Team Silver beats Team Black

In their first official scrimmage of the new season, the Defending Champion San Antonio Spurs  split their team in two and carried on their annual Silver/Black Scrimmage.

While no official stats were kept, Danny Green led all scorers with 24 points as Coach Pop sat behind the coaching benches allowing his assistants to lead the two teams. Ettore Messina and Ime Ukoda with Team Silver, while Jim Boylen and Becky Hammon coached Team Black.

The only players not to play were Patty Mills (injury), Tiago Splitter (injury) and Boris Diaw (not present).

The Wounded Warriors program took the floor for a game before the scrimmage.

The Spurs kick off the preseason on the road against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center on October 16th.  Their home preseason opener is against their Finals foe, Miami Heat on October 18th.  Plenty of great seats and cheap tickets are still available so get yours now and cheer on your Defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs.

 

Spurs close out Blazers

Await winner of Clippers/Thunder  match up

The San Antonio Spurs took care of business on their home floor, closing out the Portland Trailblazers.  The Spurs were without the services of point guard Tony Parker most of the evening as he went out early in the game with a hamstring injury.  A key factor to the 84-102 pasting was a 40-7 differential in bench points in favor of the Spurs as well as forcing 18 Blazer turnovers, five  of which Kawhi Leonard collected.

“My mindset was just trying to be aggressive on the offensive end,” Leonard said. “Just knowing Tony was out, he’s very aggressive and still try to stick with our system. Play our offense, move the ball, just try to be a little more aggressive.”

The Spurs also had  (a franchise high in the Tim Duncan Era) 43  Fast Break points  and 24 assists on 42 buckets.

“Mills, Green and Leonard made 3’s, and they were timely ones that would just build momentum,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “They got out into transition. Those guys let it fly with a lot of confidence. In both halves, those runs took a toll on us.  Their transition points were a big factor in the series, especially in the first two games and again tonight. They scored on 12 of 15 fast breaks. Then they’d throw a ‘3’ on top of it, just for good measure.

The Spurs await the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder Vs Los Angeles Clippers series.  The Thunder currently lead the series three games to four with Game Six scheduled for tonight.  In the meantime, the Spurs will rest up and get Tony Parker healthy for the Western Conference Finals.

 

Spurs’ stars easing into regular minutes

By Jeff McDonald

MIAMI — With three games left in the preseason, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says it’s time to take the bubble wrap off his regulars.

The Spurs’ veterans, including 36-year-old Tim Duncan, 35-year-old Manu Ginobili and 30-year-old Tony Parker, need to ramp up to something approaching a full night’s work.

That time could come soon, perhaps as early as this afternoon at Miami.

“That process has begun,” Popovich said. “The starters want to have a rhythm at the beginning of the year. That will start to show itself as we move forward.”

That’s music to the ears of Ginobili, who says for conditioning’s sake he wouldn’t mind topping 30 minutes at least once this preseason.

Through four exhibition games, none of the Spurs’ Big Three 30-somethings are averaging more than Duncan’s 17.7 minutes per game. Duncan and Parker each have missed a game. Ginobili skipped two with a sore right heel.

“We’ve been having some good, long, tough practices that can get you there, too,” Ginobili said. “But probably one of these three games, a 30-plus minute game will be important to see where you’re at. I don’t know what Pop is thinking. We haven’t talked about it. But at least in one game, I’d like to have a season-like game.”

Conditioning has been on Ginobili’s mind since he left the London Olympics in August. Instead of propping his feet up during September, he stayed in shape by practicing two or three times a week with an Argentine club team.

“I hate it when I have to sit two or three weeks,” Ginobili said. “It feels like you have to start from scratch. I don’t like that.”

We meet again: The Spurs missed out on meeting LeBron James in the NBA Finals last season.

Several Spurs’ players did square off against James in high-stakes Olympic contests later in the summer, and the results weren’t pretty.

En route to gold, James’ Team USA ran through Ginobili’s Argentine team, Parker’s French team, and Patty Mills’ Australian squad. The Americans also bested Tiago Splitter’s Brazilian team in an exhibition in Washington before leaving for London.

Ginobili said James’ Olympic run — in which he averaged 13.3 points, 5.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds in 25 minutes per game — was as impressive as his Finals run.

“He’s been good since the first year,” Ginobili said. “He’s good. He probably does some things better (now), but he’s one of the best players ever. It’s not like he had to improve much.”

Visiting Vaughn: Popovich said he was looking forward to the second leg of the Spurs’ Florida trip, capped by a Sunday game at Orlando.

Jacque Vaughn, a former Spurs’ point guard and assistant coach, is the Magic’s new coach.

“In the regular season, we’ll be trying to beat each other’s brains in,” Popovich said. “The preseason is a lot more fun. We’ll have a lot of fun with that, try to screw with him. Just for kicks.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net