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The San Antonio Spurs had a little trouble finishing off the Utah Jazz but did so behind Tony Parker’s 22 points (14 in the 4th quarter) and Boris Diaw’s season high 17 points along with Tim Duncan’s 14.
The Spurs face the Boston Celtics tomorrow evening at the AT&T Center. Great seats and Tickets are still available
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made a point to ask his players to watch the first presidential debate between incumbent Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney, going so far as to dispense DVD copies the following day.
There was no such homework assignment after Tuesday’s rematch, however, as the Spurs went home empty-handed. Popovich, an Obama contributor, also declined to give his thoughts on the matter.
“My opinions aren’t very important,” he said.
Popovich might have skipped the DVDs because his message sunk in. Boris Diaw, despite being unable to vote due to his French nationality, said he actually watched part of the debate.
NOTES
* Popovich said Tim Duncan returned to work Wednesday after an undisclosed illness forced him to take a rare day off on Monday. Duncan might have passed on whatever he had to reserve guard Gary Neal, who stayed home on Wednesday, but Popovich wasn’t willing to speculate.
“What do I look like, Louis Pasteur?” he said when asked if a bug was sweeping through the team.
* The Spurs practice facility was swarming with a crew on hand to film one of the popular H-E-B spots starring Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.
Judging by , Parker is playing some kind of club doorman – maybe a bad choice considering his experience last summer in New York? No matter – Diaw expects him to nail his latest role.
“He’s a great actor,” Diaw said. “The best French actor since…who do you guys know? Gerard Depardeu. And the guy who got the Oscar. The Artist. Dujardin. Jean Dujardin. He got the Oscar in front of every American actor. That was pretty good.”
* Even though it won’t matter, Popovich said he’ll use Saturday’s preseason game at Miami as a measuring stick.
“It’s a championship team, a championship program,” he said. “You play a team like that, you get some questions answered. I’m looking forward to it.”
* Popovich also said he’s looking forward to the second leg of the Spurs’ two-day road trip to Florida, where they’ll face former Spurs assistant Jacque Vaughn in his new gig as Orlando’s head coach.
“In the preseason it’s great fun,” he said. “In the regular season we’ll be trying to beat each other’s brains in, probably after having dinner the night before. We’ll have a lot of fun with that, maybe try to screw with him, just for kicks.”
Vaughn could probably use some good advice instead; the Magic are 0-4 in the preseason.
* Popovich contrasted the presence of rookie assistant coach Ime Udoka with that of the departed Don Newman, who left to take the lead assistant role in Washington.
“Ime is going to be wonderful,” he said. “He really commands respect from the guys. The kind of professionalism he had as a player extends to what he’s trying to do now as a coach.”
Perhaps Udoka can also fill Newman’s role preventing Popovich from tearing onto the court after bad calls – although that job might be easier to fill.
“He didn’t have to work very hard at that because I rarely get (technical fouls),” Popovich joked. “He just acted like he was holding me back all the time. It was like a game.”
* Backup point guard Patty Mills (ankle) participated in non-contract drills.
dmccarney@express-news.net
Twitter: @danmccarneySAEN
By Jeff McDonald
Just before the start of the Spurs’ preseason game at Houston on Sunday, Tim Duncan grabbed the ball and hugged it tight, as is his pre-tip ritual.
Lead official Ken Mauer glanced at a running clock above the Toyota Center baskets and issued a reminder: “30 seconds, Tim.”
In an effort to curb pregame routines it believes are slowing down the game, the NBA this season is emphasizing a rule that allows referees to assess a delay-of-game warning to teams whose dancing and handshaking choreography gets out of hand.
From the time the house lights go up after pregame introductions, teams are allowed 90 seconds to get jiggy. If all five players are not ready to tip off after those 90 seconds, officials can issue a warning.
Long regarded one of the NBA’s most low-key teams, the Spurs don’t expect to be affected by the rule enforcement.
“I had some 89-second handshakes worked out with my teammates,” forward Matt Bonner said. “I had to cut those out.”
Considering that Miami forward LeBron James’ elaborate chalk-tossing routine has become the stuff of shoe commercials, Bonner was asked if the new edict could rightly be called “The LeBron Rule.”
“No comment,” Bonner said. “I’m not going to say anything to get LeBron mad at me.”
Pop’s mediator: When Don Newman left during the offseason to become Randy Wittman’s lead assistant coach in Washington, it left quite a void in the Spurs’ game-day operations.
For seven seasons, Newman was the coach charged with keeping Gregg Popovich from ringing up technicals. Often, when an exchange between Popovich and a referee would get too heated, Newman would physically step between the two men and shepherd his boss back to the bench.
“He didn’t have to work very hard, because I rarely got one,” Popovich said, though perhaps that’s an indication of how good Newman was at his job. “He just acted like he was holding me back all the time.”
Newman has been replaced on Popovich’s bench by former Spur Ime Udoka, who as a member of the Nigerian national team once had to fight his way out of a gym in Algiers.
Here’s guessing Udoka is up to the task.
Habitat help: Not long after Thursday’s practice, three Spurs players zipped off to a construction site on the city’s southwest side, where hammers and hard hats awaited.
Centers Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter and guard Cory Joseph were among the Spurs Sports Entertainment employees on hand to help with various construction projects in Coleman Ridge, a subdivision developed by Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio.
The event was part of the annual citywide United Way Day of Caring.
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN