Coach | SAN ANTONIO SPURS TICKETS

Spurs work through extensive practice Wednesday

The gap between series awaiting a second-round opponent is providing the Spurs to have a chance to get back to the basics as they prepare for either Memphis or the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Spurs worked for more than 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon in a practice that Manu Ginobili called as extensive as the team has had since training camp.

“I’m sure Pop doesn’t want us to sit for a week so we got on the floor today,” Ginobili said. “It was a good scrimmage. We went at it and it was good. It felt great … we haven’t done this all season.”

Most of the work was in scrimmaging with split squads. Ginobili said that Coach Gregg Popovich split the squad up rather than playing the starting unit against the emerging second team.

“We scrimmaged today, played hard, contact, the whole deal,” Popovich said.

The Spurs coach said he didn’t install additional material into the playbook as his team prepares for the second round.

“Not much,” Popovich said. “At this point in the season you are pretty much what you’ve done most of the year and the last thing you want to do is confuse the issue or try to get smart. So we just want to keep our rhythm and keep our conditioning as best we can.”

The Spurs are scheduled to rest on Thursday before returning to practice again on Friday.

Spurs close out, close in on West’s top spot

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Spurs 87, Celtics 86: April 4, 2012

San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan (21) makes a move against Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett (5) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. The Spurs won 87-86. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili (20) dishes the ball against Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen (20), forward Kevin Garnett (5) and forward Paul Pierce (34) in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. The Spurs won 87-86. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce (34) falls back as he is called for a foul against San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan (21) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. The Spurs won 87-86. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs guard Daniel Green (4) drives against Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett (5) and center Greg Stiemsma, far left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

Kentucky basketball head coach John Calipari, left, chats with former Massachusetts treasurer Joe Malone prior to an NBA basketball game between the Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, left, loses control of the ball against San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen (20) looks to make a move with the ball against San Antonio Spurs guard Daniel Green (4) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce (34) dunks against San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo (9) leans into a shot against San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan (21) as guard Tony Parker (9) watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan (21) defends against a shot attempt by Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce (34) in the last seconds of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. The Spurs won 87-86. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) (AP)

By Mike Monroe

BOSTON — The Spurs had been the most efficient offensive team in basketball.

They averaged an NBA-best 107 points per game in the month of March and, for good measure, piled up a season-high 125 points Tuesday in Cleveland to begin April.

Their coach calls the scoring explosion a necessary adjustment for a team he rates no better than above-average on defense. It also had made them the league’s hottest team of late with eight straight wins.

When the offensive magic disappeared in the second half at TD Garden against the Celtics, winners of five in a row before Wednesday’s showdown, it took some old-fashioned defensive magic to secure a ninth consecutive win — an 87-86 victory in the Spurs’ lowest scoring game in more than three months.

But a win is a win. This one, coupled with the Thunder’s close loss in Miami on Wednesday, puts the Spurs only one game out of first place in the Western Conference.

Who better to demonstrate the Spurs’ old way than Tim Duncan, whose challenge of an 18-foot jumper by Boston’s Paul Pierce forced an awkward miss that helped the Spurs ? hold on?

Trailing by a point with 7.9 seconds left, the Celtics called a pair of 20-second timeouts to set up a play for Pierce.

With a foul to give before Boston would be in the bonus, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had instructed his players to foul Pierce before he could get off a shot. Told to switch on every screen, Duncan ended up defending Pierce after he took a pass from Rajon Rondo.

“I knew we had a foul to give, but once he turned that corner and got his shoulders squared to the basket, I wasn’t going to do it,” Duncan said. “Once he turned the corner and kind of squared his shoulder, when you reach out to grab somebody these days, they’re programmed to look like they’re shooting. I didn’t want to do it at that point.”

Instead, Duncan stretched his 6-foot-11 frame and made Pierce shoot a high-arching shot that was badly off line.

“I stood in front of him and challenged his shot,” Duncan said. “If you go back and look at the history, at least what I’ve seen, that’s the shot he wants.”

Duncan’s defense preserved a lead the Spurs had attained after two late possessions they extended with hustle plays. Duncan snared an offensive rebound and found Gary Neal for a 3-pointer with a minute left. Manu Ginobili later grabbed the ball after it was knocked away from Duncan and found Matt Bonner for a 16-footer that turned out to be the difference-maker.

The game-winning shot wasn’t close to something the Spurs had planned. A lob pass from Ginobili to Duncan on a pick-and-roll had been batted away by Boston’s Kevin Garnett. It landed right back in the hands of Ginobili, who zipped it straight to Bonner, wide open on the left wing. Bonner’s mid-range shot swished with 46.5 seconds left.

“Just Manu being Manu,” Duncan said. “He scrambled, made a great play, looked for me. They’d been getting hands on the ball all night, and it kind of bounced back to him. I guess just keeping his head up he got the ball back and made a quick pass.”

Bonner had missed his previous four shots in the second half, but he knew it was only a matter of time until one fell.

“The laws of probability,” he said. “I think I missed my previous 93 shots. At least that’s what it felt like in my head. So I knew that one was going in.”

Bonner wasn’t the only Spurs player unable to shoot with typical precision after intermission. The Spurs made only 4 of 20 shots in the third quarter and scored only nine points, a season low for any quarter. Their 28 second-half points were also a season-low.

“We were fortunate at the end,” Popovich said. “Manu got a great offensive rebound. We got a couple extra possessions at the very end, and lots of times, that’s a team’s demise.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net
Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Green, Spurs put Cavaliers to the sword

By Mike Monroe

CLEVELAND — Getting cut by the Cleveland Cavaliers three weeks into training camp before the 2010-11 season came as no great surprise to Danny Green, who started his 23rd game for the Spurs at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday and scored 19 points in their eighth straight victory, 125-90, over the undermanned and overmatched Cavs.

In 2009-10, Green played only 20 games as a rookie who had made Cleveland’s roster as a second-round pick. At camp with a non-guaranteed contract the next fall, he’d seen minimal playing time in exhibition games. The 6-foot-7 swingman could read between the lines in the sports section.

On Oct. 19, 2010, his name went on the waiver wire.

It was what happened in the days and weeks that followed that tested Green’s nerve.

“As weeks went by, I didn’t know what was going on,” he recalled after his 16 first-half points staked the Spurs to a comfortable lead that eventually grew to their largest margin of victory all season. “You talk to your agent, wait for phone calls, work out at home and wait.

“I had a lot of fun my first year (in Cleveland). It was a good organization, and I had a lot of great teammates. I didn’t think I would be out of the league so long and struggling to find another place to call home.”

San Antonio has been Green’s basketball home since last March 16, when he signed with the Spurs for the remainder of the 2010-11 season.

Tuesday’s game was his first in Cleveland since his rookie season, and he gave those among the announced crowd of 14,759 who remembered him reason to wonder why the Cavaliers let him go.

Making 6 of 9 shots, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, he sparked a 60-point surge in the first half that sapped the will from the Cavs so thoroughly that coach Byron Scott accused them afterwards of failing to compete.

Green also did the bulk of the defensive work on Cavaliers rookie point guard Kyrie Irving, the likely Rookie of the Year, helping to limit him to 13 points on 5-for-15 shooting.

“Defensively, Danny’s been really solid,” Spurs captain Tim Duncan said. “He’s actually done a lot more than we thought he could do. He’s guarding a lot of different positions. He’s got some great hands. He’s been a great surprise for us.”

That left All-Star point guard Tony Parker guarding Anthony Parker, a pairing sure to confuse those listening on the radio, but intended to limit the wear and tear on Tony Parker’s legs.

“T.P. has done a pretty good job for us this year, and sometimes he’s going to need a little break,” Green said. “We can’t have him running around on offense and doing the same thing on defense chasing those really fast guards.

“He needs somebody to help him out a little bit, somebody younger. I volunteer sometimes. Hopefully, I can be effective and get some stops.”

Parker, who matched Green’s 19 points, played only 22 minutes and 40 seconds as coach Gregg Popovich used every player on his bench. No starter played more than Green’s 25:49.

Patty Mills scored 20 points in his third appearance for the Spurs, making 4 of 5 on 3-pointers.

Duncan, who took only six shots in his 23:25, called the game a perfect setup for tonight’s game in Boston against the Celtics, who have won five in a row.

“It’s good to have games like this for a number of reasons,” he said. “We got a lot of guys in there playing good amounts of time, getting guys comfortable with what we’re doing. We get to spread it out, and we’re on a back-to-back, so we got a little rest for the second game.

“Perfect scenario? Pretty close.”

The Spurs (37-14) now own two of the three longest win streaks of the season. Their 11-game roll from Jan. 30 to Feb. 21 is the league’s longest.

mikemonroe@express-news.net
Twitter: @Monroe_SA