In Tight Race for Top Spot, Spurs Coach Prefers to Rest Aging Stars SAN ANTONIO - When the Spurs traveled to Utah earlier this week to put their 11-game winning streak on the line, their lineup was lighter by 46.3 points a game, or their three leading scorers and most important players. Coach Gregg Popovich left Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili home. Popovich, the Spurs" longtime coach, sacrificed a winnable game in the teeth of a tight race with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top playoff position in the Western Conference. He did it to rest his aging core and to try to prevent the recurrence of untimely injuries that have haunted the Spurs in recent years. "If it means we've got to rest people the way we did in Utah the other night I'm going to do it, and whatever criticism that we get I'll take it," he said. History tells me when we don't have our health, we don't go anywhere. When we have it, we've won four championships. As to whether the deployment of the Spurs" B team honored the integrity of the game and was fair to ticket-buying fans, Popovich said: "I understand exactly. I'd feel shorted if I went to see Miami and LeBron James didn't play. But I have a different priority, and that rules for me. This very issue has come up at the end of the N.F.L. regular season in recent years with the discussion expanded to whether it is advisable for a coach to ease up on the competitive throttle so late in the season. Popovich has obviously decided that an extra home game in a potential best-of-seven Western Conference final is not worth the struggle if it could diminish the Spurs" chances of getting that far. Popovich noted that Ginobili was injured last year at the outset of the last game of a 61-victory regular season, didn't play in the first game of the first round against Memphis and probably shouldn't have played at all in a series the Spurs lost. "I'm not going to chase Oklahoma City," Popovich said. People say, `Well, you were ahead by one in the loss column. Understand the big picture. I'm not here to win the battle and lose the war. It doesn't mean that we're going to win the war, but it gives us a better shot. Popovich has coached the Spurs for 16 years and has had only one losing season. He knows his players like the back of his hand. And yet, after resting against the Jazz, the Spurs were blown out by the Lakers at home two nights later. So was it the right call?