The gap between series awaiting a second-round opponent is providing the Spurs to have a chance to get back to the basics as they prepare for either Memphis or the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Spurs worked for more than 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon in a practice that Manu Ginobili called as extensive as the team has had since training camp.
“I’m sure Pop doesn’t want us to sit for a week so we got on the floor today,” Ginobili said. “It was a good scrimmage. We went at it and it was good. It felt great … we haven’t done this all season.”
Most of the work was in scrimmaging with split squads. Ginobili said that Coach Gregg Popovich split the squad up rather than playing the starting unit against the emerging second team.
“We scrimmaged today, played hard, contact, the whole deal,” Popovich said.
The Spurs coach said he didn’t install additional material into the playbook as his team prepares for the second round.
“Not much,” Popovich said. “At this point in the season you are pretty much what you’ve done most of the year and the last thing you want to do is confuse the issue or try to get smart. So we just want to keep our rhythm and keep our conditioning as best we can.”
The Spurs are scheduled to rest on Thursday before returning to practice again on Friday.