Category: In the News

Spurs strike first, blast Jazz in Game 1

By Jeff McDonald

Tony Parker had an offseason to stew, a lockout to fume, an entire NBA regular season to simmer.

By the time Game 1 against Utah tipped off Sunday afternoon, Parker’s wait for playoff redemption had reached a boiling point. He was primed. He was pumped. He was raring to go.

And then, he literally came bursting out of his shoe.

This is how Parker’s day of atonement began, in a 106-91 victory over the Jazz at the ATT Center: 96 seconds in, Nike in hand, sheepishly begging for a 20-second timeout to rectify a wardrobe malfunction.

His afternoon would improve substantially after that. Parker finished with 28 points and eight assists, helping the top-seeded Spurs put last season’s first-round disaster against Memphis one day further behind them.

“I wanted to make sure I set the table in Game 1, and make sure I was aggressive,” Parker said. “And then build on that.”

The victory staked the Spurs to their first 1-0 lead in a series since the 2008 first round, when they needed miracle 3-pointers from Michael Finley and Tim Duncan to beat Phoenix in overtime.

So long ago was that game that Kawhi Leonard — the Spurs’ starter at small forward Sunday — was a junior in high school then.

The Spurs had a much different Game 1 on the brain when they walked into the ATT Center just after breakfast Sunday. Last year, the Spurs dropped the opener to Memphis, setting the tone for a six-game first-round defeat.

Parker, the Spurs’ All-Star point guard, didn’t exactly have a poor series — he averaged 19.2 points and 5.2 assists — but the perception was that he’d been outplayed by the Grizzlies’ Mike Conley. It was a perception Popovich clung to when he saw a much more focused Parker guiding the French national team in September.

“Pop was mad at me,” Parker said. “He thought I played harder with the national team.”

Parker didn’t agree with the charge, but he knew how his coach expected him to react.

“I told him I’d have a good year this year, and make sure I played with a different attitude,” he said.

The new, somehow improved Parker was again on display in Game 1 against Utah. Behind a flurry of drives and bevy of acrobatic finishes, Parker had 16 points at half. He had 20 at the end of a third quarter that saw the Spurs open up a double-digit lead with 3-pointers from Gary Neal, Stephen Jackson and Matt Bonner.

Early in the fourth, after the Spurs had missed four straight shots, Popovich made the obvious move to stop a scoring drought. He called a play for Parker. The point guard responded by driving for a 3-point play, and later robbed Jamaal Tinsley and found his way to the free-throw line.

Popovich would have been surprised, if he hadn’t seen this Parker every night since about December.

“He’s the reason we’ve been successful this season, and he continued it (Sunday),” Popovich said.

Though Tim Duncan chipped in 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Spurs, and Jackson re-introduced himself to the playoffs with 14 points and a pair of 3-pointers, the day belonged to Parker.

“He’s why everyone’s chanting M-V-P,” Jackson said, referring to the home-crowd serenade the accompanied all 10 of Parker’s free-throw tries.

Utah point guard Devin Harris, meanwhile, would not be this year’s Mike Conley — or, for that matter, 2006′s Harris. He was largely absent from Game 1, finishing with seven points.

Paul Millsap led Utah with 20 points and nine rebounds, but the Spurs owned the paint, getting 58 points there — second-most in the club’s postseason history.

“They’re not going to give anything away — you’ve got to go out there and take it,” Harris said. “Obviously, they did what they’re supposed to do.”

As opposed to the season before, when Memphis took Game 1, then became just the second No. 8 seed in the best-of-seven era to advance past the first round.

Boris Diaw, whose start at forward Sunday doubled the French quotient of the Spurs’ first five, said he and Parker didn’t talk about the Memphis series at all. Still, Diaw could sense an extra fire in Parker’s eyes before tipoff.

“He had a focused mentality, and you have to,” said Diaw, who had nine points and five rebound in his Spurs playoff debut. “This isn’t a regular-season game.”

So excited was Parker for Game 1 that he almost immediately ran out of his shoe. Once he strapped it back on, he ran past the Jazz.

Afterward, Parker said all the right things.

“It’s going to be a long series,” he said.

But this much was clear after Sunday: If Parker keeps piling up games like he did Sunday, it will be a much shorter one.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS LEAD BEST-OF-7 SERIES 1-0

Game 1: @Spurs 106, Jazz 91 |

Game 2 Wednesday: Jazz @Spurs, 6 p.m.
TV: FSNSW, TNT Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

Game 3 Saturday: Spurs @Jazz, 9 p.m.
TV: FSNSW, TNT Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

Game 4 May 7: Spurs @Jazz, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 5 May 9: Jazz @Spurs, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 6 May 11: Spurs @Jazz, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 7 May 13: Jazz @Spurs, TBD
TV: TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* — As needed in best-of-7 series

Spurs remain No. 1 in four national power rankings

John Schuhmann,

Ranking: Third

Teams ahead: Chicago, Oklahoma City

Last week: First

What he said: “Did the Spurs punt away the No. 1 seed in the West by leaving their big three at home on Monday, or by getting crushed on the glass by Andrew Bynum and the Kobe-less Lakers two nights later? They have a road back-to-back-to-back this week, so expect more rest for their stars as they settle into the No. 2 spot.”

Sam Amico,

Ranking: First

Teams ahead: None

Last week: Second

What he said: “Good news: Suddenly look like most cohesive team in league again. Bad: Entered last season’s playoffs looking same.”

Tom Ziller,

Ranking: First

Teams ahead: None

Last week: First

What he said: “The Spurs have a revenge match against the Lakers on Tuesday, but it still doesn’t matter. Nothing matters for the Spurs until April 28 or 29, when their playoff quest for one more ring with Tim Duncan begins. So long as the team enters healthy and with a modicum of freshness, they will be a daunting task for any and all West contenders. That’s all that matters.”

Marc Stein,

Ranking: Third

Teams ahead: Chicago, Oklahoma City

Last week: First

What he said: “Pop holds a narrow lead over Thibodeau and Doc Rivers in another ridiculous COY race with what might be his best-ever coaching job. Even if the Spurs don’t snag the West’s No. 1 seed — and even after the Kobe-less Lakers humbled them at home — he still has ‘em at a level no one envisioned. No one.”

John Hollinger,

Ranking: First

Teams ahead: None

Last week: Second

Chances of winning: Hollinger estimates the Spurs have a 76.2 percent chance of winning the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, a 37 percent chance of making the NBA Finals and a .

Britt Robson,

Ranking: First

Teams ahead: None

Last week: First

What he said: “During this intense, condensed regular-season schedule, there seems to have been more commentary about Tim Duncan resting than about the way he has played. That’s probably because there has been very little decline during his 15th season. His shooting percentage is down slightly but his scoring average is up, as he has taken a few more mid-range jumpers than in previous years. Defensively, the Big Fundamental continues to set the standard for San Antonio, which allows its fewest points per possession when he is on the court. Despite all the chatter, he has missed only five of 60 games — though he is likely to sit out either Tuesday or Wednesday, as San Antonio completes a stretch of three games in three nights — and is logging the same 28 minutes per game he put in last season. Perhaps the biggest difference from a year ago has been the emergence of Tiago Splitter, who gives the Spurs another tall and capable rim protector aside from Duncan.” 

Kurt Helin,

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