Tag: Danny Green

Redemption shot boosts Bonner’s confidence

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Having made only 12 of 50 3-point shots in his previous 14 games, Spurs forward Matt Bonner missed his first long-distance attempt of Sunday’s game against the Suns at the ATT Center. It was a corner 3-point shot early in the second quarter, running his streak of consecutive 3-point misses to seven.

In need of a jolt of confidence, he got it when teammate Gary Neal passed up an open 3-pointer to get the ball to Bonner, uncovered at one of his favorite spots.

As he watched his shot settle into the net, Bonner said he felt like an innocent man who had escaped from prison after a sentence he hadn’t deserved.

“It was totally a ‘Shawshank Redemption’ shot,” he said. “I felt like I was riding down the coast of Mexico, looking at the Pacific Ocean.”

He was grateful to Neal, a 41.6 percent 3-point shooter who rarely turns down an open long-distance look.

“It’s our theme we’ve been preaching all year: Good to great,” Bonner said. “He had a good look but kicked it to me for a great look. If I’m in the same position, I’ll return the favor, and that goes for everybody on the team. We did a great job making the extra pass tonight, going from good looks to great looks.”

Neal admitted he rarely passes up an open-3-point shot.

“That wasn’t the first,” he said. “But there haven’t been many. I can’t make a living passing up open threes. But as long as I’m passing it to Matty, I’m good with it.”

Bonner made two more 3-pointers against the Suns, raising his league-leading percentage to 46.5.

He scored 16 points, his most productive offensive game since he made 6 of 7 threes and scored 18 points in the Spurs’ 125-95 victory over Miami on March 4.

It was his work on the offensive glass that most impressed Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, however. He had six offensive rebounds, two of them turned into put-back baskets. His 11 rebounds gave him his first double-double of the season.

“(That) was more impressive than him making a couple of threes,” Popovich said. “He was very, very active for us in that regard, and against Phoenix, it’s really important. But just in general, his pursuit of what we call 50-50 balls was real important, and he was great at it.”

HEAVY LIFTING: The Spurs followed Sunday’s game with a weightlifting session, opting for the strength and conditioning work after a noon start because the annual team photo is today. After that, they leave for Atlanta, where they play the Hawks on Tuesday.

GREEN DAY: The Spurs recalled swing man Danny Green from their Austin Toros NBA D-League team, but he was inactive for the game. Green played Saturday in the Toros’ season finale, scoring 19 points, with seven rebounds, before fouling out after 32 minutes. Appropriately enough, he was behind the bench on “Go Green Awareness Night,” part of the NBA’s environmental awareness week. Players for both teams wore “Go Green” warm-ups that had been made from re-cycled materials.

Spurs demolish Kings; clinch top seed

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

Showered and dressed and dispensed with his media duties in the wake of the Spurs’ 124-92 victory over Sacramento on Wednesday, Manu Ginobili was in a hurry to get home.

The L.A. Lakers and Golden State were already in the first quarter of a nationally televised game that had immediate implications on the Spurs’ playoff seeding.

Ginobili, however, had other viewing plans. Like the insides of his eyelids.

“I’ll probably just go to sleep,” he said.

What Ginobili might have missed, while catching his Zs, was the Spurs’ dream scenario come to fruition. Thanks to the Lakers’ 95-87 loss in Oakland hours later, the Spurs clinched the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed for the first time since 2005-06.

All along, coach Gregg Popovich has been blasé about the importance the conference’s top spot, a half-hearted “nobody would turn it down” being his most enthusiastic endorsement.

Popovich’s laissez faire philosophy was evident in Ginobili’s postgame itinerary. It was not reflected in the hair-on-fire effort with which the Spurs approached their end of the bargain Wednesday night at the ATT Center against the Kings.

Behind 25 points from Ginobili, 19 off the bench from George Hill and a pinball-tilting third quarter that tested the limits of the club’s offensive record books, the Spurs pulled onto the doorstep of the No. 1 seed that never was their obsession to begin with.

“We’ve had it and won and had it and lost,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The best team usually ends up winning.”

Under Popovich, the Spurs have owned the No. 1 seed four other times, parlaying it into championships in 1999 and 2003. In 2005, they won with a two seed. In 2007, they did it from the third slot.

“We knew it wasn’t the end of the world to finish second,” Ginobili said, even before the seeding was official. “At the same time, after the kind of season we had, we wanted it.”

It has been quite a turnabout from five days earlier, when the Spurs were on a six-game losing streak and in danger of fumbling the No. 1 seed within sight of the finish line.

With Wednesday’s win, the Spurs improved to 60-19, ensuring the fourth 60-win season in franchise history and the first since the 2005-06 team won a franchise-record 63 games.

“We knew we were not going to lose every single game for the remainder of the season,” Ginobili said, although at times it seemed that way.

Now, the Spurs have the option of downshifting over the final three games of the season, though they remain in a pitched battle with Chicago for the NBA’s top overall record.

Wednesday, with seeding still up for grabs, there was no let-up.

The Spurs scored a season-high 41 points in the third quarter, on 14 of 17 shooting, to transform a 51-49 lead at half into their most lopsided win of the season.

“Our thing was if we could get rebounds and push it, it would open the game up,” said Hill, who had 12 points in the third. “And that’s what happened.”

The victory the 796th of Popovich’s career, moving him past Hall of Famer Red Auerbach for the second-most with one team in NBA history.

Popovich’s favorite moment came late in the fourth quarter, with the game long since decided. DeJuan Blair jumped a pass from Tyreke Evans, knocking the ball toward the sideline.

With the ball rolling out of bounds, Blair hit the ground, beating Jason Thompson to it and slapping it ahead to Danny Green to ignite a fast-break layup.

As Blair came back down the court, Popovich leapt up and down and pumped his fist in approval.

“Coaches love that sort of thing,” Popovich said. “That kind of effort is above and beyond.”

Above and beyond, the Spurs have locked down the top seed they swear – perhaps a little too vehemently – never mattered all that much in the first place.

But, no, they’re not going to turn it down.

Spurs’ injured list grows

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

In the 18 hours or so between the Spurs leaving Memphis on Sunday night and arriving at the ATT Center on Monday afternoon, the team’s injured list increased by two.

Joining Tim Duncan (sprained left ankle) and Manu Ginobili (left quadriceps contusion) in street clothes for Monday night’s 100-92 loss to Portland were Tony Parker (left patella contusion) and Antonio McDyess (lower back contusion).

For those counting at home, that was four starters out for what became the Spurs’ fourth consecutive defeat.

None of the injuries are considered serious, though the timetable to return could vary by player. All four could conceivably play against Boston on Thursday, with McDyess and Parker considered most likely to suit up.

Of the four players, only one — McDyess — quarreled with coach Gregg Popovich’s decision to sit him Monday.

“If it was a playoff game, Antonio would probably go, and he wants to,” Popovich said before tipoff. “I’m forcing him to sit because it’s a back-to-back, and he’s too important for us to be short-sighted.”

Ginobili, McDyess and Parker were all injured in a rugged loss 24 hours earlier in Memphis. Duncan, meanwhile, missed his fourth game with the ankle sprain suffered one week earlier against Golden State.

All four players, dressed in the NBA-required sport coats, watched the game from the bench. Duncan did not wear a walking boot — just dress shoes — and spent time beforehand with strength and conditioning coach Mike Brungardt, working on exercises to stretch the ankle.

Ginobili also seemed to be moving better than he was a night earlier.

Though the team is off Tuesday, all four injured players are due at the Spurs practice facility for treatment.

GREEN NO MORE: When second-year swingman Danny Green heard how many starters the Spurs would be without against Portland, his eyes got as big as saucers.

“Man, I was excited,” Green said. “Pop came in, told us what kind of game plan we had, and I was even more excited.”

With the Spurs obviously outmanned, the plan called for lots of running and quick shots.

Green, who before Monday had made just two appearances since re-signing with the Spurs on March 6, logged a career high 20 minutes, 15 seconds off the bench, scoring seven points and taking a couple of defensive turns on Portland’s Brandon Roy.

Late in the third quarter, he had the ATT Center crowd on its feet after his 3-pointer and breakaway dunk gave the Spurs a 70-67 lead.

“I’m not going to lie, it was fun,” Green said. “We just got a little too happy, and we ran out of gas.”

BUTLER TO AUSTIN: As expected, the Spurs assigned newly signed rookie forward Da’Sean Butler to their Development League affiliate in Austin.

Butler, who is in the final stages of recovery from a torn ACL suffered while playing for West Virginia in last year’s Final Four, could be available for the final three games of the Toros’ season.