Tag: Gary Neal

Grizzlies eliminate No. 1 seed Spurs in six games

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On the last night of the Spurs’ season, and most likely his career, Antonio McDyess was sitting in his locker at FedEx Forum before Game 6 on Friday, reliving one shining moment.

On the screen in front of him, Gary Neal had just buried a 3-pointer to send Game 5 into overtime.

“Crazy,” McDyess said, as if watching it for the first time.

Friday night in Memphis, there would be no more miracles. There would not be enough craziness for the Spurs to force a Game 7.

In fact, when the eighth-seeded Grizzlies just did what they do — grinding out a 99-91 victory to oust the top-seeded Spurs — it didn’t seem crazy at all.

It didn’t even seem like an upset.

Zach Randolph had 31 points and 11 rebounds, taking over the fourth quarter, to lift the Grizzlies to the second round for the first time in franchise history. Memphis will face fourth-seeded Oklahoma City in the Western Conference semifinals starting Sunday.

“They were the better team,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They played better than we did in the stretch of six games.”

In doing so, Memphis pushed the Spurs into an exclusive and unwanted club, joining them with the 2007 Dallas Mavericks as the only No. 1 seeds in NBA history to lose a best-of-7 series in the first round.

Tony Parker had 23 points, while Manu Ginobili added 16 and Duncan had 12 points and 10 rebounds. But the Spurs, as had been the case for most of a first-round series that felt like a barroom brawl, could not overcome Memphis’ sheer tenacity and physicality.

“They played their asses off,” Popovich said.

For a moment, midway through the fourth, the Spurs seemed poised to pull another rabbit out of another hat.

It started with Ginobili making another Hail Mary, this one from 49 feet at the third-quarter horn, providing the Spurs hope that the fates were still with them after their overtime victory in Game 5.

After trailing for nearly every second of the game, and by as many as 14 in the first quarter, the Spurs took an 80-79 lead on McDyess’ jumper with 4:41 to play. The rugged Grizzlies, with an orneriness mirrored best by pugnacious coach Lionel Hollins, would not let the Spurs have a Game 7.

Hollins called timeout, and Randolph took over. In the next 2:30, Randolph scored 10 points, beckoning the Grizzlies to ride to the second round on his back.

“We rode him like he was an English war horse,” Hollins said.

Said Randolph, who scored 17 in the fourth: “I just wanted to get the ball in my hands and get into the paint.”

While Randolph was a one-man wrecking crew, Memphis buckled down on defense, doing what the championship-era Spurs used to do in tense postseason moments: Get stops on demand.

By the time the Spurs surfaced for air, Memphis had taken a 91-82 lead with 1:11 to play.

The list of what the Spurs squandered — or, perhaps more accurately, what the Grizzlies took from them — is a long one.

Sixty-one victories. The Western Conference’s top seed. Optimism that, perhaps, Duncan’s Spurs might be positioned for one more championship run.

Instead, they left the FedEx Forum vanquished amid a hail of streamers, headed early into an uncertain offseason that could be made longer by looming labor strife.

For McDyess, who is leaning strongly toward retiring this summer, it could be the end of a 16-year career.

“We played well all season long,” Parker said. “It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t play well in the playoffs.”

Even as the Spurs lamented all that was lost, and with Popovich off to have “dinner and a Gatorade,” they had to appreciate what Memphis had accomplished.

Casting off their winless playoff history, the Grizzlies went from the lottery to the second round in one season. And they went through the No. 1 seed to get there.

Crazy indeed.

Spurs revitalized by shock therapy?

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Seven months before the Spurs asked Gary Neal to save their season, they asked him to win a preseason game.

Befitting the laissez-faire nature of exhibition basketball, Manu Ginobili — and not Gregg Popovich — drew up the game-winning play for Neal that night in Mexico City, freeing the undrafted, unknown rookie to sink the buzzer-beating 3-pointer that toppled the Los Angeles Clippers.

“That’s where he began earning our trust,” Ginobili said.

That faith paid dividends again Wednesday night, when a much more meaningful Neal buzzer-beater — this time dialed up by Popovich — sent Game 5 against Memphis into overtime, where the Spurs claimed a 110-103 victory that felt like a pardon from the governor.

“You really don’t think about the magnitude of the situation,” Neal said. “You just think about trying to get the best shot you can get.”

Gifted new life by Neal’s miracle fling, the Spurs now aim to live it to the fullest.

Still down 3-2 in the series, the Spurs face another do-or-? die situation tonight in Game 6 at the FedEx Forum, where Memphis won Games 3 and 4. For the first time, they have a chance to push the upstart Grizzlies to the edge of elimination as well.

“I don’t know if we put a doubt in their mind,” Parker said. “But we won (Game 5) and now we get another shot to try and win on the road.”

Given the Grizzlies’ poise so far, it would be foolhardy to expect them to fold now. For much of the series, Memphis has not acted like a No. 8 seed devoid of much postseason experience.

It was not until overtime Wednesday that coach Lionel Hollins thought his team played down to its age.

“We had too many guys that were hurt and not mature enough at this stage to just let it go,” Hollins said.

The Spurs are not expecting their Game 5 magic to break the Grizzlies, who remain one win away from becoming just the second eighth seed to win a best-of-7 series.

Still, there is little question Neal’s shot has shifted the pressure in the series. For the first time, the Grizzlies find themselves in a game that feels like a must-win.

Lose tonight, and suddenly Memphis must come back to San Antonio for a Game 7, to confront the possibility of squandering an historic opportunity in a series they had all but won.

If that happens, those four championship banners hanging overhead at the ATT Center will begin to look more like guillotine blades.

“We don’t want to give this team too many chances,” Memphis’ Mike Conley said.

The Grizzlies’ worst fear is, perhaps, they have already given the Spurs a chance too many.

After being dominated for much of the series by Conley, Memphis’ 23-year-old point guard, Parker came to life in Game 5, posting 24 points and nine assists and — most importantly — one turnover.

Ginobili appears to be growing more at ease with the protective brace strapped to his sprained right elbow, as demonstrated by his 33-point night in Game 5 that included a memorable trick shot of his own.

The Spurs’ role players are beginning to become involved, with George Hill supplying 12 points, Neal a big shot and rookie center Tiago Splitter productive minutes off the bench Wednesday.

At last, the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed is beginning to look like a one seed.

The Spurs’ worst fear is that, perhaps, all of the above happened too late.

“Memphis put themselves in a great position to end this series, and we’re fighting to stay alive,” Spurs forward Tim Duncan said. “We’re not going to give up until that horn goes off in the end.”

Just before the fourth-quarter horn went off in Game 5, forward Matt Bonner glanced at the ATT Center scoreboard overhead. The Spurs were behind by three points, 1.7 seconds from the end of the season.

Where others saw desperation, Bonner saw hope.

“We still had time,” Bonner said. “And if you have time, you have a chance.”

Moments later, Neal’s 3-pointer bought the Spurs more time, in the game and then the season. Back in Memphis, they now feel like they have a chance.

ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO

The Spurs are one-third of the way to becoming the ninth team in NBA history to recover from a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series. The others are:

2006 Suns: First round over Lakers, but lost in Western finals to Mavericks

2003 Pistons: First round over Magic, but lost in Eastern finals to Nets

1997 Heat: Eastern semis over Knicks, but lost in Eastern finals to Bulls

1995 Rockets: Western semis over Suns en route to NBA title

1981 Celtics: Eastern finals over 76ers en route to title

1979 Bullets: Eastern finals over Spurs, but lost to SuperSonics in Finals

1970 Lakers: Western finals over Suns, but lost to Knicks in Finals

1968 Celtics: Eastern finals over 76ers en route to title

Note: Rockets and 1968 Celtics had to win Games 5 and 7 on the road.

Source: Express-News research

Last-second three gives Spurs a pulse

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

The Spurs exited a timeout huddle late in the fourth quarter Wednesday, behind by three points and 1.7 seconds away from an early vacation, facing a thought that could have been unsettling if they let it be.

The game, the series, and their season had been placed in the hands of an undrafted rookie.

Gary Neal drained a tough 3-pointer from the top of the arc to force overtime, where Tony Parker took over to lift the Spurs to a 110-103 victory in Game 5 that sent their first-round round series with Memphis back to the banks of the Mississippi.

“I once hit a buzzer-beater to win a state championship in high school,” Neal said. “This feels a little bigger.”

The win brought the Spurs within 3-2 en route to Memphis for Game 6 on Friday, not enough to make them feel free and easy, but enough to make the series interesting again.

The Spurs needed a ceaseless string of miracles to get it.

Before Neal hit his new most-memorable buzzer-beater, Manu Ginobili — who finished with 33 points — nearly re-enacted Sean Elliott’s Memorial Day Miracle in the right corner. Except Ginobili’s toe was on the 3-point line, and the shot left the Spurs down by one.

After Neal sent the game to overtime came the biggest miracle of all — Parker found his mothballed jump shot, knocking down three to start the extra frame and point the Spurs toward victory. Parker finished with 24 points and nine assists, his best performance in what has been a frustrating series for him.

“When you are facing elimination,” Ginobili said, “you always seem to get something out of nowhere.”

In this case, the season’s biggest shot was by a player who came out of nowhere.

After TV replay ruled Ginobili’s circus shot a 2-pointer, erasing the three that would have tied the game, Zach Randolph made a pair of free throws to put the Grizzlies up by three.

Memphis, an eighth seed, was a short commercial break from pulling off one of the NBA’s greatest first-round upsets.

“We were very close to being on vacation time,” Ginobili said.

Then, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich took his dry-erase board and assembled a set of Xs and Os. The play was designed for a 26-year-old rookie, passed over by every other NBA team, who had made his bones in the hardscrabble pro leagues of Italy, Turkey and Spain.

A rookie who had played just 10 minutes to that point, and had made just one field goal.

The decision to place the season in Neal’s hands did not faze Ginobili, so long as he forgot the first time he’d ever laid eyes on the rookie.

“I’m not lying,” Ginobili said, recalling an open gym in September. “I saw him miss the first 20 shots he took.”

Still, Ginobili believed Wednesday. Maybe because he had no choice. And maybe because he had once been like Neal.

“Once, I was almost an undrafted rookie, too,” said Ginobili, the 57th pick in the 1999 draft.

Not everyone in the ATT Center was as confident. Tim Duncan, who set the pick to free Neal, spent the entire 1.7 seconds screaming at him.

“He’s got 1.7, and he takes a dribble,” Duncan said. “I’m like, shoot the ball.”

Neal, it turns out, knew exactly what he was doing.

“I knew I had time,” he said. “I was looking for my shot. That was my shot.”

Parker described the feeling of seeing Neal’s shot rip through the net this way: “Like a new life.”

And so the game went to OT, and Parker took over, and the Spurs began getting stops — the biggest of which coming as they forced Marc Gasol into an airball as the shot-clock sounded with 29.2 seconds left.

Still, it was not the kind of victory that left the Spurs feeling as if they had turned the series.

“We got lucky,” Ginobili said. “That’s the truth.”

Facing elimination, the Spurs needed every bit of luck in their playbook to pull out an overtime win at home. They harbor no illusions that pulling off a sequel in Game 6 on the road will be easy.

But, ultimately, the Spurs got what they came for on Wednesday. A new day. A new life.

Fittingly, it was Neal — a player whose entire season has felt like new life — who gave it to them.