In The News | SAN ANTONIO SPURS TICKETS

Shooters can’t find range

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Nothing about the Spurs’ six-game losing streak is as puzzling as the sudden struggles from beyond the 3-point line.

Friday’s 5-for-19 3-point shooting (26.3 percent) was the third straight game in which the Spurs shot below 30 percent from long range.

Outscored by 12 from beyond the arc by the Rockets, the Spurs suffered a 119-114 overtime loss.

Matt Bonner still leads the NBA in 3-point accuracy despite a 2-for-13 slump over the past three games, but he missed all five of his long-range attempts Friday.

Manu Ginobili, who has taken more 3-pointers than any teammate, missed four of his six against the Rockets.

It was the continuation of a trend that has coach Gregg Popovich at a loss for an explanation.

“We had a lot of great shots that guys aren’t knocking down,” he said, “guys who have been good 3-point shooters all year long, and they’re just not falling down.”

Had it been a one-game aberration, the errant shooting would not be such a worry. That it has become a trend puts a furrow on Popovich’s forehead.

“During these games, our 3-point percentage has gone in the toilet,” he said. “Our 3-point percentage has gone down, and it’s really been the difference.

“We’ve hung in every game, but you’ve got to shoot it well. There’s really no drill for that. You just have to hope that worm turns and we can shoot better.

“So we’ve got to concentrate on penetrating more, trying to move the ball a little better, and get more open, uncontested shots, and see if the percentage goes up at all.”

SHUFFLING LINEUPS: After the Spurs allowed the Rockets 64 first-half points on 52 percent shooting, Popovich opened the second half with the starting lineup he had used through the first 53 games of the season, replacing Antonio McDyess with DeJuan Blair.

Whether the change was the reason, the Spurs tightened their defense appreciably in the second half, holding Houston to 35 percent shooting in the third and fourth quarters and limiting the Rockets to just four shots in overtime.

CONFUSION REIGNS: The Spurs’ failure to take a foul to stop the clock after Houston rebounded Tony Parker’s missed 3-point attempt with 27 seconds left baffled Popovich and some of his players.

Trailing 117-114, the Spurs didn’t move to take a foul until Tim Duncan grabbed Kevin Martin with 7.5 seconds remaining in the overtime period.

Popovich waved his arms frantically and screamed for his players to foul, but Parker said crowd noise prevented him from hearing Popovich, whom he could not see from his position on the court.

“For me, we were down three with three seconds (difference between the shot clock and game clock), and I thought it was better not to foul because if we make a stop we have a chance to tie the game,” Parker said. “That’s what went through my head, and I didn’t hear Pop calling for the foul.”

GREEN TO AUSTIN: The Spurs on Saturday assigned swingman Danny Green to their Austin Toros team in the NBA D-League. Signed for the remainder of the season March 16, Green had appeared in three games. He scored seven points with three rebounds and two assists.

Spurs can take foot off gas, but when?

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

Now that the Spurs have locked up the top seed in the Western Conference, rendering the final three games of the season close to meaningless, coach Gregg Popovich has decisions to make about how soon to start resting some of his older players.

Thirty-something starters like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Antonio McDyess might anticipate a night off before the end of the regular season, but perhaps not right away.

“If there’s a chance to give somebody a break, we’d probably do it,” said Popovich, whose team next plays Saturday at home against Utah. “At the same time, we watch everybody’s minutes all year long. We don’t have anybody that’s been overplayed, so it’s not really a huge concern.”

The question of when to take the foot off the gas will certainly be a topic of conversation in coaches’ meetings for the next few days.

At the heart of the issue is the old question of rest vs. rust. In the past, Popovich has preferred to give his older players ample time to recharge at the end of the season, and almost certainly will again at some point this year.

Still, with 10 days between clinching the West on Wednesday and the possible start of the first round April 16, there is a danger in squandering some of the momentum accumulated during the three-game winning streak, should they downshift too quickly.

“This is the time of year where everybody who is going to be in the playoffs wants to go in with momentum,” Popovich said.

Duncan, who turns 35 on April 25, remains a particularly interesting case. Normally, Popovich would jump to give his captain as much rest as possible entering the postseason.

But with Duncan coming off a sprained ankle that cost him four games in late March and early April, he could probably use some time to maintain the groove he’s been working on since returning.

In the past five games, Duncan has averaged 16 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while shooting 64.6 percent (31 of 48). In the three games Duncan played more than 30 minutes, he averaged 20 points and 10.7 rebounds.

“I think his rhythm is coming back,” Popovich said. “He’s making some jumpers. I think he’s doing OK.”

NEW MEANING TO GREEN WEEK: Locking up best record in the Western Conference put quite a few extra dollars in the players’ pockets.

From the league’s $12 million playoff pool, $302,841 goes to the teams that compile the best records in each conference. The second-place teams in both conferences get $243,411 apiece.

The Spurs’ seventh-place finish last season got them just $179,092. Beating the Mavericks in the first round earned them another $213,095.

There is a significant financial incentive for the Spurs to lock up best record in the league in their final three games. Should they finish with a better record than the Chicago Bulls, the only Eastern team that can surpass their 60 victories, another $346,105 will go into their playoff kitty, for a total of $648,946 before a single playoff game is played.

Express-News staff writer Mike Monroe contributed to this report.

Spurs undone by critical gaffes

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

PORTLAND, Ore. – The doors swung open to the visiting locker room at the Rose Garden late Friday night, revealing a scene somber even for a wake.

Minutes earlier, the Spurs had just dropped a 98-96 decision at the buzzer, losing again in Portland, this time amid a roll call of fourth-quarter errors so horrifying they would later have to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Side-by-side, players sat at their lockers in pindrop silence. Coach Gregg Popovich, still in coat and tie, paced the room. All wore the same blank expression that asked the same unanswerable question: What had just happened?

On a laptop in one corner rolled video of Portland’s final, fateful play – a tie-breaking lob from Andre Miller to Nicolas Batum that beat the horn and set off Mardi Gras in bleachers. Four morbidly curious Spurs gathered around grimly, medical examiners performing their own autopsy.

Batum scored four points in the final 0.9 seconds, lifting the Trail Blazers from certain defeat, to probable overtime, to stunning victory, all without leaving time to breathe.

“It was ridiculous,” a subdued Manu Ginobili said. “One of the craziest games I’ve lost in the NBA.”

The Spurs still led 96-90 with 1:22 to go, when Ginobili drilled his fourth 3-pointer. Their Rose Garden demons, which had conjured up five straight losses in Portland, seemed on the edge of banishment.

And then, Miller scooted for a layup.

96-92.

And then, Miller took the ball from Tony Parker, his career-high eighth turnover, and made another basket with 30.2 ticks left.

96-94.

And then, Ginobili dribbled the ball off Wesley Matthews’ leg, sparking a frantic fast break that resulted in two Batum foul shots with 0.9 left.

And then, Batum – who still has not missed a free throw in March – hit both.

96-96.

And then, Steve Novak, inserted to inbound on the Spurs’ final play, with OT seeming like the worst-case scenario, threw high for Ginobili streaking to the basket. The ball went out of bounds untouched.

“I just couldn’t reach it,” said Ginobili, who had 10 of his 21 points in the fourth.

And then, with the Blazers afforded their own chance at a miracle, Miller hit Batum with a perfectly placed backdoor lob, which the latter dropped in over Parker – one Frenchman outleaping another.

And then, the final horn sounded, and the crowd exploded and the Spurs were left to make sense out of what had just occurred.

In one sense, the answer was easy. Just another end-game miscue.

“We knew they were going to the rim,” Popovich said. “We were switching it, and we did a poor job switching it.”

Miller, third among the NBA’s active leaders in assists with 6,976, had no trouble ranking his latest one.

“That was No. 1,” said Miller, who matched Batum with 21 points.

For the second game in a row, the Spurs wasted an opportunity to win with Tim Duncan and his sprained left ankle back in San Antonio. Just as in Denver two nights earlier, the Spurs came unraveled in the fourth.

Later, in the locker room, while his teammates still wondered what went wrong on the Batum tap, Ginobili still fumed about the turnovers that came all before.

“Three in 40 seconds,” he said. “Unacceptable.”

For the Blazers, it was eight points in the final 72 seconds. And another victory over the Spurs. The Spurs (57-15) have lost six of seven to the Blazers (42-30). But none like this.

It gave the Spurs their second two-game losing streak of the season, and their first since losing at New York and Boston on Jan. 4 and 5. But that was of little consolation.

Afterward, Ginobili compared Friday’s debacle to the 2005 loss to Houston, when Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in 35 seconds. Parker recalled Derek Fisher’s 0.4-shot to send the Lakers over the Spurs in Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference finals.

“Nothing was worse than that,” Parker said.

Judging from the befuddled looks around him, that felt hard to believe. Even as he spoke the words, Parker stared at the ground, rubbing his temples like a man with a migraine.

This is the kind of loss that sticks with a team, even though it shouldn’t. There is another game Sunday in Memphis, against another tough team on the road.

“We just have to move on,” Parker said.