Tag: Manu Ginobili

Game rewind: How the Kings confounded the Spurs

Without Manu Ginobili and T.J. Ford, the Spurs have a surprisingly narrow margin of error — even against an opponent that they seemingly shouldn’t have much trouble with.

That was the case Friday night at the ATT Center, where the Spurs were stunned by Pacific Division bottom feeeder Sacramento in a disappointing 88-86 loss.

The Spurs don’t lose many games like Friday’s shocker at home. It was the first time the Spurs were defeated by a likely lottery-bound team at the ATT Center since losing to Milwaukee on Dec. 30, 2008.

As Tony Parker said, it was a strange night.

The Spurs had a seemingly safe 84-78 lead and momentum with less than 4 minutes to play.

But from that point, they couldn’t make a field goal and Sacramento escaped with what unlikely standout John Salmons called their “biggest victory of the season.”

Here’s how they were able to steal the game from the Spurs.

Game analysis: The Spurs fell behind early to an athletic Sacramento team and played from behind for the first thre-plus quarters of the game. And after they reclaimed the lead late in the game, San Antonio didn’t have the firepower needed to put the game away.

Where the game was won: After leading by nine points late in the fourth quarter, the Kings appeared ready to give the game away after Parker’s jumper gave San Antonio an 84-78 lead with 3:51 left. But two clutch jumpers by Salmons and a go-ahead 22-foot jumper by Tyreke Evans with 47.2 seconds left gave Sacramento the lead. Their defense did the rest as Tiago Splitter and Danny Green missed short jumpers on the Spurs’ final two possessions.

A little earlier … The Spurs employed a 12-2 run over the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter to take a 74-73 lead on Splitter’s acrobatic reverse layup with 9:52 left for their first lead of the game. 

Player of the game I:  Evans battled his way out of a recent slump as he scored 23 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished off seven assists in a strong all-around effort.

Player of the game II: After being dinged earlier in the second half, DeMarcus Cousins returned to wreak havoc for the Kings in a strong 17-point, 13-rebound effort that also included four steals. But his biggest play might have been the way he altered Green’s attempt to tie the game on San Antonio’s final possession.

Player of the game III: Parker provided team-high totals of 24 points and six assists, including the basket that gave the Spurs their largest lead of the game at 84-78. But after that, he disappeared down the stretch with no field-goal attempts and one turnover during the rest of the game.

Most unsung: After missing four of his earlier five shots, Sacramento’s Francisco Garcia told Kings coach Keith Smart to stick with Salmons in the final minutes. Salmons, who came into the game shooting a frigid 35.1 percent, rewarded that confidence by hitting two clutch jumpers that set the stage for the Kings’ upset.

Did you notice: The Spurs had trouble containing Sacramento speedy big men Cousins and Jason Thompson from the opening moments of the game. It got worse as the Spurs’ offense sputtered in the opening minutes with five missed shots and a turnover before Parker’s sank San Antonio’s first basket with 9:10 left in the first quarter. “Honestly, I think they came out slow,” Cousins said. “We jumped on them quick and they played catch-up most of the game.”

Did you notice II: With Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair resting, the Spurs didn’t hesitate to run their offense through  Splitter for large stretches of the game. The result was a 10-point, seven-rebound effort from Splitter as he produced a season-high plus-14 plus-minus score.

Stat of the game: The Spurs shot 37.8 percent from the field. It was their second-lowest field-goal percentage of the season, eclipsed only by a 37.6 percent shooting effort at Houston on Dec. 29.

Stat of the game II: Despite coming into the game ranked fifth in the NBA in 3-point percentage, the Spurs clanked to a 5-for-25 effort (20 percent) that continues a recent slump. In their last  four games, San Antonio has hit 22 of 86 from 3-point territory for 25.6 percent. And in Friday’s game, the Spurs missed 14 straight 3-pointers at one stretch before Richard Jefferson connected with 10:37 left in the game.

Stat of the game III: The Spurs saw their nine-game home winning streak to start the season snapped. It was their longest home winning streak to start the season since 2007-08, when  they won their first 13 home games.

Weird stat of the game: After hitting their first 15 foul shots, the Spurs finished the game at 90.5 percent. Sacramento hit 57.9 percent as the Kings sank 11 of 19 foul shots. That difference  between the two percentages (32.6 percent) has only been topped  five previous times in games where  the Spurs lost since 1985-86. The largest difference and most recent occurrence came last season in Boston when the Spurs hit 94.1 percent from the foul line and the Celtics hit 53.3 percent in a game the Spurs lost, 105-103.  

Weird stat of the game II:  Jimmer Fredette’s only basket of the game,  a 3-pointer with 9:46 left, gave Sacramento a 40-25 lead. It is the largest deficit for the Spurs in any game at the ATT Center so far this season.

Quote of the game: “They just never went away during the whole game, and we couldn’t hit a shot,” Parker on the Kings’ ability to stay ahead for most of the game.  

How the schedule stacks up: The Spurs play the back end of a back-to-back Saturday night in Houston with an approaching road game Monday at New Orleans. Those games will start the Spurs’ most brutal road stretch of the season with 14 of their next 18 games away from the ATT Center. Sacramento plays in Memphis Saturday night and will visit Portland on Monday.

Injuries: Ginobili missed his 11th game after undergoing surgery for a fractured fifth left metacarpal.  Ford missed his sixth game with a torn left hamstring. Sacramento played without forward-center Chuck Hayes (dislocated left shoulder). And Cousins was briefly treated in the locker room during the third  quarter after he described “seeing stars” after jostling with Blair and Kawhi Leonard for a loose ball.

Spurs patient with youngsters

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly a month into this stranger-than-fiction post-lockout season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has come to appreciate the upside of guiding the youngest team he’s ever had.

“We’ve actually got a guy who can dunk now,” Popovich joked after a recent shootaround. “He did it today in practice, and three of us just about fell over.”

In the four-plus years since their last NBA championship, the Spurs have evolved from old, veteran and savvy to young, nimble and callow. Once playfully derided by their coach as “older than dirt,” the Spurs start a 20-year-rookie at shooting guard (Kawhi Leonard) and a 22-year-old at center (DeJuan Blair).

The bench rotation includes another 20-year-old rookie in point guard Cory Joseph, 24-year-old swingman Danny Green, and a pair of older second-year players in 27-year-old center Tiago Splitter and 26-year-old guard Gary Neal.

Take away 34-year-old Manu Ginobili, out with a broken hand, and 35-year-old Tim Duncan — who sat out Saturday night’s loss in Houston for rest reasons — and it’s been like a flashback to Popovich’s days as a college coach at Pomona-Pitzer.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Popovich said. “They’re good kids. It’s great to be able to teach and see them want to learn as much as they do.”

Five of the Spurs’ top nine scorers have less than three NBA seasons on their résumé, but there is a downside for relying on youth and inexperience.

Typical for a younger team, the Spurs have struggled on the road (they are 1-6). Closing tight games can be an adventure (they are 1-2 in the past three games, all decided by three points or fewer).

Tonight in New Orleans, the 10-7 Spurs look to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season. At 3-13, the Hornets own the worst record in the Western Conference, and should be easy pickings.

With a young team, however, you never know. It’s why Popovich stuck with “older than dirt” for so long.

For Duncan, who woke up one day as the Spurs’ oldest player, working alongside such youth has been both an education and an adventure. Leonard and Joseph, the two rookies, were in first grade when Duncan made his NBA debut in 1997.

“It takes time,” Duncan said. “It’s about us being used to them, them being used to us, being used to being in tough situations in hostile territory. They’re coming along.”

So far, Popovich has handled the unpredictability of youth with as much patience as he can muster.

When Leonard had a typical rookie moment late in the fourth quarter at Houston — passing up an open jumper, turning the ball over in traffic, then committing a loose-ball foul against Kevin Martin — Popovich didn’t explode.

“He just told me to be confident and take the wide-open shot,” said

Leonard, a fill-in starter while Ginobili is out. “Things happen. I’m still a rookie.”

The infusion of youth has invigorated Popovich, stirring his instincts as a teacher. Yet with the lockout-compressed schedule eliminating almost all practice time, he has often been like a professor without a classroom.

“Shootaround days become even more important,” Popovich said. “They’re sort of like mini practices now, since you don’t have a real practice. You actually have an opportunity to maybe repeat some things so the young guys start to pick things up.”

When Popovich does get a chance to stage a practice, the gym can look like a three-ring circus.

“Logistically, it’s different,” Popovich said. “I’m sure some drills and basketball things a coach would do for young guys, Duncan doesn’t want to see it anymore. These young guys, you’ve got to go back to the basics. You have different people doing different things.”

Leonard, the 15th pick out of San Diego State, didn’t know what to expect when the Spurs traded for him on draft night. He had heard stories of his soon-to-be new coach, some good, some horrifying.

Leonard’s first meeting with Popovich calmed his nerves.

“He sat me down and told me exactly what they expected of me,” Leonard said.

There is no truth to the rumor Popovich asked for more dunks, but it has been a notable side effect.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

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.