Tag: George Hill

Spurs can’t help but smile at play of stoic Leonard

By Jeff McDonald

The 66th game of his NBA career had ended. The TV lights had faded and most of the microphones that had semi-circled his locker just moments earlier had disappeared in search of someone more quotable.

It was then and there, in the aftermath of the Spurs’ resounding Game 2 victory over Utah on Wednesday, that Kawhi Leonard chose to reveal his best-kept secret.

“I do smile,” Leonard said.

And then he did. Sort of. The left corner of Leonard’s mouth inched north ever so slightly, briefly transforming the Spurs’ enigmatic rookie small forward into a Mona Lisa in braids.

Just like that, it was gone. The instant passed without anyone bothering to capture photographic evidence of the Loch Ness monster of NBA facial expressions.

For Leonard’s teammates, who have come to regard the soft-spoken 20-year-old as the type of player who could make it stone-faced through a tickle fight, the moment was one that had to be seen to be believed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before,” Manu Ginobili said of Leonard’s grin. “Not for more than a second. Or a fourth of a second.”

In the crucible of his first NBA playoff series, which the Spurs lead 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Saturday in Utah, Leonard’s seeming inability to feel neither pleasure nor pressure has been a blessing.

Quietly — because how else would he do it? — the 6-foot-7 rookie from San Diego State is having quite an impact on the top-seeded Spurs’ manhandling of the No. 8 seed Jazz.

During the Spurs’ 114-83 picnic in Game 2, Leonard hit 6 of 7 shots, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, on his way to 17 points. It was the highest-scoring playoff game for a Spurs rookie since Ginobili went for 21 against Dallas in Game 4 of the 2003 Western Conference finals.

Leonard did it without beating his chest. Or, save for a momentary lapse in the postgame locker room, without cracking a smile.

“He’s got a way about him,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He’s not so anxious to show us that he’s got every move in the world. He’s level-headed and takes things as they come. Which is great, because he blends in with everybody else.”

Leonard, for his part, doesn’t quite understand why everyone keeps asking him to smile more, as if every day were team picture day.

“That’s just my character on the court,” Leonard said. “Act like I’ve been here before.”

Yet his lack of outward emotion often belies a potpourri of feelings inside. He is not made of stone, even if he sometimes appears to be doing a spot-on impression of Mount Rushmore.

“I am excited,” Leonard insisted. “I’m out there playing hard. If I was down, I wouldn’t be playing hard basketball.”

Other Spurs admit they at first didn’t quite know what to make of the draft-day trade that brought Leonard to town last June. General manager R.C. Buford had to send George Hill — a versatile and popular backup guard — to Indiana to make it happen.

The deal was a gamble, and even Leonard’s soon-to-be teammates knew it.

“I was definitely shocked, even upset,” Ginobili said. “I loved playing with George.”

It didn’t take long for the quiet kid with the braids to win fans in his new locker room.

With giraffe-neck arms and hands that could palm Jupiter, Leonard is a born rebounder — he averaged 5.1 in 24 minutes per game during the regular season — and a steals machine. His ability to run the floor and finish fast breaks has given the Spurs’ transition game an extra gear.

Those are the things that make him stand out. As impressive to his veteran teammates are the ways in which he fits in.

The never-smiling thing is part of it.

“He doesn’t get too upset, and he doesn’t get too pumped up,” Ginobili said. “He just plays. That’s basically who we are.”

And basically who Leonard has always been.

There is but one scenario Leonard could envision that might cause him unveil his full-on, ear-to-ear, 5-year-old-at-Disneyland grin.

And if the Spurs’ luck breaks just right between now and late June, they just might get to see it.

“You might see it,” Leonard said. “If we win the championship.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS LEAD BEST-OF-7 SERIES 2-0

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3 Saturday: Spurs @Jazz, 9 p.m.
TV: FSNSW, TNT Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

Game 4 Monday: Spurs @Jazz, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 5 Wednesday: Jazz @Spurs, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 6 May 11: Spurs @Jazz, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 7 May 13: Jazz @Spurs, TBD
TV: TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* — As needed in best-of-7 series

Leonard recalls short time with Pacers

By Jeff McDonald

It doesn’t take Kawhi Leonard long to recount the entirety of his career as an Indiana Pacer.

NBA commissioner David Stern announced him as the 15th pick in the June draft. Someone handed Leonard a Pacers ball cap as he walked up on stage at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. He shook the commissioner’s hand. He walked off stage.

“And then a media person in the back told me I had been traded,” Leonard said.

Leonard was the property of the Pacers for all of five minutes before being informed he’d been swapped to the Spurs in a pre-arranged deal for guard George Hill.

The Spurs rookie small forward faces his, ahem, former team for the first time tonight when the Pacers visit the ATT Center.

It’s not as if Leonard will be out for revenge against the team that traded him. He’s enjoying life as a starting member of a Spurs team boasting the Western Conference’s second-best record.

He recalls being neither stunned nor daunted by the trade.

“It still felt good,” Leonard said. “I got drafted that day. I was happy with whatever team wanted me.”

Acquired for his skills as a defender and rebounder, Leonard is averaging 8.3 points, an offensive output that has surprised coach Gregg Popovich. In March, the 6-foot-7 Leonard is contributing 11.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.

“He’s been great all year long,” Tim Duncan said. “Even with Pop getting on him at times, he responds the right way. That’s big for a rook.

“The steals, the one-man fast breaks, all those things — they’re great for us. He adds a new dimension to our team.”

Nash missing Diaw: After obtaining a buyout from Charlotte a little more than a week ago, recently acquired forward Boris Diaw admits he talked to his old friend, Steve Nash, about the possibility of reuniting in Phoenix.

But Diaw wouldn’t go so far as to call it a recruiting pitch.

“He’s a friend, so I talk to him every now and then,” said Diaw, who played for Phoenix from 2005 to 2008. “We were talking about it, when people knew I was on the verge of being bought out by Charlotte. I got some interest from a few teams.”

According to a report in the New York Post, citing an unidentified source, Nash is upset Suns management didn’t do more to lure Diaw back to Phoenix.

Diaw, 29, instead signed with the Spurs, where has averaged 2.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, two assists and 1.4 steals in five games.

False Aussie advertising: Patrick Mills, the Australian point guard who joined the Spurs over the weekend, is sheepish to admit it.

He has indeed been to Outback Steakhouse. What’s more, he kind of liked it.

“I go there for the cheesy fries,” Mills said.

Yes, it’s a little like Yao Ming frequenting Panda Express. Or Eduardo Najera noshing at Taco Bell.

Mills is quick to point out to American diners that Outback probably isn’t the best representative of his home country’s cuisine.

“I might be the most Australian thing in there,” Mills said

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Facing Grizzlies again motivation for Spurs

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

Tim Duncan swears he has not looked at the film. Not once since leaving Memphis after the Spurs’ stunning first-round playoff exit in April has Duncan felt the slightest need to dissect what went wrong, not even for the purposes of autopsy.

He doesn’t have to.

“It’s pretty crisp in my memory,” Duncan said.

For five months during the NBA lockout, the image of defeat played on a continuous loop in the minds of Duncan and the other Spurs who suffered through one of the most disappointing playoff losses in league history.

That is a long time to burn.

Tonight at the ATT Center, the Spurs open a new chapter, the start of a lockout-compressed season many thought would never happen. But first, they must close an old wound.

The Spurs begin their new campaign against the same team that unceremoniously shut down their last one. In stunning the Spurs in six games, Memphis became only the second No. 8 seed in the best-of-7 era to oust a No. 1.

“There’s definitely a lot of motivation there,” said point guard Tony Parker, who was outplayed in the series by his Memphis counterpart, Mike Conley. “I want to play them in the playoffs, but I’ll start with the first game of the season.”

Even Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, never one to play up the payback angle or any other made-for-TV storyline, sees a smidgen of added impetus in the opener.

Of course, beating Memphis in Game 1 of the regular season won’t erase the disaster of last season’s playoffs. But it could be a good first step toward cleansing the palate.

“People are people,” Popovich said. “I’m sure when the game starts, our people will be motivated because they got beat by a very good team last year.”

In a way, tonight might feel like a continuation of last April, a Game 7 without the pesky drama of win-or-go home. Though nearly eight months have passed since the last time the Spurs and Memphis met, little has changed with either team.

Zach Randolph, who averaged 21.6 points and 9.2 rebounds against the Spurs in the playoffs, is still a load. The Grizzlies do welcome back small forward Rudy Gay, the club’s perennial leading scorer who missed the postseason while recovering from shoulder surgery.

The Spurs, meanwhile, bring back a roster almost identical to the one that won a Western Conference-best 61 games last season before falling short in the first round.

The most significant addition since April — besides a two-armed Manu Ginobili — is first-round draft pick Kawhi Leonard, the small forward from San Diego State obtained in a draft-day trade that shipped reserve guard George Hill to Indiana.

The Spurs also will expect greater contributions from a pair of second-year players — guard James Anderson and center Tiago Splitter — than they got in last season’s playoffs.

“If we win, it doesn’t take back what happened last season,” forward Richard Jefferson said. “It’s just one game.”

For the Spurs, bigger challenges lie ahead after Memphis leaves town. Tonight’s game is the first of 66, overstuffed into 129 days.

Though the Spurs won a title in 1999, the last time the NBA staged a shortened campaign, Duncan said there is a smaller margin for error than in a full season.

“You don’t want to get yourself stuck in a hole and have to find a way to fight yourself back, especially with all these back-to-backs and all the games in not many days,” said Duncan, the only player on the Spurs’ roster active in ’99.

“You have to take care of stuff, especially when you’re healthy, especially when you’ve got everybody.”

The Spurs hope to start a new championship push tonight, against the team that ended the last one.

One door opens, but not before the other one closes.

“There’s no excuses, they beat us, congratulations to Memphis,” Parker said. “Now it’s a new season.”