Gregg Popovich | SAN ANTONIO SPURS TICKETS

Mike Monroe: Fickle fate of playoffs can turn suddenly

In the playoffs, a series can change dramatically in an instant. One moment can shift the advantage and determine the outcome not only of the series, but a season.

Sunday was a reminder of this elemental truth. Then, one game produced a few seconds of anger with consequences that could linger through a New England summer. Another produced physical injury for one team, anguish for another that may be harder to endure.

Don’t the Grizzlies feel worse after blowing a 24-point fourth-quarter home-court lead over the Clippers than the Celtics do about losing Game 1 in Atlanta?

Consolation for Memphis: All the Grizzlies can play in Game 2.

Boston guard Rajon Rondo is a mild-mannered man, but he lost his cool late in a Game 1 loss to the Hawks and bumped a referee. It’s hard to tell if Rondo had true remorse; he pleaded innocent intent after bumping referee Marc Davis as he chased him to express displeasure at a foul called on Brandon Bass.

Rondo sounded sincere enough in a televised postgame interview, but this was a player suspended for two games for throwing a ball at a referee earlier this season. David Stern has a well-established lack of tolerance for recidivist behavior. The commissioner suspended Rondo for Game 2.

Rondo will have to watch the remaining Celtics try to even the series from his Atlanta hotel room, unable to aid a team that may also be without 3-point ace Ray Allen.

Even from a thousand miles away, Gregg Popovich knows this is a teachable moment.

“That was very uncharacteristic for him,” a soft-hearted Popovich said of Rondo’s indiscretion. “It’s such an anomaly; a unique, one-in-a-million sort of situation. It just happened so quickly, without any thought, or anything like that.

“It was just unfortunate, but we will use it to remind our players that you’ve just got to keep your wits about you, no matter how high the emotion or no matter what’s going on out on the court. It’s tough for players. Sometimes it’s tough for me.”

Popovich won’t have a hard time convincing Boris Diaw it is better to keep one’s wits. The versatile big man is with the Spurs now but hasn’t forgotten losing his head for a couple of seconds when he was with the Suns in 2007.

Then, Diaw and Amare Stoudemire took a couple steps off the bench after Spurs forward Robert Horry hip-checked Phoenix’s Steve Nash into the press table at the end of a Suns victory at the ATT Center in Game 4 of the Western semifinals. Citing league policy, Stern suspended both players for Game 5 in Phoenix, where the Spurs won 88-85 before closing out in San Antonio on their way to their fourth championship.

“It doesn’t haunt me, but it was the case we didn’t get the chance to play, our team vs. their team, with everybody being there,” Diaw says now, with a hint of sadness.

Every coach wants to enter every playoff game with a full complement of players, but each knows misfortune lurks. Even in the afterglow of his team’s amazing fourth-quarter comeback win in Memphis, Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro had to begin pondering how he would approach Game 2 without guard Caron Butler, who suffered a fracture of the left hand during Game 1.

Injuries happen, but suspensions are imposed. Popovich will implore his players to remain ultra-competitive and level-headed.

Popovich deserves Coach of the Year as much for his ability to get the Spurs to the playoffs fresher than any team in the field as for his acknowledged acumen at Xs and Os.

After all that minute management, were Tony Parker to bump a referee and face suspension, his coach’s head might explode.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA

With Ginobili whole, Spurs like their chances

By Jeff McDonald

Manu Ginobili flung up a final few jumpers at the end of practice Saturday, then wandered over to do time with the gathered media.

What the Spurs guard said mattered far less than how he looked and felt.

Unlike the eve of last year’s postseason, there was no constricting blue brace strapped to Ginobili’s right arm. His elbow is fine. Hand, too. The ankles, knees, nose and abdomen? All shipshape, thanks for asking.

Incredibly for this time of year in South Texas, Ginobili doesn’t even report any allergies.

“No complaints,” he said.

For the Spurs, hoping to parlay this year’s No. 1 seed in the Western Conference into a deeper run than last year, that is certainly good news.

The Spurs open Game 1 of their first-round series against eighth-seeded Utah this afternoon at the ATT Center, their 34-year-old Argentine playmaker intact.

It is a stark change from, well, the past four postseasons.

Ginobili hasn’t been completely healthy and available for an entire playoff run since 2007. Not coincidentally, that is the last time the Spurs won an NBA title.

With point guard Tony Parker playing the best basketball of his life, Tim Duncan looking years away from retirement and Ginobili whole, the Spurs enter this year’s tournament liking their chances of taking home Larry O’Brien Trophy No. 5.

“We’re confident. We’re playing well,” said Duncan, the Spurs’ 36-year-old captain. “Above all, we are healthy.”

It’s a big “above all.”

The Spurs were confident last year, too, before disaster hit on the last day of the regular season in Phoenix.

Ginobili was squeezing between the Suns’ Grant Hill and a Duncan screen when his right elbow became trapped, hyperextending ligaments and fracturing bone.

He missed Game 1 against Memphis, which the Spurs lost en route to becoming the second No. 1 seed in the best-of-7 era to tumble in the first round.

“An injury messes up everything,” said Ginobili, who averaged 13.2 points and 4.8 assists off the bench after the All-Star break. “When you are hurt, you think more about your injury than your opponent and what you’ve got to do.”

Ever since the 2007 championship, the Spurs have been able to faithfully write “catastrophic Ginobili injury” on their April calendar, just before the words “plan early vacation.”

This year, perhaps Ginobili got it out of the way early, missing 22 games with a broken left hand from January to early February.

Some of the playoff injuries Ginobili could play through (ankle ligament impingement, 2008; fractured nose, 2010; fractured elbow, 2011). Some he could not (stress fracture, right leg, 2009).

Given the hardscrabble manner in which the Jazz play, there’s no guarantee Ginobili makes it out of this year’s first round unscathed.

Utah doesn’t rank among the NBA leaders in fouls for nothing.

“Every time we play Utah, it’s a lot of hits and a lot of hacking,” Parker said.

Ginobili’s injured elbow was not the sole reason the Spurs lost to Memphis last season — Zach Randolph and the rest of the Grizzlies had something to do with it, too — but it didn’t help.

If nothing else, the pratfall of last April served to remind the Spurs of how much has to go right to win a championship, and how little time this particular incarnation has left to add another one.

“We don’t talk about it, but they’re intelligent people,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “They know they’re not going to play together forever. That’s why last year was such a big disappointment.”

Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are the longest-tenured trio of teammates in the NBA, and the calendar never stops flipping forward.

“This year, I’m sure it’s in the back of their minds,” Popovich said. “They know they’re getting closer and closer to where that group is not going to be there.”

This afternoon, unlike last season, that championship-winning core will be intact to start the playoffs.

Because of that, the Spurs like their chances.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Spurs’ skeleton crew suffices

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Spurs 110, Suns 106: April 25, 2012

The Spurs’ Patty Mills (8) drives against the Suns’ Steve Nash (13) during the first half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard (2) dunks against the Suns during the first half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Spurs’ DeJuan Blair (45) has his shot blocked by the Suns’ Marcin Gortat (4) during the first half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Suns’ Shannon Brown, left, looks to pass as the Spurs’ Derrick Byars defends during the second half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Suns’ Steve Nash scores against the Spurs during the second half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Suns’ Steve Nash, right, shoots over the Spurs’ Danny Green during the first half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Suns’ Steve Nash (13) leaves the court for the final time of the 2011-2012 season during the second half against the Spurs on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. This could be Nash’s final game for the Suns. The two-time MVP and eight-time All-Star will become a free agent this summer and is seeking a three-year deal. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

The Suns’ Steve Nash leaves the court after Wednesday’s game against the Spurs in Phoenix. This could be Nash’s final game for the Suns. The two-time MVP and eight-time All-Star will become a free agent this summer and is seeking a three-year deal. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash points to a teammate after scoring against the Spurs during the second half Wednesday, April 25, 2012, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York) (AP)

By Jeff McDonald

PHOENIX — The Spurs were taking no chances Wednesday night.

Not with the top seed in the Western Conference already locked up. Not with a relatively meaningless back-to-back against Phoenix and Golden State looming to close down the season.

Forget letting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker on the floor for the penultimate game of the regular season in Phoenix. After lunchtime, Gregg Popovich made sure none his Big Three were even in the state.

Following a spirited 90-minute morning shootaround at the U.S Airways Center masquerading as a full-scale practice, Popovich put his top three scorers on a plane home to await the start of the playoffs, leaving it to a skeleton crew to extend the Spurs’ winning streak to nine games with a 110-106 victory over the Suns.

“There’s no reason for them to play,” coach Gregg Popovich said in the morning before he, too, hopped a plane for South Texas.

Popovich will also skip the final two games of the regular season, which concludes tonight at Golden State, for what the team termed “personal reasons.”

He had personal reasons for sending Duncan, Parker and Ginobili home, as well. As in, personally he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let the Spurs squander another prime playoff opportunity with a late-season injury.

It was little more than a year ago, on the same floor, that Ginobili went down with a fractured elbow in a season-ending loss to the Suns, setting the stage for a first-round playoff loss to Memphis.

With similarly low stakes left this season — the top-seeded Spurs were locked in to a first-round matchup with Utah before tipoff — Popovich was determined to avoid the same fate.

Forget the chase for the NBA’s top overall record, for which the 49-16 Spurs remain tied with Chicago. Forget the pursuit of a 13th consecutive 50-win season, which remains remarkably in play even in a lockout truncated year.

“I opt for health,” Popovich said. “Our health’s more important than our final record.”

And so, Popovich left longtime assistant Mike Budenholzer to guide a roster that must have had the executives at ESPN reaching for the arsenic. Patrick Mills started at point guard for Parker. DeJuan Blair returned to the starting lineup for Duncan. James Anderson took many of Ginobili’s minutes.

To help fill out the bench, the Spurs recalled rookie point guard Cory Joseph from the Austin Toros — plucking him from the midst of the Development League Finals — and signed swingman Derrick Byars, of the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam.

Afforded more minutes and more opportunity that usual, Mills (27 points) and Tiago Splitter (26) each notched career scoring highs.

Mills, a backup point guard who arrived earlier this month after spending most of the season in China, said he was at first surprised to learn how short-handed the Spurs would be for the rest of the regular season.

“As crazy as it sounds, it makes a lot of sense,” said Mills, who took 23 shots, making nine. “For the main guys to go back and recharge their batteries for the playoffs, that gives other guys an opportunity.”

Joseph might have missed out on a chance to claim a D-League championship, but he wouldn’t trade that for the experience of Wednesday.

The former University of Texas standout scored five of his nine points in the fourth quarter, including a key 3-pointer, to cap a whirlwind 24 hours that began the night before in the locker room at the Cedar Park Center outside of Austin.

Joseph was commiserating with the rest of the Toros on a Game 1 that got away against the Los Angeles D-Fenders when the call came in, summoning him to Phoenix.

By 8 a.m. Wednesday, he was on a flight bound for Sky Harbor Airport. Upon landing, he hustled over to the U.S. Airways Center, arriving with his carryon bag in town.

“It was a wild day,” Joseph said. “You do what you’ve got to do, right?”

That’s the question Phoenix’s Steve Nash will spend an uneasy offseason asking himself.

Having lost a night earlier in Utah, eliminating themselves from playoff contention, the Suns were playing out the string in what might have been Nash’s last game with them. The 38-year-old two-time MVP becomes a free agent in July, and the home crowd treated Wednesday as his final hurrah.

Nash had eight points and seven assists, leaving the floor to a rock-show caliber roar in the fourth quarter. After the game, he talked in the past tense, like a player who knew his time with the team was done.

“It’s authentic, the relationship I thought we had,” Nash said. “It meant a lot for me to play in a city like this for as long as I have and to feel important to the fans and community. I just feel like a really lucky guy.”

While Nash contemplates moving on, the Spurs — his longtime foil and rival — are gearing up for another postseason run.

With his Big Three in line for at least four days off, Popovich took the extraordinary step of flying them out to Phoenix for what amounted to a practice. Instead of a light shootaround typical for a game day, Popovich put his full roster through what he called “a full-blown practice,” complete with a scrimmage.

“We worked harder than probably we would in a game,” Popovich said.

When it was over, the Spurs’ three most important players were hustled to the airport and placed on a plane, where nothing could hurt them but a rogue beverage cart.

If Popovich could have, he would have shipped his Big Three in a giant padded crate, filled with packing peanuts and sign stamped on top: “Do Not Open Until the Playoffs.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN