Tag: DeJuan Blair

More Tiago could be on the docket

ATLANTA — With five games left in the regular season, it appears Spurs coach Gregg Popovich might be re-evaluating his big-man rotation.

In Sunday’s 114-97 win over Phoenix, rookie Tiago Splitter — not DeJuan Blair — earned the call when Tim Duncan was due for his first rest with 3:45 left in the first quarter.

Aside from the five games he started in place of Duncan in late March, Splitter hadn’t seen much action at all, much less in the first quarter.

“You have to be ready and be aware when they call,” Splitter said. “I didn’t expect it, of course, but I was ready.”

Splitter logged nearly 10 minutes in the first half, while Blair did not get off the bench. With the score out of hand in the second half, Blair played 16 minutes, 35 seconds, and appeared to be pressing at times. He finished with two points on 1-of-6 shooting and eight rebounds and also committed two offensive fouls.

Popovich would not say whether the rotation tweak would be permanent or if it would carry over to tonight’s game against Atlanta. Pairing the 6-foot-11 Splitter with Matt Bonner, however, would give the Spurs the size they’ve been lacking off the bench since Antonio McDyess’ elevation to the starting lineup 14 games ago.

Before Sunday’s game, Popovich said he had been satisfied with the Blair-Bonner combination. Afterward, he praised Splitter’s handling of the early call.

“He did a good job in battling,” Popovich said of Splitter.

“He’s a tough customer, and he does a good job with that.”

3-POINT REVIVAL: Popovich blames the Spurs’ 3-point shooting drought, which began in late March and bled into the first game of April, on the absence of a player who has attempted just four long balls all season.

With Duncan out for four games, Popovich said, open looks were harder to come by for the Spurs’ cadre of shooters, putting to the test the team-wide philosophy of passing up good shots for great ones.

“Without Timmy there for those games, I think those 3-point shots ended up being contested,” Popovich said. “That (good-to-great) principle became even more important, but we didn’t follow it very well.”

The Spurs made 15 of 29 3-pointers against Phoenix.

In the previous three games, two of them with Duncan on the floor, the Spurs hit just 20 of 73.

Overall, the Spurs have made 650 3-pointers this season, snapping the franchise record of 625 set in 2008-09. They have connected on a league-leading 39.8 percent, just off the club mark of 40.7 set in 2000-01.

POP’S MILESTONE: With one more victory, Popovich would match Boston legend Red Auerbach for second on the NBA’s all-time win chart with one team.

Sunday’s win over Phoenix was Popovich’s 794th, one shy of the mark Auerbach attained in 16 seasons with the Celtics.

Including postseason, Popovich has amassed 900 wins with the Spurs, but the NBA does not combine playoff and regular-season victories in its annals.

Blair has sprained wrist, but so what?

An MRI conducted Sunday morning confirmed Spurs center DeJuan Blair has a sprained left wrist, but it is not expected to keep him out of Monday’s game against Golden State.

Blair suffered the injury at some point during the first half of Saturday’s victory over Charlotte, but wasn’t immediately sure after the game how  it happened. The team’s medical staff examined Blair in the locker room and he played sparingly in the second half of a blowout, returning with his injured wrist heavily taped.

A starter for the first 63 games of the season, Blair is averaging 8.1 points and 6.8 rebounds. In six games since shifting to the  bench in favor of Antonio McDyess, Blair is averaging 7.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in 14:48 per game.

Splitter facing critical stretch run

DENVER — It has taken rookie center Tiago Splitter nearly an entire season to learn all the devilish details of the Spurs’ offense, as well as the intricacies of their defense. In between, he’s had to adjust to a new hometown, a new country and a new league.

There was at least one thing Splitter did not require much time to learn when he joined the Spurs in July. In fact, he knew it long before he had ever set foot in South Texas.

“Tim Duncan is a great player,” Splitter said. “Nobody can play like him.”

Over the next few games, and perhaps more, Splitter vows to give it his best shot.

Duncan was on crutches Tuesday, a day after suffering a sprained left ankle in a victory over Golden State. With Spurs officials ruling him out for at least the three-game road trip that opens tonight in Denver, he was not on the team’s charter plane leaving San Antonio International Airport.

An MRI taken earlier in the day revealed no structural damage in conjunction with Duncan’s sprain, which doctors rated somewhere between a Grade 1 and the more severe Grade 2. Duncan suffered a similar injury to his right ankle on March 20, 2005, but returned in time to fuel the Spurs’ run to their third NBA championship.

“It structurally looks good,” general manager R.C. Buford said. “We’ll have a better idea of what the timeline is in the next 48 hours.”

In the meantime, the absence of a first-ballot Hall of Famer in the middle of the lineup should afford Splitter the chance he’s been awaiting all season.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich could start the 6-foot-11 Splitter in Duncan’s place, as he did Saturday against Charlotte, when the perennial All-Star was given a routine night off. Or Popovich could return to DeJuan Blair, who started the first 63 games.

Either way, Splitter is set to face a stretch that, for better or ill, could define his rookie season.

“This,” Manu Ginobili said, “is the opportunity he’s been waiting for.”

In a way, the stakes are higher for Splitter than they are for his team. Given that the Spurs boast a seven-game lead over the L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference race with 12 to play, Duncan’s injury poses no clear and present danger to their pursuit of a top playoff seed.

If Splitter can earn Popovich’s faith now, perhaps he will be ready to make a contribution once the playoffs roll around.

Splitter, a 26-year-old Brazilian who was the Spurs’ No. 1 draft pick in 2007, arrived in July amid fanfare generally reserved for visiting heads of state.

He came billed as the Spurs’ missing ingredient — a long, tall counterpart to Duncan whose 10 years of pro experience overseas would allow him to become an immediate rotation piece. He had just led his Spanish League team, Caja Laboral, to a championship and earned MVP honors for the regular season and league finals.

A calf injury set him back during training camp, and after the Spurs raced to the top of the standings without him, Splitter found himself affixed to the end of Popovich’s bench.

“I think everybody wants to have a big role on the team,” said Splitter, who has appeared in 49 of a possible 70 games. “Sometimes, it’s not possible. Sometimes, it’s a situation where you have better guys to play that time at that position.”

Popovich has been pleased with the workmanlike Splitter, calling him “a grunt that every team needs and every coach loves.”

In his first start Saturday against Charlotte, Splitter logged a solid eight points and six rebounds. After Duncan went down in the first quarter against the Warriors, Splitter took his spot in the rotation — even starting the second half — and finished with his first double-double (10 points, 14 rebounds).

In two games as a de facto starter, Splitter has also displayed impressive IQ and footwork on defense.

“As I said a million times, he’s a good player,” Ginobili said. “He’s just got to be out there and feel confident and know the team trusts him. That’s what happened to me, what happens to everyone who comes here for the first time.”

Splitter’s value, teammates say, is that he knows who he is. Just as importantly, he knows who he is not.

“I’m not Tim Duncan,” Splitter said. “I’m just the new guy here who wants to help the team.”