Tag: Gregg Popovich

Ginobili ready for stretch run

CLEVELAND — Though he is not ready to declare himself fully prepared for a playoff run, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili is encouraged enough by his recent productivity to believe he can reach maximum efficiency by season’s end.

Limited by a series of injuries to just 21 of the team’s 50 games, the two-time All-Star from Argentina has scored 50 points in his last three games, which included playing both games of a back-to-back set for just the third time.

The strained left hip flexor that slowed his return after his recovery from a strained left oblique no longer is causing postgame aches and pains. He is beginning to feel like a legitimate third leg of the Spurs’ Big Three with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

“T.D. is playing great, and we know the kind of season Tony is having, and I’m slowly trying to join in,” Ginobili said. “I’m starting to feel better, stronger, not aching like two weeks ago, so I’m feeling optimistic and feeling really good.”

The Big Three is on a run of three straight games in which all three members have scored in double figures and totaled at least 50 points. The Spurs are 6-0 when the three stars score 50 or more.

With tonight’s game the first of the final 16 of the season and the playoffs little more than three weeks away, Ginobili says the Big Three are easing into playoff mode.

“Yeah, there’s under 20 games to go,” he said. “We know we’re on the last stretch, and we’ve really got to start to click even more. We want to be the best team we can possibly be, and I think we are on the right track.”

Streaking: Winners of seven consecutive games, the Spurs already have two of the nine longest win streaks of the season. Their 11-game streak that stretched from Jan. 30 through Feb. 20 is the longest.

Only two other teams have win streaks longer than seven games: The Miami Heat won nine in a row from Feb. 10 through March 1; and the Chicago Bulls won eight straight from Feb. 20 through March 7.

Coach of the Month: For the second consecutive month, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was named the NBA’s Western Conference Coach of the Month.

Popovich guided the Spurs to a 12-3 record in March, including the seven-game winning streak to end it, and victories in nine of the past 10 games.

Flattening the learning curve: The Spurs didn’t practice Monday, but newcomers Boris Diaw and Patty Mills stayed late after a Sunday practice session for some extra work. The pair joined second-year guard James Anderson in a three-on-three-game against coaching interns, including former backup center Sean Marks, so they could familiarize themselves with the offensive and defensive systems and get some added conditioning.

“We’ve got a few guys who have to get used to playing with us,” Ginobili said, “so that’s important.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Diaw back in Phoenix with ‘loading up’ Spurs

PHOENIX — Boris Diaw will take the floor at the U.S. Airways Center tonight, and at times it will feel like a homecoming.

Diaw spent the most productive seasons of his career here from 2005 until being traded to Charlotte in December 2008. He still owns a house in the area.

And like most other prominent members of the Phoenix Suns from that era, Diaw also occasionally experiences flashbacks of fruitless playoff trips against the Spurs.

“They were the team to beat, and we never could get past them,” said Diaw, a 6-foot-8 forward acquired by the Spurs last week. “That was a long time ago. It’s in the past.”

Much has changed since Diaw left Phoenix.

For starters, he is on the other side of the Spurs-Suns divide, his “we” and “them” having been transposed when he signed a free-agent deal in San Antonio last week.

When Diaw returns to his former home court tonight, to face his former team, he will literally be wearing black, a symbol of his changed place in the rivalry. As far as Phoenix fans are concerned, he might as well embrace the change fully and don a Darth Vader mask.

“It feels different,” Diaw said of switching allegiances. “But it’s the same goal of going as far as possible.”

Diaw’s arrival marks the latest step in a midseason makeover unprecedented in San Antonio, designed to turbo-charge the Spurs’ pursuit of a fifth NBA championship before franchise cornerstone Tim Duncan retires.

In a span of eight days, the Spurs potentially added three new rotation players to a roster already good enough to post the second-best record in the Western Conference.

First, the front office swapped Richard Jefferson — the Spurs’ starter at small forward for 192 games — to Golden State for Stephen Jackson, a clutch-shooting ghost from the team’s championship past.

Then, the Spurs signed Diaw, two days after his contract was bought out in Charlotte.

The team has one more move still in the hopper, awaiting backup point guard Patty Mills to resolve visa issues so he can begin spelling Tony Parker.

For Spurs players who have been here a while, and have never witnessed a shake-up quite so bold, the point was undeniable.

“We knew we were going all-in,” guard Manu Ginobili said.

The flurry of roster moves sent a clear signal to the Spurs’ top competitors as well.

“They are loading up for a run,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “They are like a lot of us. They see this thing is pretty wide-open, and they have a great shot.”

In the 33-year-old Jackson, the Spurs have a battle-tested swingman who arrived touting his ability to “make love to pressure.”

Rescued from Milwaukee, where he clashed with coach Scott Skiles, Jackson brings an edge and sense of swagger to the Spurs’ bench.

A skilled and versatile forward, Diaw affords the Spurs another ample posterior to set screens and defend the paint against the West’s top big men.

For the remade Spurs, the biggest challenge going forward will be finding time to get the new pieces accustomed to playing with the old ones. The compact lockout schedule leaves little time to practice, and the playoffs are a little more than a month away.

“You just hope the guys can absorb as much as they can,” coach Gregg Popovich said.

For Diaw, simply slipping into a silver and black jersey seems surreal.

The Spurs knocked him from the playoffs three times when he was with Phoenix. By the time Phoenix finally broke through, sweeping the Spurs in the 2010 second round, Diaw was already in Charlotte.

The Suns’ closest call during Diaw’s tenure came in 2007. Phoenix had evened the conference semifinals at 2-2 with a Game 4 victory in San Antonio, only to have Diaw and Amare Stoudemire suspended for Game 5 for leaving the bench area after the Spurs’ Robert Horry bounced Steve Nash into the scorers table.

The Spurs won Game 5, and ultimately the series, en route to their fourth NBA title.

“We were in good position,” Diaw said. “We know how close we were. It was heartbreaking.”

Having been unable to beat the Spurs while with the Suns, Diaw is content enough to join them.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Bloodied Blair happy to know he’s human

An inadvertent elbow from Pacers center Roy Hibbert caught Spurs center DeJuan Blair smack in the middle of his face during the first quarter of Saturday’s game at the ATT Center. Blair headed to the bench, bleeding profusely from the nose.

If Blair is to be believed, it was the first time he had seen his own blood.

“I didn’t know I could bleed,” he asserted after the Spurs’ Sunday practice session. “I’m glad to see I was human.”

After Blair’s injury was checked out by the team’s medical staff, he returned and played another 12 minutes, 7 seconds despite being unable to breathe through his nose.

The third-year pro suffered through a night of fitful sleep but vowed Sunday that he would be available for Tuesday’s game against the Cavaliers in Cleveland.

“I don’t know (how the nose is),” he said. “I’m breathing a lot out of my mouth. I can’t feel my nose right now. I didn’t sleep a lot last night. I just couldn’t breathe out of my nose.”

Assurance his nose was not broken relieved Blair of the prospect of having to play wearing a mask, something he insisted he would not do.

“You’re not going to catch me wearing a mask,” he said. “I don’t need one of them. I won’t wear a mask. I’m cool.”

Blair is the only player to have started all 50 Spurs games. Guard Danny Green, who has started 22 games, is the only other Spur to have played in all 50.

Healthy hammy: Starting point guard Tony Parker remains the busiest of his teammates. At 34.5 minutes per game, he is the only player on the team averaging more than 28.5 minutes.

The Spurs’ scoring leader (19.3 points per game), who strained his left hamstring in a March 21 victory over Minnesota, anticipates sitting out at least one game before the end of the regular season as coach Gregg Popovich maintains awareness of the playoffs. But Parker insists he is ready to play all 16 remaining games squeezed into 23 days.

“I’m sure Pop will (give me a day off),” Parker said. “I don’t know when. I feel OK. Obviously, it’s a lot of games, but I feel fine. I’m healed up. My hammy is feeling better.”

Dentmon released: Point guard Justin Dentmon, signed to a 10-day contract March 24, was released, leaving the Spurs with 14 players.

Dentmon appeared in games against the Hornets and 76ers, scoring four points with one assist. He is expected to return to the Austin Toros, the Spurs’ D-League franchise.

Not mad at March: The Spurs won 12 of 15 games in March, more than any team in the Western Conference. Only the Chicago Bulls, who went 13-3 in March despite playing nine games without reigning MVP Derrick Rose, had a better record for the month.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA