With the San Antonio Spurs' 100-91 victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, head coach Gregg Popovich set another impressive milestone. It was the 68-year-old's 1,176th win in charge of the Spurs and he moved ahead of his close friend George Karl for fifth place on the NBA's all-time list of career coaching wins. He now trails legendary coaches Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan, Lenny Wilkins and Don Nelson on the stellar list. All of Pop's wins have come with San Antonio, where he has been at the helm since 1996 and coached in a total of 1,694 games over that period. Only Sloane has more wins with one team (1,223 including the playoffs).Per NBA.com, Popovich's career winning percentage of .694 ranks fourth among coaches with at least 250 games, behind Steve Kerr (.843), Phil Jackson (.704) and Billy Cunningham (.698).He is also tied for third with five career championships and joint first with three NBA Coach of the Year awards.

But in typical fashion, the Spurs leader played this achievement down and brushed off the significance of it. 

"It doesn't mean anything, except that I've had good players, and I've coached for eons," he told reporters after the game. 

When asked how he felt about passing Karl for fifth on the list, he replied: "I don't remember scoring any points or getting any rebounds."

Pop needs another 160 wins to surpass Nelson for first place but it'll depend on how much longer he wants to continue coaching in the league. 

But this latest feat was made possible by his star players as LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard came up big at Madison Square Garden.

Aldridge had 29 points and Leonard posted a season-high 25 points as the Spurs beat the Knicks for the second time in six days and won for the fourth time in five games. 

The performance of Kawhi was certainly the most pleasing aspect of the night for Popovich and the team as he appears to be getting his groove back after several months out with an injury. 

He played 30 minutes, shot 8-of-20 and pulled down eight rebounds. 

"I felt good," Leonard said. "Still got a little bit of ways to go as far as my conditioning, legs, just the whole rhythm of the game, figuring out things."

The Texas-based outfit will be in action again on Wednesday on the second night of a back-to-back as they travel to face the Philadelphia 76ers.