Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich can't believe how badly his team has played on defense at the start of the 2008-09 season.

"If we don't play good defense, it doesn't matter if we score or not," said Popovich. "We're not going to score 110 points a game, so we have to keep people in the 80s or low 90s for wins. That's how we've done it every year."

San Antonio, which is 1-4 for the first time in Popovich's 11-plus seasons, is allowing opponents to score 105.5 points per game.

"Even if Manu [Ginobili] and Tony [Parker] were healthy, we can't continue to play the defense we have been," Tim Duncan said. "We're going to try to get back to the old Spurs' ways, where we keep the games in the 80s."