days cleaning up small things with his new team.On Tuesday, Love took a shot in the ribs and was pulled from practice as a precaution. Blatt insisted the 6-foot-10, 260-pounder is fine, but any bump or bruise this season will be watched as closely as the Cavs.Blatt feels his team is ready to go, but until the season begins everything is just speculation.Were going to see, Blatt said. Obviously now that the real games are getting started, were going to find out. I thought we showed in preseason that were a pretty good, competitive group and we played some good teams. But theres a big difference between preseason and regular season for everyone.But we got the right kind of personalities and the right kind of character guys to certainly get out there and make an effort every night.One of them is guard Dion Waiters, who could find himself with more scoring chances with teams focused on Clevelands higher-profile players.Although he admitted to freelancing and not watching much film to prepare for games during his first two seasons, Waiters has been listening to his new coach.The Cavs are only one of the contenders.We havent done anything yet, Waiters said. You got to look at the Spurs, teams like that, who won the championship last year and got every guy back. We got to look at teams like that. We cant just come into the game thinking everything is going to be easy. We know everybody is going to be gunning for us. Thats what makes it fun though, just to go out there and we know were going to get everybodys best shot. ' ' '