Simmons to start for Spurs in place of Leonard Jonathon Simmons will start for the Spurs in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night, replacing injured Kawhi Leonard in the lineup for San Antonio. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made the announcement during his pregame news conference at Oracle Arena. The thing that worries me is he did it again, the exact same thing. Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.