Tag: Gregg Popovich

Ginobili breaks hand in defeat

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

MINNEAPOLIS — Fighting from behind through a first half in which the Minnesota Timberwolves made 67.5 percent of their shots and 7 of 8 from 3-point range, the Spurs somehow found themselves within eight points after a Richard Jefferson 3-point basket with 3:04 left in the half.

What they needed before halftime of what would eventually be a 106-96 loss was a defensive stop to help them further turn the game’s momentum. So, on Minnesota’s next possession, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili slapped down hard with his left hand in an attempt to strip the ball from Anthony Tolliver’s grasp as the Timberwolves forward turned to launch a shot from just inside the 3-point line.

Ginobili’s teammates have seen him succeed with the same defensive ploy so many times, they always expect something good to come of it.

A serious injury was the last thing on anyone’s mind, but what the Spurs got was the worst outcome possible: a fractured fifth metacarpal on Ginobili’s shooting hand that likely will keep their top scorer this season on the sidelines for a number of weeks.

“In this kind of situation, you can’t predict it,” said Tony Parker, Ginobili’s backcourt running mate. “It happened to me in Memphis in 2010. You go for a steal, and it happens, but Manu goes for a steal so many times, I almost want to say it can’t ever happen to him.

“Why now? That’s an answer for the basketball gods.”

Spurs athletic trainer Will Sevening examined Ginobili’s hand and led him to the Wolves’ medical room, where Ginobili’s hand was X-rayed, revealing the fracture.

The two-time All-Star is to be re-examined by the Spurs’ medical staff today, after which a timeline for his return will be determined.

By the time the Timberwolves claimed their second victory of the season, the Spurs already were counting the ways they will have to cope without one of their most important players and their emotional touchstone.

“It’s going to be tough for us, because he was playing at an All-Star level,” said Parker, painfully aware Ginobili entered Monday’s game leading the team in scoring (19.8 points per game), shooting (60.5 percent) and 3-point shooting (54.2 percent). “Now everybody is going to have to pick it up and play better.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said James Anderson would move into the starting spot at shooting guard until Ginobili returns.

Anderson said he will be in the gym at the Spurs’ practice facility today, even if Popovich doesn’t call an official practice session.

“With him gone, I’m just going to have to get in the gym for some extra work and try to fulfill that role the best I can. He’s one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle on this team. Without him, we lose a lot of stuff, and that’s on both ends.”

It is arguable whether or not Ginobili’s presence in the second half would have made a difference in Monday’s game. Minnesota made 11 of its first 13 3-point attempts — Kevin Love, at 4 of 6, was the only Timberwolves player with more than one long-range miss — and scored 94 points through three quarters.

“They were shooting threes falling backwards and making them,” Parker said. “It’s kind of tough when they do that.”

What could have been a blowout of epic proportions remained competitive because the Spurs also shot well, if not uncannily.

“We just couldn’t get it over the hump,” Popovich said.

Now they will have to get over the loss of Ginobili, likely for an extended period.

That’s not a hump.

That’s a mountain.

T’wolves dangerous despite a slow start

MINNEAPOLIS — Gusting near 50 miles per hour, a howling wind that originated in Canada roared into the Twin Cities and greeted the Spurs when they stepped off their charter aircraft Sunday afternoon.

Presumably, the entire team traveling party took comfort in the fact its members could hole up in hotel rooms a few blocks from the Target Center, where they are to play tonight and where the Timberwolves had to report for a Sunday night game against the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

That cold blast from the Arctic had nothing on the NBA’s schedule makers when it came to putting a big chill on the Wolves and their fans early this season.

New coach Rick Adelman may have reconsidered signing on in Minnesota had the post-lockout schedule been out before he agreed to undertake a major rebuilding project. Three of his team’s first four opponents included both teams in last season’s Finals, along with the Thunder, who gave the Mavericks a tough go in the Western Conference finals.

Tonight Adelman and the 1-3 Wolves face the 3-1 Spurs, with a starting lineup that produced the best record in the West last season and a coach, Gregg Popovich, who just joined him in the select company of NBA coaches with at least 800 victories.

But long-suffering Wolves fans can expect excitement in any given game because forward Kevin Love is always a threat to deliver a 20-point, 20-rebound performance and Ricky Rubio, at long last, is on the roster.

Minnesota general manager David Kahn made Rubio, then just 19, the fifth pick of the 2009 draft. Rubio opted to continue his career in Spain until December, when he signed a rookie-scale contract with the Timberwolves after the lockout was lifted.

Now Rubio, whose passing skills have been compared to those of Pete Maravich and Chris Paul, is coming off the bench behind veteran Luke Ridnour. It seems only a matter of time before he is Minnesota’s starter at the point, especially after his performance in an oh-so-close loss to the Heat on Friday. He had 12 points and 12 assists in that one, but lost track of LeBron James on an in-bounds play in the final seconds when Miami produced the winning basket.

Acknowledging Rubio’s talent, Spurs star Manu Ginobili said he won’t be waiting in anxious anticipation for Rubio’s appearance tonight.

“Anxious?” Ginobili said. “He’s one more player. Of course, I’ve heard a lot of things, and I’ve played against him a couple of times with the national team.

“I know he’s gifted. He’s very talented. But he’s doing his first games. He’s feeling comfortable. Of course, he has a bright future ahead of him.”

Ginobili is more eager to see the development of his own backup point guard, T.J. Ford. The former Texas Longhorns All-American has struggled with his shot in his first four games, but Ginobili understands Ford is a true point guard who allows him to play off the ball much more than his predecessor, George Hill, did.

So does Popovich, who likes Ford’s aggressive approach, both to the game and to learning the Spurs’ offense.

“T.J. is doing a good job of trying to learn our system,” he said. “He really has no clue where other players will be now in the motion offense. He’s just trying to get used to that. It’s really tough for him at this point for that reason. But he’s an aggressive player, he’s highly coachable, and he’s busting his butt to figure it out. He’s important to us.”

Spurs rock way to milestone win

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, there is more than half a ton of adulation sitting in the Toronto Raptors’ locker room in tribute to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

Popovich’s Spurs on Saturday recorded the 800th victory of his 16-plus seasons on the bench, beating the Utah Jazz 104-89 at the ATT Center.

Most Spurs fans know that when Popovich took over as the team’s coach in 1996, he put a quote from 19th century social reformer and journalist Jacob Riis on the wall in his team’s locker room, something for players to consider as they approached their athletic professions.

The quote reads: “When nothing else seems to help I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet, at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

Now, other teams are using Riis’ saying, as well. Mike Brown, a former Spurs assistant under Popovich, put it up in the locker room of his new team, the Spurs’ hated rival, the Los Angeles Lakers.

“It’s got to be (a tribute to Popovich),” Spurs captain Tim Duncan said after scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the victory over the Jazz. “The guys who have come through here and been with us for any amount of time, that saying kind of sticks with them. It makes sense. If you live by that and you kind of pound away at it, it’s what you want your team to do, night in and night out.”

Raptors coach Dwane Casey never played for or coached with Popovich, but he took imitative flattery the furthest last week when he had a 1,300-pound boulder brought into his team’s room, on display with the quote, to try to inspire his players.

Duncan didn’t know quite what to make of Casey’s visual aid, except to chuckle and agree that he had to hammer away at his own game on Saturday, when he missed 9 of 13 shots.

After failing to secure their coach’s 800th victory on Thursday night in Houston, the Spurs wasted little time making certain he wouldn’t have to wait for the new year to get it.

Shooting guard Manu Ginobili played a nearly flawless first half, making 5 of 6 3-point shots, 7 of 8 shots altogether and scoring 19 of his game-high 23 points.

Ginobili pondered his coach’s achievement, asking if it included playoff victories. Told that it was regular-season wins only, he sniffed a bit.

“Then really it is more than 900,” Ginobili said. “I don’t think the number itself is significant, the round number, but it shows you something. It’s been 16 seasons of great teams, coaching very well, making it to the (NBA) Finals, winning regular season and becoming, with time, one of the most respected coaches in the league, for sure.

“I’m very happy and proud of being coached by and probably having him be my only coach in my NBA career. I’m very proud of him.”

Duncan, who has been with Popovich the longest, called 800 victories “a great accomplishment.”

“He’s been doing it with us for a long time, and it’s great to see a coach stick with a team in a situation like this for such a long time and he’s made us what we are,” Duncan said. “We’re proud to go out there and play hard for him and proud to see him get that 800th (win).”

Even the self-effacing Popovich, who eschews adulation, had to admit there was something significant about becoming just the 14th coach in NBA history to reach 800 victories.

“When you get that number of wins, it does mean you’ve been hanging around for a while,” he said. “You’ve got a good staff, good players and a good management team. We’ve all achieved 800 wins. I haven’t, really.”