Tag: George Hill

Contused Ginobili uncertain for Portland game

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Manu Ginobili left the locker room at the FedEx Forum on Sunday night and headed down a corridor toward the team bus, dragging his sore left leg behind him like luggage.

With Tim Duncan already on the shelf with a sprained left ankle, it was a sight the Spurs did not want to see.

Ginobili, the team’s leading scorer, suffered a left quadriceps contusion in the first half of the Spurs’ 111-104 loss to Memphis. The injury occurred in a collision with Grizzlies forward Marc Gasol.

Officially, Ginobili’s status for tonight’s rematch with Portland at the ATT Center is uncertain. Hobbling out of Memphis, however, he didn’t look like an NBA player less than 24 hours from his next game.

“I’ll get some rest and some treatment, and then we’ll see how it feels,” Ginobili said.

With less than 2 1/2 minutes to go in the second quarter, Gasol ambushed Ginobili on a trap. Unaware of the charging defender, Ginobili whirled, and Gasol’s knee caught him just above his own left knee.

Ginobili immediately collapsed in pain, then left for the locker room. He tried to return for the second half but lasted just 5:50 of the third quarter before leaving the game for good.

“At first, when I came to the bench, I thought I was going to be OK,” Ginobili said. “Then it stiffened up. I can’t put my full weight on it.”

The injury is not considered serious but is painful. Leaving the arena Sunday, Ginobili was hoping — perhaps against hope — that compression machines would provide adequate healing powers to allow him to play against Portland.

Hill’s 30: A silver lining in the cloud that seemed to follow the Spurs to Memphis was the play of reserve guard George Hill.

Afforded 32:02 of playing time with Ginobili out, Hill scored 30 points to equal a career high set against Houston on March 31 of last season.

It was a significant turnabout for Hill, who had 24 points in the three previous games combined and hadn’t enjoyed a 20-point game since March 2.

He said Sunday’s breakout did not occur because of Ginobili’s absence, but because of a recent conversation with coach Gregg Popovich.

“He just wanted me to play basketball and stop thinking so much, just have fun out there,” Hill said.

Popovich was pleased with a performance from Hill that included 12 free throw tries, of which he made 11, a testament to the guard’s assertiveness.

“I want George to continue to play with that kind of scoring mentality, because he’s good at it,” Popovich said.

Guess who?: With the Trail Blazers visiting the ATT Center tonight, the Spurs did watch film of their epic collapse in Portland on Friday, including Nicolas Batum’s game-winning alley-oop from Andre Miller.

Hill said it wasn’t the horror show people might assume.

“You always watch film to try to get better,” Hill said. “But it’s nothing we harped on.”

Asked if tonight were too soon to exact revenge for Friday’s heartbreak, Hill called it “just another game on the schedule.”

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.

Blair continues to toggle with Tiago in a reserve role

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

ATLANTA — One game after not playing at all in the first half, DeJuan Blair was back as the Spurs’ second-unit center in Tuesday’s 97-90 victory over Atlanta.

Rookie Tiago Splitter was back to taking a DNP-CD.

Blair responded with a performance that was solid, but not spectacular, logging seven points and five rebounds in 13:06.

“My role is just to be ready at all times,” Blair said. “Because you never know.”

Blair admits not knowing hasn’t been easy over the past month, after he went from starting the first 53 games of the season to earning sporadic minutes off the bench.

“With the change in the lineup, I go back to thinking again — what do I do?” Blair said. “I’ve got to get that out of my head, somehow.”

Blair said Spurs coaches have offered him one standard piece of advice: Be a pro.

Asked what that means to him, Blair repeated himself: “Just be ready.”

For the season, Blair is averaging 8.7 points and 7.3 rebounds as a starter, and 6.3 points and 5.2 rebounds in 14 games as a sub.

“Bench minutes are something you have to get used to,” guard George Hill said, “but I think he’s handling it well.”

Asked after Tuesday’s game how he thought Blair was handling his new role, coach Gregg Popovich chose his words carefully.

“DeJuan’s working at it,” he said.

POP, MEET RED: Tuesday’s victory gave Popovich 795 for his career, matching Boston’s Red Auerbach for second on the NBA’s all-time wins list with one team.

Jerry Sloan, who retired in February after racking up 1,127 wins in Utah, is first.

Even though he grew up in Argentina, Manu Ginobili is aware of the magnitude of Popovich’s feat.

“Red Auerbach is a myth in the NBA, he’s huge,” Ginobili said. “I’m glad for Pop. He’s a great coach. He deserves big honors.”

POP PRAISES WORM: The man who traded Dennis Rodman from San Antonio gives his recent election to the Hall of Fame two thumbs up.

“I think it’s great,” said Popovich, who inherited the mercurial Rodman when he took over as Spurs general manager in 1994. “He’s one of the top rebounders we ever had, and the rest of his game was probably even better than we all thought. He’s been important to teams winning championships. In that sense, he deserves it.”

Rodman, who played two productive but tumultuous seasons with the Spurs in 1993-94 and 1994-95, was announced Monday as part of the Hall’s 2011 induction class. Rodman averaged 17.3 rebounds his first season in San Antonio and 16.8 his second, and was an integral part of a team that lost to Houston in the 1995 Western Conference finals.

But Rodman’s flamboyant personality clashed with coaches, management and players. After the 1995 season, Popovich dealt him to Chicago for Will Perdue.

Rodman still holds Spurs franchise rebounding records for a game (32) and a season (1,367 in 1993-94).