The 1991–92 San Antonio Spurs season was the 16th season for the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association, and their 25th season as a franchise.

Season summary

Off-season During the off-season, the Spurs acquired Antoine Carr from the Sacramento Kings, and then signed free agent Vinnie Johnson in December.

Regular season With the addition of Carr, the Spurs won seven of their first eight games of the regular season, and held a 10–3 record at the end of November. However, the team struggled with mediocrity holding a 21–17 record as of January 19, 1992, as head coach Larry Brown was fired, and soon took a coaching job with the Los Angeles Clippers; Brown was replaced with General Manager Bob Bass as an interim coach. At mid-season, the team signed three-point specialist Trent Tucker. Under Bass, the Spurs held a 27–19 record at the All-Star break, and finished in second place in the Midwest Division with a 47–35 record, earning the fifth seed in the Western Conference.

David Robinson averaged 23.2 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 4.5 blocks per game, and was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and was also named to the All-NBA First Team, and to the NBA All-Defensive First Team. In addition, Terry Cummings averaged 17.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, while Sean Elliott provided the team with 16.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, Rod Strickland provided with 13.8 points, 8.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game, and Willie Anderson contributed 13.1 points and 5.3 rebounds and assists per game each. Off the bench, Carr averaged 10.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, while Johnson contributed 8.0 points per game, Tucker provided with 6.5 points per game, but only played just 25 games, Sidney Green averaged 4.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, and Donald Royal contributed 4.2 points per game.

During the NBA All-Star weekend at the Orlando Arena in Orlando, Florida, Robinson was selected for the 1992 NBA All-Star Game, as a member of the Western Conference All-Star team; he also finished in third place in Most Valuable Player voting, behind Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, and Clyde Drexler of the Portland Trail Blazers. The Spurs finished tenth in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 658,337 at the HemisFair Arena during the regular season.

NBA playoffs In the Western Conference First Round of the 1992 NBA playoffs, the Spurs faced off against the 4th–seeded Phoenix Suns, who were led by the All-Star trio of Kevin Johnson, Jeff Hornacek, and sixth man Dan Majerle. However, late during the regular season, Robinson suffered a season-ending thumb injury in March, and would not be available for the team's first-round series against the Suns. Without their star center, the Spurs lost the first two games to the Suns on the road at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, before losing Game 3 at home, 101–92 at the HemisFair Arena, thus losing the series in a three-game sweep.

Aftermath Following the season, Strickland signed as a free agent with the Portland Trail Blazers, while Bass was fired as head coach, Tucker signed with the Chicago Bulls, and Johnson retired.

Draft picks

Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 2 49 Greg Sutton PG Oral Roberts

Roster

Regular season

Season standings

y - clinched division title x - clinched playoff spot

z - clinched division title y - clinched division title x - clinched playoff spot

Game log

Playoffs

| 1 | April 24 | @ Phoenix | L 111–117 | Terry Cummings (30) | Terry Cummings (12) | Rod Strickland (9) | Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum14,496 | 0–1 |- | 2 | April 26 | @ Phoenix | L 107–119 | Terry Cummings (31) | Terry Cummings (10) | Rod Strickland (10) | Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum14,496 | 0–2 |- | 3 | April 29 | Phoenix | L 92–101 | Antoine Carr (20) | Cummings, Carr (12) | three players tied (5) | HemisFair Arena14,853 | 0–3

Player statistics

Ragular season PlayerSF82 82 3,120 439 214 84 29 1,338 38.0 5.4 2.6 1.0 .4 16.3PF 81 27 1,867 346 63 32 96 881 23.0 4.3 .8 .4 1.2 10.9PF 80 1 1,127 342 36 29 11 367 14.1 4.3 .5 .4 .1 4.6PF 70 67 2,149 631 102 58 34 1,210 30.7 9.0 1.5 .8 .5 17.3C 68 68 2,564 829 181 158 305 1,578 37.7 12.2 2.7 2.3 4.5 23.2PG 67 2 601 47 91 26 9 246 9.0 .7 1.4 .4 .1 3.7SG 60 23 1,350 182 145 41 14 478 22.5 3.0 2.4 .7 .2 8.0SF 60 4 718 124 34 25 7 252 12.0 2.1 .6 .4 .1 4.2SG 57 55 1,889 300 302 54 51 744 33.1 5.3 5.3 .9 .9 13.1PG 57 54 2,053 265 491 118 17 787 36.0 4.6 8.6 2.1 .3 13.8SG 56 7 759 95 142 29 19 151 13.6 1.7 2.5 .5 .3 2.7C 33 1 132 36 3 2 6 48 4.0 1.1 .1 .1 .2 1.5SG 24 0 415 37 27 21 3 155 17.3 1.5 1.1 .9 .1 6.5†PG 20 14 463 35 100 21 3 135 23.2 1.8 5.0 1.1 .2 6.8†SG 19 5 374 41 63 21 1 98 19.7 2.2 3.3 1.1 .1 5.2†SF 11 0 140 22 11 8 3 33 12.7 2.0 1.0 .7 .3 3.0†SF 6 0 36 8 4 2 0 15 6.0 1.3 .7 .3 .0 2.5†PG 3 0 13 1 1 0 0 6 4.3 .3 .3 .0 .0 2.0†PF 1 0 9 0 0 0 0 2 9.0 .0 .0 .0 .0 2.0SG 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1.0 1.0 .0 .0 .0 .0

Playoffs PlayerSF3 3 137 13 8 3 4 59 45.7 4.3 2.7 1.0 1.3 19.7PF3 3 122 34 7 4 4 78 40.7 11.3 2.3 1.3 1.3 26.0PF3 3 109 23 3 2 11 59 36.3 7.7 1.0 .7 3.7 19.7SF3 2 57 12 0 2 2 15 19.0 4.0 .0 .7 .7 5.0SG3 2 46 3 3 3 1 13 15.3 1.0 1.0 1.0 .3 4.3SG3 0 69 8 7 5 1 25 23.0 2.7 2.3 1.7 .3 8.3PF3 0 47 11 2 0 0 9 15.7 3.7 .7 .0 .0 3.0SG3 0 38 3 2 0 0 14 12.7 1.0 .7 .0 .0 4.7PG 2 2 80 7 19 3 2 31 40.0 3.5 9.5 1.5 1.0 15.5PG 2 0 15 0 2 1 1 7 7.5 .0 1.0 .5 .5 3.5

Awards and records David Robinson, NBA All-Star David Robinson, NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award David Robinson, All-NBA First Team David Robinson, NBA All-Defensive First Team

References

See also 1991-92 NBA season