"It's sore, and he can't play," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said before the game.

Duncan joined Tony Parker, also suffering with a sore left ankle, on the inactive list. Parker's injury is not serious, and he may suit up for Wednesday's home game against the Mavericks.

Stick him: Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was scheduled for another round of rabies shots after the game, his third regimen of injections after his encounter with a bat during the Spurs' Oct. 31 game against the Sacramento Kings.

"I'm still waiting for little bat wings to start growing on my back," Ginobili joked. "Hopefully, they will."

Rocket man: Matt Bonner, who broke into the NBA in Toronto, visited with old friends from the Toronto media before the game. The Spurs center asked if rumors he had heard about fares being increased on the Toronto subway system were true.

Bonner was famous during his days in Toronto for getting around the city on rapid transit, earning his nickname, "The Red Rocket," after the name of the city's subway trains.

Told that fares were indeed about to go up, the notoriously tight-fisted Bonner had another question: "Will the old tokens still work? I still have some left over."

Playing favorites: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich declared George Hill his favorite player during the preseason, pointing out he once had made the same assertion about Rasho Nesterovic, the Raptors backup center who played three seasons with the Spurs , earning a championship ring in 2005.

Nesterovic, however, said he never had been a Popovich pet.

"No, never," he said. "I don't even know what to say about that. Ask him. He's got a lot of favorite players, but not me. I'm pretty sure about that."

Popovich wouldn't back down.

"He was always my favorite," Popovich said. "I wasn't his favorite coach, but he was my favorite player. He's the best."