Tag: Gary Neal

Spurs notebook: Ginobili’s hand injury sped up Neal’s return

Had things gone according to the Spurs’ plan, Gary Neal would have played Thursday night for the Austin Toros against the Maine Red Claws in an NBA Development League game at Cedar Park Center, just northwest of Austin.

Instead, Neal was in the starting lineup for the Spurs at the ATT Center, going 3 for 3 on 3-point shots in the first quarter of a blowout victory over the Mavericks.

On his way back to NBA action after undergoing an appendectomy on Dec. 12, Neal had been assigned to the Toros so he could get some contact in 5-on-5 practices. Ideally, he would have played a couple of D-League games, including Thursday’s against the Red Claws, to be fully ready for NBA action.

What changed for Neal and the Spurs, of course, was the injury to Manu Ginobili’s left hand, a fractured fifth metacarpal that will have Ginobili on the sidelines for approximately six weeks.

“I was down there,” Neal said. “I practiced two days. I think they had me down there to play some games, but Manu got hurt. It kind of sped it up.”

Neal reports no lingering effects from his appendectomy.

“It actually stopped hurting about a week after the surgery,” he said. “I’d been working out on the bike and the treadmill for about two weeks now.”

Neal said his fitness level has been fine in his first two Spurs games. Getting reaccustomed to the pace and physicality of NBA games will take a while longer.

“My wind’s pretty good,” he said after scoring 12 points against the Mavericks. “I don’t think my wind is affecting my game. I just have to get used to playing with the contact again. There were a couple times I had shots and the close-outs were hard and I shot an airball, or the ball was short.

“I just have to get my rhythm and timing back. That will come. I’ll continue to work in practice with the coaching staff, and I’ll get my rhythm back and it will come in the games, sooner than later.

“The first (3-pointer) went in, the second one went in and the third one. They got a little harder when the close-outs got tougher later in the game. With game reps, my timing should be coming back.”

SETTING THE BAR: It’s not often that Matt Bonner is the Spurs’ leading scorer in a game, as he was on Thursday against the Mavericks, with 17 points. In fact, in four seasons in silver and black, Thursday’s high game was just his sixth.

What really set apart his performance was the fact he scored more than the combined output of a pair of future Hall of Fame big men, teammate Tim Duncan and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, 17-16.

That rarity was a perfect setup for Duncan’s dry wit.

“That’s what Matt Bonner is supposed to do,” said Duncan, who scored 10 points. “That’s what we brought him here for, and that’s what we expect from him from now on, night in and night out, I guess. That’s about right.”

Spurs drill Mavs in 3-point no-contest

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

The first sign something had gone awry came when Matt Bonner — not typically a point guard nor a ball-handler — dribbled away about 12 seconds of the shot clock before finding himself trapped between a pair of 7-footers in Dallas blue.

Bailed out by a timeout with 4.8 seconds left on the shot clock, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich drew up a play that almost certainly didn’t include Richard Jefferson milking about 4.4 of those seconds before hot-potatoing the ball to backup point guard T.J. Ford about 5 feet behind the 3-point stripe.

After his Hail Mary found the bottom of the net, one of 11 3-pointers the Spurs would make in the first half of Thursday’s 93-71 rout of the defending NBA champion Mavericks, Ford offered the only reaction that seemed appropriate.

He shrugged.

“I didn’t give a you-know-what,” Ford said. “I just threw it up there, and it went in.”

That was the first half in a nutshell for the Spurs, who used a red-hot opening to their first 5-0 start at the ATT Center since 2007-08.

Gary Neal earned his second career start in place of injured All-Star guard Manu Ginobili and set the tone early, burying a pair of 3-pointers in the game’s first 89 seconds.

By halftime, the Spurs had hit 11 of 18 from beyond the arc, equaling both the number of total field goals Dallas had made and turnovers the Mavs had committed.

At that point, the Spurs had outscored the Mavs from 3-point range by a startling margin of 33-0. Bonner had outscored Dallas’ starting five 11-8. Not surprisingly, the Spurs led convincingly at half, 55-29.

“It’s always like that,” said Bonner, who made five 3-pointers en route to 17 points, out? scoring Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki combined. “Misses are contagious, and makes are contagious.”

In the second half, an epidemic case of clank-itis broke out at the ATT Center.

With Dallas (3-5) playing its fourth game in five nights, and the Spurs (5-2) playing their third in four, the final two quarters were played on fumes. The third quarter, in which the teams combined to miss 33 of 41 shots, was lockout ball at its not-so-finest.

The Spurs scored just 11 points in the frame, yet saw their halftime lead of 26 shaved by just two points heading into the fourth.

“Neither team was very sharp,” said Popovich, whose team finished 16 of 33 from 3-point range. “We’re thrilled to have the win. We’re not going to give it away.”

Nowitzki, who came in averaging better than 22 points, struggled through a 3-for-11 night on his way to six points. For the reigning Finals MVP, it was the worst scoring night since Dec. 18, 2009 when he notched six points in 10 minutes in a loss to Houston, a game Nowitzki left early after a collision with the Rockets’ Carl Landry.

“You didn’t see the real Dirk tonight, that’s for sure,” Popovich said.

The list of Spurs who outscored Nowitzki included Jefferson (16 points, seven rebounds), Neal (12 points), Tony Parker (11 points, eight assists), Danny Green (eight) and Ford (seven).

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle refused to let the rugged schedule take all the blame for the dinosaur egg the Mavs laid.

“San Antonio’s energy was better to start the game,” said Carlisle, whose team made just 1 of 19 3-pointers. “We struggled, but their competitive level was higher and that was the difference in the game.”

And sometimes, as Ford proved with a prayer and a shrug early in the second quarter, the difference is in catching a team on the right night.

Ford’s clock-beating bomb, which inflated a 14-point lead to 17, was his only field goal until the fourth quarter.

“That was nothing that you can practice,” Ford said. “Just great timing.”

In a lockout-compressed season like this one, sometimes timing is everything.

Spurs’ Anderson showing skills

By Tim Griffin
tgriffin@express-news.net

If Chauncey Billups’ whining at the end of the third quarter Wednesday was any indication, James Anderson is returning a favor for a lot of guards around the NBA.

Anderson dropped in a three-point play on the final sequence of the third quarter, hitting a 14-foot jumper and a foul shot that prompted some complaining by Billups.

“I played a little bit with Chauncey in the summer in Vegas and kind of picked up on some of his stuff,” Anderson said. “It felt good to give him some.”

With Gary Neal out of the rotation as he recovers from an appendectomy, Anderson had his second straight strong game as the Spurs’ first backcourt reserve. Anderson scored 12 points in 21 minutes, building on a nine-point effort against Memphis in the opener.

It represented a big turnaround from Anderson’s rookie season, when he struggled finding a place in the rotation as he battled injuries.

“Anytime I get in, I want to show them what I can do,” Anderson said. “If the minutes are there and I get to step on the floor, I’m going to play hard on both ends.”

Anderson’s fast start has caught the attention of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

“James is playing with a lot of confidence and aggressiveness, and he’s got a lot of that pent-up after basically sitting out the whole year last year with injuries,” Popovich said. “He’s jumped on this opportunity and done a real nice job.”

Better shooting: The Spurs had a strong turnaround after shooting only 39.8 percent from the field against Memphis in the opener, making 56.3 percent vs. the Clippers.

They were especially potent in the pivotal third quarter when four consecutive baskets by Tony Parker and Anderson’s late basket helped put the game away. San Antonio finished the third quarter hitting 76.2 percent from the field.

“We made a lot of shots,” said Manu Ginobili, who led the team with 24 points. “I don’t think it’s normal after two games and a very short training camp to have this kind of percentage like today. But they went in.”

Welcome rest: The Spurs were able to rest Parker in the fourth quarter and limit Tim Duncan to only 2:44 with the game safely at hand. It was an ideal ending to the first part of the Spurs’ first back-to-back of the season. They play tonight in Houston.

“You wouldn’t trade it, that’s for sure,” Popovich said.

A learning experience: The 1994-95 Spurs team was laden with future coaches. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro was among a group that included New Jersey coach Avery Johnson, Boston coach Doc Rivers and Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Chuck Person.

“We’ve got a lot of students of the game, I guess you would say,” Del Negro said. “Those guys are good friends of mine and colleagues. We bounce things off each other, and we’re all very competitive, but I always want those guys to do well, just not when they’re playing us.”