Category: In the News

Spurs made believers out of … themselves

By Mike Monroe

LOS ANGELES – No team in NBA playoff history ever had recovered from a deficit as large as the Spurs faced at the end of the first quarter of Saturday’s Game 3 at Staples Center: Clippers 33, Spurs 11.

As if this weren’t discouraging enough, L.A.’s lead grew to 24 points in the first three minutes of the second quarter, the red-clad crowd howling approval.

It was a situation so daunting even the most competitive of Spurs believed the third victory of the Western Conference semifinals series would have to wait for another day?

“At one point,” Manu Ginobili said, “I thought there was no chance. (The Clippers) were playing so well and making every shot and we couldn’t even shoot. We were turning the ball over and they were playing great. We were not ready. We looked like we were still in bed.”

If Ginobili feared all was lost he never let it show, and what ultimately got the Spurs out of such a deep hole was the calm, calculated approach to chipping away at the Clippers’ big lead, one possession at a time. It helped that Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker had seen nearly every playoff situation imaginable, though none quite so daunting so early in a game.

“Their experience lets them know you’ve just got to stay in the system and work it, and it will either work out, or it won’t,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “And that’s that.”

After the Clippers lead reached 24 the goal was to cut it to 10 by halftime. When they headed to the halftime break trailing, 53-43, optimism reigned.

“Once we made a little run and were down 16, 18, we were really talking about cutting the lead to 10 at halftime,” Ginobili said. “It happened, and then the starters in the third quarter were great. They just moved the ball well. They played easy and played great defense and when we went up eight (in the third) we knew it was going to be very hard for them to overcome that change of game.

“Being up 24, and then being down six, eight is very hard to overcome.”

Confidence is Popovich: When the Clippers sliced a 12-point Spurs lead to seven with 9:13 left in the game Popovich called a time out and drew up a play intended to get Gary Neal open for a 3-point attempt.

Coming from the baseline to the 3-point line off two screens, Neal took a pass from Tony Parker and nailed the long-distance shot to push the lead back to double digits.

“Coach Pop drew that play up out of a timeout,” Neal said. “It was great execution. I got two great screens from the bigs and I came up. Mo (Williams) shot the gap and I was wide open. I’m glad it went in.”

Duncan said Popovich’s skill in drawing up plays during timeouts helps the Spurs execute his plays.

“Obviously, we’ve all kind of been through this with him and he’s one of the best in the league at drawing plays up in timeouts and having them work,” he said. “He did it again.

“I don’t know how to explain it but he understands that if we’re able to execute and move the ball and find shooters good things are going to happen.”

Defying history: The Clippers are well aware no team in NBA history has overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series.

“We have to keep fighting,” point guard Chris Paul said. “It’s never been done before in history.”

Guard Nick Young, who looked ready for a fashion runway as he exited the Clippers locker room, said the team knows precisely how to approach tonight’s game.

“We have to look at this like we did in Game 7 (vs. Memphis). Nobody wants to be in this situation. We made it hard on ourselves. We’re desperate now. It’s win or go home.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

SPURS VS. CLIPPERS
(Spurs lead best-of-seven series 2-0)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3:

Game 4: Sunday, @Clippers, 9:30 p.m., TNT

* Game 5: Tuesday, @Spurs, TBA, TNT

* Game 6: Friday, @Clippers, TBA, ESPN

* Game 7: May 27, @Spurs, TBA, TNT

* If necessary

Up 2-0, Spurs on edge despite favorable history

By Jeff McDonald

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Spurs departed San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals in their pocket and the past on their side.

Throughout the Spurs’ postseason history, such a deficit has been hemlock to playoff opponents. Find yourself facing it, and summer vacation soon follows.

One player on the Oklahoma City roster knows better.

“I think we can beat this team,” Derek Fisher said.

What might otherwise be dismissed as a show of unwarranted bravado from a 38-year-old backup guard comes with a side of been there, done that.

When it comes to winning a best-of-7 series after taking a 2-0 lead, the Spurs are 18-1 all-time. Fisher was there for that one time.

In the 2004 conference semifinals against the Lakers, the Spurs carried a 2-0 edge into Los Angeles before coming undone. Eight years later, Fisher’s miracle 18-footer in Game 5, launched with 0.4 seconds left, remains the signature moment of one of the Spurs’ most disappointing playoff collapses.

As the Spurs prepare for Game 3 against Oklahoma City tonight at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Fisher’s shot — much like the shot-maker himself — is ancient history.

“That happened like 30 years ago,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said.

Yet the lesson it imparted endures in those who lived it. A series is not over until one team wins four times.

The Spurs take the floor in Oklahoma City with numerous reasons to feel confident. Their franchise-best winning streak of 20 is climbing the charts, equaled or surpassed by only three teams in NBA history.

They haven’t lost in roughly the length of a Kim Kardashian marriage (50 days) and have won 10 in a row to start the playoffs, one victory shy of the NBA record.

“It’s pretty incredible what they’ve done,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “To win a game is hard. To win 20 in a row and 10 of them in the playoffs, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

To wary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, the series could just as easily be 2-0 in Oklahoma City’s favor.

In Game 1, the Spurs trailed by nine heading into the fourth quarter before exploding for 39 points and a 101-98 win. Two nights later, they squandered nearly all of a 22-point lead before locking up a 120-111 victory in the final minutes.

In Game 2, the Spurs survived an 88-point eruption from the OKC trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, in part thanks to 34 points from Tony Parker and the team’s highest-scoring playoff game in six years.

“Our offense saved us,” Popovich said. “We scored, and that’s the only reason we won. Because our defense wasn’t very good.”

Oklahoma City would kill for such problems now. In order to avoid elimination, the Thunder must win four out of the next five against a team that has beaten them eight out of the last 10.

Then there’s this: Only three teams in NBA history have fallen into a 2-0 hole in the conference finals and recovered to win the series.

“What we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter,” Spurs forward Stephen Jackson said. “If we lose tomorrow, it all goes down the drain.”

If the Spurs ever had any doubt about the fragility of a winning streak or playoff edge, Fisher stands as a living reminder.

In 2004, the Spurs had won 17 in a row heading into Los Angeles, matching their longest winning streak until this season. A 2-0 series lead quickly became 2-2, and 0.4 seconds followed in Game 5.

Two nights later, the Spurs’ season was over.

“We did not assume that we’d win four games in a row, which is basically what we ended up doing,” Fisher recalled. “We just focused on winning Game 3.”

Beginning tonight, Fisher hopes to play Sherpa on another such climb. The Spurs aim to keep that part of history from repeating.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 2-0)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Spurs in a haircut? Too cool.

By René A. Guzman

A lot of passion goes into showing Spurs love on your scalp. Just ask Joe Barajas, better known as Joe Barber.

The Razor Sharp Cutz master barber at Ingram Park Mall has turned plenty of heads with his sporting hair designs. He recently made, ahem, headlines after shaving the likeness of Spurs forward Matt Bonner into the head of 12-year-old Patrick Gonzalez.

For Barajas, such a work of art is just another in a long line of buzz-worthy buzz cuts.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Barajas said, noting he started cutting famous faces into not-so-famous heads in 2005 with a depiction of Spurs point guard Tony Parker, though he found viral video fame with a Michael Jordan clip he did in January.

Barajas has also made hair designs of Spurs stars Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, as well as the Miami Heat’s LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant. He’s even done depictions of Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye.

“It’s whatever that fan wants,” Barajas said. “I try to meet their needs.”

For a Spurs fan like George Renteria, that means maintaining the Silver and Black on his head every week. Barajas just gave the telemarketer his regular Friday touch-up of a shaved, black-dyed Spurs logo outlined with silver dye.

“If the Spurs are playing, I’m here to get this haircut,” Renteria said, wearing a Duncan jersey and Spurs earring.

Barajas usually takes two hours to complete such cuts. He starts with an image hunt on his iPad, then uses grayscale shading with hair dye and pattern clipping with various clippers, plus a handheld razor blade broken in half to etch in those extra-fine details.

Since Patrick and Bonner are both redheads, Barajas used Patrick’s own hair color to depict Bonner and black hair dye for the image’s outlines.

That hairdo ultimately cost the Woodlake Hills Middle School student a one-day suspension. Patrick reluctantly shaved the $75 haircut to go back to class, but netted tickets to Game 2 against the not-so-coincidentally named Los Angeles Clippers, along with a meet-and-greet with Bonner and a signed jersey and shoes.

Mike Rios at Knockout Cuts says cutting such designs into kids’ hair be tough due to the smaller canvas. That may explain why the barber is especially proud of a full lion he cut into a boy’s head for a zoo trip.

“It’s just really good for one event,” said Rios, who cuts his share of boxers like Manny Pacquiao into fans’ heads as well as more kid-friendly art like Angry Birds and Transformers logos.

Rios says such cuts grow out in about a week-and-half, so there isn’t too much time for buyer’s remorse. And one can always go back to edit or eliminate the hair art, as Rios notes many New England Patriots fans did after the team lost the last Super Bowl.

As Barajas says, a haircut isn’t just a haircut, it’s a representation of one’s self. And that goes well beyond wearing passion on one’s sleeve.

“I’m nothing but Spurs,” Renteria said. “Spurs is in my blood.”

And always on his mind.

rguzman@express-news.net
Twitter: @reneguz