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Defending NBA champs on playoff precipice

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

DALLAS — First, the Spurs fell, a 61-win No. 1 seed ousted in the first round of the NBA’s Western Conference playoffs.

Soon, the West’s No. 2 seed, the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, may join them as idled observers, a legendary coach sent to early retirement in the process.

Dallas has a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference semifinals series that resumes today at American Airlines Center.

The Lakers are the 99th team in NBA history to face such a daunting deficit, defiance seemingly their final refuge. The first 98, after all, failed to overcome. But Lakers star Kobe Bryant insisted he has no doubt his team can be the first, starting with today’s game, and issued a warning to any teammate that might not share the belief.

“I’m going to keep this train moving,” he said, “so you’re either going to be on it, or in front of it. But the train will keep moving.”

The Mavericks have outscored the Lakers in the fourth quarter of each of the first three games because they have kept Bryant from dominating. In the final five minutes of Dallas’ 98-92 Game 3 victory, Bryant missed all four of the shots he attempted and committed two turnovers.

Meanwhile, center Andrew Bynum, on the brink of a breakout game after scoring 21 points through the first 3??1/2 quarters, did not touch the ball.

“The last five minutes is when I go to work,” Bryant explained, “and I didn’t the last game. I’ve got to get the ball and make those plays.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson has hinted all season that he will retire at season’s end, whenever that may be. Veteran Lakers such as Bryant and Derek Fisher, starters on the five Lakers teams Jackson has coached to NBA titles, don’t want to get swept and have that be Jackson’s final experience.

“It means more to myself and Derek than anybody else on this team, the history that we have,” Bryant said, “but you try not to think of that. You just try to think of the game.”

In a pre-practice meeting, Jackson told his players to forget about him and any legacy issues, then fell back on a longtime playoff ploy: Complaining about the officiating, hoping the referees working today’s game will notice.

Jackson said his All-Star power forward, Pau Gasol, has struggled in the first three games of the series because defenders are breaking a rule.

“I’ve resisted this the whole playoffs, but the NBA used to call it ‘knee up the butt,’?” Jackson said. “You couldn’t lift your knee off the floor to run a guy off the post. They’re doing it every time. They’re taking him out of the post so he can’t get a post-up.

“We didn’t complain about it against New Orleans, but the Mavs are doing the same damn thing. So we’re kind of resigned that they’re not going to change the rules. .?.?. I mean go back to what they used to have as a rule.”

Meanwhile, the Mavericks quietly go about their business of making the two-time defending champions look old, and in the way.

“We’re up against an opponent that’s very experienced and has got a lot of weapons,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ve got to stay on task.

“I feel like they’re going to play better, and we’ll have to play better, too.”

Pop unmoved by tales of Rondo’s heroism

Much of the basketball-watching public was willing to cast Rajon Rajon’s return from a dislocated elbow in Boston’s Game 3 victory over Miami in the Eastern Conference semifinals last week as his “Willis Reed moment.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, however, wasn’t one of them.

As the playoffs have progressed, Popovich — who had  star guard Manu Ginobili dealing with an elbow injury in the Spurs’ first-round ouster against Memphis — has been unmoved by the tall tales of Rondo’s heroism.

“It’s really been hard to watch the playoffs and have them make Rondo out like Willis Reed,” Popovich said Thursday, in wide-ranging interview with the Express-News. “It’s like, Manu couldn’t even play the first game (against Memphis), and we  probably shouldn’t have played him again. He went out there and worked through it, and you didn’t hear any of that kind of crap.”

Ginobili sprained his right elbow in the Spurs’ regular-season finale at Phoenix and was limited throughout the Memphis series, a turn of events Popovich believes played a prime role in the Spurs’ early ouster.  Ginobili averaged 20.6 points in five games against the Grizzlies.

“If Manu ain’t heathy, historically, we go nowhere,” Popovich said.  ”When he was hurt against Dallas (in 2009), they beat us. Last year, we  beat them in the first round, because Manu was healthy. Manu was half-assed one year against the Lakers (in 2008), or they don’t win three (Western Conference titles) in a row. His health is huge for us.”

Rondo was injured in the third quarter of Boston’s 97-81 victory over Miami on May 8, but returned to dish out 11 assists and score a pair of baskets in the fourth quarter. The Heat went on to win the series in five games.

Popovich says Ginobili should have  received similar kudos for laboring through a similar situation.

“It’s like Rondo is the next coming of Willis Reed, the thing he did and the character he showed,” Popovich said. “Maybe he did show character and  he was tough and all that, but it is no different than what  Manu did. That just kind of angers me on a selfish level, so to speak.”

Buford: Spurs not caught up in Parker’s pessimism

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was at the NBA’s pre-draft combine in Chicago on Thursday when he heard that point guard Tony Parker this week said the Spurs, as constituted, aren’t capable of contending for an NBA championship.

“Who knows what the motivation is to say something like that,” Buford said. “I’m not going to get caught up in comments. All I can say is that we’re going to continue to build our team and try to be as good as we can be in the future.”

At a press conference in Paris early this week Parker was asked about the Spurs and their disappointing finish to a 61-win season.

The French sports publication L’Equipe quoted Parker on his concern about the team’s ability to remain among the NBA’s legitimate title contenders.

“Our team can still perform at the highest level, but next year I don’t think we can play for the title,” he said. “We have to be realistic. It was kind of our last chance this season because (Tim) Duncan and (Manu) Ginobili are getting older.”

Parker also said he understands it will be difficult for the Spurs to improve through trades because of the nature of the team’s contracts.

“We don’t have many players that can be traded, and we’re going to have to be lucky during the draft,” he said. “But Pop (head coach and president of basketball Gregg Popovich) always makes the right choices.”

Parker acknowledged that, as a 29-year-old three-time All-Star with a hefty contract, he has more trade value than his teammates.

“If they have a player they can trade, it is clearly me,” he said, “but Pop told me I will not go anywhere, so we’ll see. Obviously, the NBA is a business. You have to be ready for everything.

“That being said, I don’t think they would have signed me for four more years to trade me, but you just never know.”

Buford understands that Parker’s comments are apt to spawn another round of trade speculation.

“I can’t control that,” he said, “and I’m not going to worry about it. We’re just going to move forward and work to improve the team.”