In The News | SAN ANTONIO SPURS TICKETS

Duncan-less Spurs falter at end

By Jeff McDonald

HOUSTON — It cannot be said Gregg Popovich did not know what he was doing.

He knew by sitting All-Star forward Tim Duncan on Saturday, a night after the Spurs suffered their first home defeat of the season, he was inviting a losing streak.

Popovich didn’t care. With an eye cast toward the future more than the present or past, the 35-year-old Duncan got his first night off this season in what became a 105-102 loss at Houston.

“This is his fourth game in five nights, and he probably shouldn’t be playing four games in five nights if I want him at the end of the year,” Popovich said. “So, we bite the bullet.”

In the end, the Spurs very nearly bit the Rockets.

Down to one-third of the Big Three, with Manu Ginobili also out with a broken left hand, Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter almost helped the Spurs pull a victory out of thin air at the Toyota Center.

Doing his best Duncan facsimile, Splitter twisted, spun and finished his way to a career-best 25 points off the ? bench. Parker shook off a scoreless first quarter to record his first double-double of the season (24 points, 13 assists).

The Spurs hung around behind that tandem, taking their first edge of the game on Gary Neal’s 3-pointer with 9:56 to play, and leading by as many as five in the fourth.

Kevin Martin scored 25 points to lead the Rockets, Samuel Dalembert had six of his team’s nine blocked shots, and Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic threw in big baskets down the stretch to help Houston (9-7) pull out its sixth straight win.

For the Spurs (10-7), it was a second straight loss.

“They made their shots,” said Spurs forward Richard Jefferson, who missed 9 of his 11. “Everybody wants to make it seem like there’s a vast difference from one game to the next. Whoever hits shots at the end of the game usually wins.”

Like Sacramento’s John Salmons and Tyreke Evans, heroes of the Kings’ 88-86 win in San Antonio a night earlier, Lowry and Dragic supplied Houston’s big buckets.

Lowry hit consecutive jumpers while blanketed by Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard, including a 25-foot rainbow to push Houston’s lead to 99-92 with 3:07 left.

Moments later, Dragic capped a mad-cap scramble with the game’s toughest score.

After Parker answered with a floater, Leonard poked the ball away from Lowry, who saved it long to Dragic near midcourt. Dragic danced along the midcourt line, flirting with a backcourt violation, before salvaging possession.

He scored a 2-foot shotput of a floater as the shot-clock blared.

“That’s the difference in a close ballgame right there,” said Spurs forward Matt Bonner, who drew the start for Duncan and was 5 of 12 from the field for 16 points.

At the end, the Spurs had a chance to force overtime, but Neal’s contested 3-pointer at the buzzer missed.

For the Spurs, it was the third consecutive game decided by three points or less.

Popovich, playing the odds in a compressed, lockout-shortened season, only hopes resting Duncan pays off in the long run. The games are coming “with such rapidity,” Popovich said, that simply managing minutes isn’t enough.

Popovich wants to manage Duncan’s games-played as well.

That’s why, even after Duncan sat all but 5.5 seconds of the fourth quarter against Sacramento, he was inactive in Houston. Since he didn’t bother to bring a sport coat, Duncan wasn’t even on the bench Saturday.

Duncan should be extra well-rested for the Spurs’ next game, in New Orleans on Monday,

“You can probably guess Tim’s not the happiest camper in the world,” Popovich said.

Still, Popovich stuck to his guns, and stuck to a decision made long before the Spurs’ charter touched down in Houston. He would be swayed neither by his captain, nor by the threat of a near-certain losing streak.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

– Associated Press photos

1 of 13 | Share

Rockets 105, Spurs 102 – Jan. 21, 2012

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gestures to his players in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs’ DeJuan Blair (45) and Houston Rockets’ Samuel Dalembert, right, battle for the ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Houston Rockets’ Chandler Parsons (25) passes the ball over San Antonio Spurs’ Richard Jefferson (24) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs’ DeJuan Blair (45) bowls over Houston Rockets’ Patrick Patterson (54) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. Blair was called for an offensive foul on the play. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Houston Rockets’ Patrick Patterson, center, is double-teamed by San Antonio Spurs Gary Neal (14) and Richard Jefferson (24) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs’ Richard Jefferson chews on his shirt in the final minutes of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker (9) passes the ball under pressure from Houston Rockets’ Samuel Dalembert (21) in the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Houston Rockets’ Patrick Patterson (54) and San Antonio Spurs’ Richard Jefferson (24) go after a loose ball in the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Houston Rockets Courtney Lee (5) and Jordan Hill (27) watch the final seconds of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale questions a call in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Houston Rockets’ Patrick Patterson (54) and San Antonio Spurs’ Richard Jefferson (24) go after a loose ball in the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard (2) tries to maintain control of the ball as Houston Rockets’ Kevin Martin, left, pursues during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. The Rockets won 105-102. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker (9) shoots over Houston Rockets’ Courtney Lee (5) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) (AP)

Spurs rookie gets trial by Durant’s fire

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

OKLAHOMA CITY — During a timeout in the second half Sunday, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich turned to his rookie small forward and uttered words that might have made a lesser man gulp.

“I told him, ‘You’re now going to guard the leading scorer in the league,’” Popovich said. “ ‘And you’re not coming out of the game.’ ”

Offered the assignment of defending Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, with no help and no quarter, Kawhi Leonard did not blink. For a 20-year-old learning the NBA on the fly, that was success enough.

Durant, the NBA’s two-time defending scoring champion, finished with 21 points in 28 minutes of a 108-96 Thunder romp, but Leonard at least made the matchup moderately interesting. Durant made five of his nine shots, and did the bulk of his damage from the foul line, where he was 10 for 10.

“I just tried to take it as a challenge,” said Leonard, who at this time last year was defending players in the Mountain West Conference. “You know he’s going to get his points. You just hope to make it tough on him.”

With the game already out of hand, there was little risk in allowing Leonard a trial by fire.

“We wanted him to get experience and see what it was like,” Popovich said.

Leonard didn’t win the battle with Durant, but neither did he give in.

His finest moment came during a first-half stint against Durant, when he forced his Oklahoma City adversary into a trap and a turnover.

Durant had his moments in the matchup as well. One came late in the third quarter, when he buried a 20-footer in Leonard’s face.

“He did a good job,” Popovich said of Leonard. “It didn’t mean Kevin didn’t score, but it was fun to watch.”

WOOF, WOOF: Spurs center DeJuan Blair and his Oklahoma City counterpart, Kendrick Perkins, were issued technical fouls after a dust-up in the second quarter.

“He was just barking, making something out of nothing,” Blair said. “So I barked back.”

For Perkins, whose hot-headedness has become the stuff of NBA legend, it was his third technical already in the young season. It was Blair’s first.

Since each technical comes with an automatic $2,000 fine, Blair said he planned to appeal his foul.

KNEED REST: Blair and point guard Tony Parker left the game in the second half after each taking a knee to the back of the leg.

Both were sore and bruised but could have played had the game still been in reach. Barring a setback, both said they would be ready for Tuesday’s game at Milwaukee.

SEEING DOUBLE: Afforded a season-high 34 minutes, six seconds of playing time, Leonard turned in the first double-double of his career with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Without the benefit of a normal summer indoctrination or full training camp, Leonard says he is becoming more comfortable with the Spurs’ system by the day.

“Every game is a learning experience for me,” Leonard said. “I’m just trying to listen to what the coaches tell me and learn from each game.”

Spurs plan to put Parker’s youth to the test

Tony Parker was just 19 years old in 2001 when, six games into his rookie season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich installed him as the team’s starting point guard.

Parker has held the job ever since, creating the illusion he arrived not long after James Naismith hung the first peach baskets.

Though a fixture in the Spurs’ lineup since before he could buy a drink, Parker is not old. Playing next to 35-year-old Tim Duncan and 34-year-old Manu Ginobili, however, he is at times considered ancient by association.

“I’m just 29,” Parker insists. “I’m still young.”

With Ginobili out with a broken hand, T.J. Ford out with a torn hamstring and no other plausible point guard on the roster, the Spurs seem poised to put Parker’s youth to the test.

In the past three games, Parker has totaled more than 114 minutes, including 81 in a back-to-back against Milwaukee and Houston. He tallied at least 20 points and eight assists in each of those three contests, a nearly mandatory line given the Ginobili-sized hole in the nightly box score.

For his effort, Parker has been promised no rest on the horizon, and no hazard pay. He can expect another exhausting day at the office tonight at the ATT Center against Phoenix and Steve Nash, an opponent who traditionally brings out his best.

“Pop told me it’s going to be a lot more minutes,” Parker said. “I just have to be ready.”

Given Ginobili’s state of perpetual injury over the past four seasons, Parker has become the Spurs’ minuteman, ready at a moment’s notice.

It is no coincidence that Parker’s finest NBA season — a 2008-09 campaign in which he averaged 22 points and earned third-team All-NBA honors — came in concert with Ginobili being sidelined for all but 44 games.

“When Manu is out, I have to do double the job,” said Parker, who has averaged 17.1 points in 34 regular-season games against the Suns. “I’ve got to stay aggressive and be in attack mode the whole time.”

This season, Parker is averaging 15.9 points, his lowest clip since 2003-04. In seven games sans Ginobili, however, that average has leapt to 17.9.

Tony Parker, celebrating with Richard Jefferson, has logged more than 114 minutes in the Spurs’ past three games. (Eric Gay / Associated Press)

In further testament to Parker’s aggressiveness gone into overdrive, he has committed 13 of his 26 turnovers in the past three games.

“Tony’s a scoring guard,” Popovich said. “He’s always looking to be aggressive. I guess you see him being aggressive for more minutes now, since he’s playing more minutes.”

And Ford’s injury, suffered three games ago in Milwaukee, only amplifies the Spurs’ reliance on Parker.

Rookie Cory Joseph is the only other true point guard on the roster, and he is far from ready to be an NBA rotation player. For the past three games, shooting guard Gary Neal filled in gamely, if miscast, as Parker’s primary backup.

In Friday’s 99-83 victory over Portland, the Spurs’ reserves had them ahead by 14 points in the fourth quarter. Needing a ball-handler to deal with the Trail Blazers’ full-court pressure, Popovich had to re-insert Parker to close the game.

He immediately scored 10 consecutive points in a two-minute span to keep Portland at arm’s length.

“He’s doing just about everything for us,” Duncan said. “He’s continued to attack every time down the floor. He found a way to get things done.”

The trick now is to keep Parker from running into the ground for the next four to six weeks while his injured backcourt mates heal.

Especially in a condensed season like this one, Popovich is hyper-aware of the minutes logged by his older veterans, and the toll it takes on them. He is not concerned about Parker, because he doesn’t consider Parker old.

“He’ll play more minutes than Tim during this period when Manu’s gone,” Popovich said. “He’ll have the burden.”

It is a burden Parker is happy to shoulder, while he’s still young.