Tag: Atlanta

Manu finds fourth-quarter mojo

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

ATLANTA — As the Spurs hung tight to another surmountable fourth-quarter lead Tuesday night at Philips Arena, the ghosts of late-game failures past began to creep into their huddle.

They talked about collapses in Denver and Memphis, giveaways in Portland and Houston, and two bad finishes at home that built a six-game losing skid.

Instead of running from those ghosts, however, the Spurs embraced them.

“If we don’t learn from that, there would be something wrong with us,” point guard Tony Parker said. “You have to learn from your mistakes.”

Sparked by the kind of fourth-quarter finish that had defined them in the best of times, the Spurs closed out a 97-90 victory at Atlanta that moved them a step closer to sewing up the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed.

Combined with the L.A. Lakers’ home loss to Utah later Tuesday night, the Spurs (59-19) moved 3 1/2 games up in the standings with four to play, needing just two more wins to secure the top spot and home-court advantage at least through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

The Spurs could clinch by the end of the week, on a two-game homestand beginning Wednesday against Sacramento and concluding Saturday against the same Utah team that just helped them out in L.A.

Tuesday in Atlanta, the Spurs helped themselves. Parker had 18 of his 26 points in the second half, and Manu Ginobili scored 12 of his 18 in the fourth quarter, as the Spurs did Tuesday what they could not at the end of March — close out a tight game on the road against a playoff team.

“Finally,” Parker said, with a sigh of relief. “It was a big win for the team and our confidence and to prepare ourselves for the playoffs.”

The victory was the Spurs’ second in a row on the heels of their epic losing streak, but unlike Sunday’s walk in the ATT Center against Phoenix, this one was in doubt in the fourth.

This time, there would be no forehead-slapping late-game turnovers. No silly defensive breakdowns. No Frenchman flying to the basket to deliver last-second heartbreak.

Tuesday’s finish, at least, had the hallmarks of the playoff-ready Spurs, starting with Ginobili.

With the Spurs ahead 65-64 entering the final frame, Ginobili — having scored six points to that point — erupted for 12 in 5 1/2 minutes to help push the Spurs ahead by 10.

The key moment came at the 9:05 mark, when Damien Wilkins hand-checked Ginobili at the top of the arc, putting the Spurs in the bonus for the rest of the night. Wilkins might as well have waved a red cape in front of a bull.

Emboldened, Ginobili began attacking the rim, finding layups and, when he didn’t, free throws.

“I saw they were in the bonus pretty quick,” said Ginobili, who was 6 for 6 from the line in the fourth. “I tried to take profit of it.”

On the other end, with coach Gregg Popovich dialing up a new defensive adjustment at every timeout, the Spurs began to get the stops required to maintain their lead and finish the game.

The Hawks (44-34) were 6 for 17 in the fourth quarter. Joe Johnson, who led Atlanta with 21 points, was 3 of 7.

When Popovich says the Spurs’ focus and decision-making was better Tuesday than in earlier implosions, the defensive adjustments were a prime illustration.

“I think we kept them a little off-stride changing it up,” said Popovich, whose team moved within a victory of the fourth 60-win season in club history. “When you do that, you take a chance somebody might get lost. They stuck together pretty good.”

At a timeout with 2:56 to play and the Spurs up 10, someone began rehashing their fourth-quarter not-so-greatest hits.

“We said, ‘We can’t mess this one up, too,’?” Ginobili said. “We had to finish strong.”

After doing just that, the Spurs — from Popovich down — took pains to reiterate they were not yet in playoff form. There are still edges to sharpen, questions to answer.

“We’re optimistic,” Ginobili said. “We believe we have a shot. But I don’t feel like we’re playing our best basketball right now.”

But neither are they playing their worst, and Tuesday, the Spurs closed out a fourth quarter like they hadn’t in weeks. If anything, at least, it proved all that March misery was good for something.

Thanks to Utah, Spurs’ magic number down 2

Hours after the Spurs polished off a 97-90 win over Atlanta on Tuesday night, the Utah Jazz provided them more good news on the opposite coast.

Thanks to Utah’s 86-85 victory over the Lakers at Staples Center, the Spurs are now 3 1/2 games up on Los Angeles with four to play, their magic number to clinch the Western Conference’s top seed winnowed to two games. Without any further assistance from the Lakers, the Spurs could sew things up on their upcoming homestand that begins Wednesday against Sacramento and concludes Saturday against the same Jazz who just won in Los Angeles.

Neither opponent is in playoff contention, but as the Jazz proved Tuesday, sometimes teams with nothing to play for play like there’s nothing to lose.

Asked after beating Atlanta about the importance of securing the No. 1 seed, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich shrugged.

“Everybody talks about it every year,” he said. “We’ve had it and won and had it and lost. The team best usually ends up winning.”

Still, the Spurs certainly won’t turn down home-court advantage through the Western Conference bracket, or the the prospect of avoiding both the Lakers and Mavericks until at least the conference finals.

As recently as Sunday, as the Spurs’ lead in the conference dipped to just 1 1/2 games over the Lakers, it appeared certain Kobe Bryant and Co. would overtake them. A scheduled April 12 visit to the Staples Center loomed large.

Now, the Spurs have a chance to wrap up seeding by the end of the week, which would allow Popovich to rest any players who need it on the season-ending trip to Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Hill helps Spurs get over the hump

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

As the losses piled up to unthinkable heights, and the Spurs’ once unapproachable lead in the Western Conference dwindled to next to nothing, Matt Bonner found himself looking back in time and across an ocean for perspective.

Playing for an Italian team, Sicilia Messina, as a professional rookie in 2003, Bonner not only endured a losing streak longer than the one the Spurs ended Sunday with a 114-97 demolition of Phoenix. His team finished dead last.

“It wasn’t my fault though,” Bonner said. “The team went bankrupt, and a couple guys stopped showing up.”

Say this much about the Spurs’ six-game losing streak, the club’s longest since 1996-97: At least the checks still cleared.

The frustration-venting that occurred Sunday at the ATT Center was more priceless than any paycheck for the Spurs, even if it came at the expense of a Suns team now eliminated from playoff contention.

George Hill scored 29 points, Bonner broke out of a personal slump of his own, and the Spurs’ bench sparked the team’s first victory since a March 21 win over Golden State that only feels like last season.

After the win, which came with Suns guard Steve Nash at home with the flu, the Spurs ? got bonus help from Denver, which ended the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak. That pushed the Spurs’ cushion in the West back to 2 1/2 games.

The Spurs (58-19) clinched the Southwest Division when Dallas went on to lose at Portland on Sunday night. It’s the club’s 17th division crown overall.

More than that, it gave the Spurs assurance that the team that won 57 of its first 70 games still lurked somewhere inside them.

“It’s all about confidence,” Bonner said. “We lost some during the losing streak. Hopefully, we got some of it back.”

The Spurs, who led by as many as 31, got 63 points off the bench, including Bonner’s first double-double of the season (16 points, 11 rebounds) and 15 points from Gary Neal.

The Spurs’ star, however, was a reserve who had combined for 11 points the previous two games.

Cajoling Hill to revert to his shoot-first roots, coach Gregg Popovich approached the third-year guard with a specific piece of instruction.

“He said, ‘You need to be the Indiana George,’” Hill said.

Hill had little trouble deciphering that code.

“Play like I did in high school and college,” said Hill, the Indianapolis native and IUPUI alum.

Instead, Hill went back to playing like he did last week, when he dumped 57 points on Memphis and Portland. Hill shot 10 of 16, including 4 of 7 from the 3-point line, and by halftime had more points (24) than he’d totaled in all but two other games this season.

“He gave us what Manu (Ginobili) used to give us coming off the bench,” Popovich said.

Hill’s early explosion, which included 11 points in the final 2:01 of the first quarter, boosted the Spurs to a 70-46 lead at intermission, the Suns’ largest halftime deficit of the season.

“We got knocked on our heels early,” said Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry, whose team is lottery-bound one year after sweeping the Spurs from the second round of the playoffs. “When you get that kind of separation, it’s hard to work your way back.”

A victory in their pocket, the weight of the longest losing streak of the Tim Duncan era off their shoulders and the West’s No. 1 seed still in their possession, the Spurs depart for Atlanta fully aware of more work to be done over the final five games.

Still, the Spurs took time to celebrate Sunday. For the first time in 13 days, winning beat losing.

“Losing six in a row, after winning so many games all year, wears on you mentally,” Bonner said. “First and foremost, (it was) get the win, end the losing streak, and try to build off that confidence.”

For Bonner, Sunday meant something else. For the first time in a while, being penniless in Italy did not feel like the good old days.