Tag: Gregg Popovich

Spurs’ March defensive collapse has been striking

Late after the Spurs’ loss against Boston early Friday morning, an interesting comment emanated from the Turner Studios in Atlanta as their commentators tried to explain San Antonio’s striking recent defense collapse.

Back when the Spurs were winning championships, the team’s defense improved as the season progressed. It always was one of the team’s biggest strengths when the playoffs started.

Rick Fox knows all about those Spurs teams. He had the difficult chore of trying to score against them during his own career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

But Fox had an interesting explanation why the Spurs have struggled defensively this season.

“It’s because Tim isn’t 32 any more,” Fox said, referring to  Tim Duncan, who will be turning 35 on April 25.

Duncan clearly isn’t the defensive force he once was. But the Spurs no longer have the defensive weapons surrounding him like Fabricio Oberto, Francisco Elson and Bruce Bowen.  The halcyon years when he teamed up with David Robinson in “The Twin Towers” has never seemed farther away.

Another reason is that the Spurs are relying more on jump shots than any previous time in Popovich’s coaching tenure. The offense looks unbeatable when the shots are dropping. But their transition defense after misses has provided maddening breakdowns throughout the season.

Both Boston coach Doc Rivers and Gregg Popovich said that the Spurs’ defense has been challenged as the team has evolved into a perimeter-oriented team.

Popovich said the heavy reliance on 3-pointers in the second half of their 107-97 loss to Boston helped explained the defense.

“The game was won when we got a little three happy in the third quarter.  Then, the transition defense didn’t follow,” Popovich said. “Some of the shots were very good and open, some were contested.  The transition after it is really important and they took advantage of it.  They made it a 10-point game at that point, we couldn’t get back in it and that was the game.”

When jumpers are falling, the team looks strong. But when they aren’t, the defense has struggled unlike any previous Spurs team in the Duncan era.

Boston hit 54.8 percent from the field Thursday night. It marked the third straight game and sixth time in the last nine games that an opponent has hit at least 50 percent from the field against the Spurs. And no opponent has hit less than 45 percent against them since their March 2 victory at Cleveland — a stretch of 14 games.

It also was the fourth time in five games that opponents have scored at least 100 points. It marked the ninth time during March the Spurs allowed at least 100 points. In every other game but one, they allowed 95 points. In that game, San Antonio permitted 91.

“I think those (stats) are overrated a little bit because the pace of their shot is quicker now, too,” Rivers said. “When you shoot quicker because you’re scoring more points, then even a good defense is going to give up more point. Even on their good defensive nights, because they’re scoring, that means you get the ball back quicker as well which means you get more possessions. That’s probably the biggest difference.”

In a way, the Spurs of 2011 are a little reminiscent of the Phoenix Suns of the “Seven Seconds to Shoot” era  with Mike D’Antoni in the late 2000s. When their shots were falling, that Phoenix team looked like it was in championship caliber. But when they didn’t fall, they never advanced past the Western Conference finals.

The Spurs have just struggled through their worst defensive month in the Duncan era. It coming at the wrong time of the season with the playoffs approaching.

Spurs Nation has never seen a team in the Duncan era looking for a defensive identity so late in the season.

And if that defense doesn’t improve quickly, the Spurs’ post-season plans look like they will be short this season.

Here’s a look at some year-to-year March defensive statistics during the Duncan era.

Year                    Def. FG pct.          PPG        Record       Margin of victory

1998                        40.4                    84.8         11-5                      5.8

1999                        40.5                    84.3         14-2                   12.5

2000                       44.4                    91.3         10-5                     6.2

2001                        40.8                   85.8         14-3                   11.9

2002                        42.3                   87.4         13-3                     9.0

2003                        45.3                  93.9          14-3                    7.2

2004                        43.4                   87.4         11-5                     8.7

2005                        43.1                   88.5         10-5                    6.1

2006                        45.2                   90.9         12-4                     7.4

2007                        43.3                   84.8         13-2                   12.7

2008                        43.7                  90.9          12-6                     4.3

2009                       45.0                   91.1           9-8                     3.6

2010                       44,1                    94.3         12-5                     7.9

2011                       48.7                 1o2.6            8-8                     0.0

Note: The statistics are for Spurs opponents during the  month of March. Def. FG pct. represents defensive field-goal percentage. PPG are the points allowed by the Spurs in March games. Record indicates their March won-loss record.  And margin is San Antonio’s average margin of victory during March games.

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).