Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Mike Monroe: Sixth-seed race huge in absence of Peace

There are Western Conference playoff implications that go beyond the Lakers and the seven-game suspension David Stern levied Tuesday on forward Metta World Peace.

Don’t the Nuggets and Mavericks, separated by just a half-game in the Nos. 6 and 7 positions, have to approach their final regular-season games as if they are virtual playoff games?

After all, Atlanta’s victory over the Clippers on Tuesday night locked the Lakers into the No. 3 playoff berth in the Western tournament.

Finish sixth, and the Nuggets or Mavs can face a Lakers team weakened both by World Peace’s grievous lack of on-court judgment and subsequent Lakers misfortune that seems downright karmic.

Don’t you suspect cosmic forces were behind the bad luck that befell Devin Ebanks in the Lakers’ weight room Tuesday morning?

A player who filled in for Kobe Bryant when he missed seven recent games with a sore shin dropped a 55-pound dumbbell and injured the ring finger and middle finger on his right (shooting) hand. He may miss some playoff games, too.

And the sore right ankle that also will keep Lakers small forward Matt Barnes out of Thursday’s regular-season finale in Sacramento?

That seems like more voodoo aimed at a team paying karmic dues for the negative forces that inhabited World Peace’s head Sunday.

The alternative for the Nuggets or Mavs is seventh place and a matchup with the second-place Thunder, who may be without James Harden for some playoff games. The presumed winner of the Sixth Man Award will have to be cleared by Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan and head of the NBA’s concussion program, before playing again. Under the league’s new concussion protocols, that is never a given.

Seven games seems about three games light as penalty for World Peace’s actions when he leveled Harden with a vicious elbow to the head.

I suspect Stern was talked out of a stiffer penalty for a recidivist offender by those he consulted before making his decision. Some who have been in the inner circles in Olympic Tower have suggested as much.

But the fact that Harden suffered a concussion — at a time when everyone involved in sports seems acutely aware of the long-term danger of head injuries — argued for something more. If Harden’s head had been turned, just slightly, couldn’t he have suffered a fractured eye socket? How many more games would that have added to MWP’s banishment?

Hadn’t Stern’s former deputy, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, just sat down a hockey player for 25 games after a vicious hit in a playoff game?

In the end, the commissioner opted for a softer landing for World Peace, a player teammate Bryant swears is “a sweet guy.” Maybe he feels that if the Lakers can get out of the first round without their best perimeter defender, they deserve a chance to go farther.

Or maybe Stern recalled the days of clothesline takedowns in the NBA Finals that drew no penalty beyond a personal foul.

Kevin McHale’s forearm that sent Kurt Rambis sprawling during Game 4 of the 1984 Finals wasn’t aimed at the head. With Rambis at full speed on a fast break when McHale sent him sprawling, he could have suffered an injury as serious as Harden’s.

The result: Two free throws for Rambis.

Period.

Then, Stern was in his very first season as commissioner, a 41-year-old who may have been too new to the job to risk angering Red Auerbach.

McHale was back on the court for Game 5, and his Celtics went on to another championship.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Rondo’s uneven triple-double paces studs and duds

It wasn’t the most artistic of triple-doubles. 

But Rajon Rondo won’t trade the final results of Boston’s grinding 88-86 overtime victory over Atlanta Wednesday night.

Rondo notched his sixth triple-double of the season with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 20 assists to match the NBA high for the season.

The Celtics’ victory came only a day after an emotional victory at Miami. The residue of that game could be seen in some of the Celtics’ struggles.

”I gotta tell you guys: that was the worst game we’ve ever won,” Boston coach Doc Rivers told the Associated Press. ”I mean we didn’t play well. We just kept hanging in there. You could see the fatigue.”

One of the most notable was Rondo, despite the triple-double. The Boston point guard clanked through a miserable 3-for-16 shooting night with six turnovers.

But he had enough at the end to fill the stat sheet and notch his 19th consecutive double-figure game in assists.

”We kept fighting regardless of the other stuff out there. We stuck together, followed through and got the win,” said Rondo about his performance. It earned him a place as a stud and a dud on the same night.  

STUDS

Boston G Rajon Rondo: Notched his sixth triple-double of the season, going for 10 points, 10 rebounds and 20 assists to match the NBA high for the season. Rondo was plus-6 in the Celtics victory over Atlanta.

Los Angeles Lakers C Andrew Bynum: Went for 16 points, an NBA season-high 30 rebounds, two assists, two blocks and was plus-5 in the Lakers’ victory at the Spurs.

Memphis G Rudy Gay: Notched a season-best 32 points, seven rebounds, two steals and was a game-best plus-23 in the Grizzlies’ victory over Phoenix.

Los Angeles Clippers G Chris Paul: Produced 31 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and was plus-4 in the Clippers’ triumph at Oklahoma City.

Milwaukee G Monta Ellis: Erupted for 35 points, six rebounds, 10 assists and four steals in the Bucks’ loss at New York.

DUDS

Boston G Rajon Rondo: Despite the triple-double, Rondo struggled through a miserable 3-for-16 shooting night with six turnovers in the Celtics overtime victory over Atlanta.

Phoenix G Steve Nash: Went 4 of 10 from the field, had an NBA nightly high of seven turnovers and was a game-worst minus-21 in the Suns’ loss to Memphis.  

San Antonio G Tony Parker: Clanked through a 2-for-12 shooting night with only four points and was a game-worst minus-16 in the Spurs’ loss to the Lakers.

Sacramento C DeMarcus Cousins: Went 3-for-12 from the field with four turnovers and was minus-8 in the Kings’ loss at New Orleans.

Oklahoma City G Russell Westbrook: Struggled through a 3-for-14 shooting night with four turnovers in the Thunder’s loss to the Clippers.

Spurs seal West’s top seed as Blazers get burned

By Jeff McDonald

One day after Cleveland’s Manny Harris went Moe Howard on Danny Green’s right eyeball, the Spurs guard still couldn’t stare directly into bright lights.

Luckily, there were none in the immediate vicinity of the ATT Center rims Monday night.

Green hit everything he flung at them in a 124-89 pummeling of the Portland Trail Blazers, going 6 for 6 from the field, 4 of 4 from 3-point range and hitting two free throws en route to 18 points.

“Probably should get poked in the eye more often,” Green said.

It doesn’t take 20-20 vision to see what happens next.

Monday’s victory, the Spurs’ eighth in a row — and a franchise-record eighth straight to come by double digits — cemented the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed.

The Spurs head into their final two games of the regular season, a back-to-back at Phoenix and Golden State beginning Wednesday, with little to play for, and plenty of impetus to treat them as warm-up outings.

After watching Manu Ginobili leave last season’s finale at Phoenix’s US Airways Center with a fractured right elbow, essentially ruining a 61-victory campaign, expect coach Gregg Popovich to play the next two games safe.

Tim Duncan scored 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting Monday, took the fourth quarter off, then reminded everyone what happened last season, when a No. 1 seed turned into a first-round ouster against Memphis.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Duncan said. “It’s great to have that home-court advantage and be in that situation, but as we showed last year, someone can sneak up and take you out.”

Now locked into the top slot, the Spurs will face either Phoenix or Utah in the first round.

The Spurs do have one bauble left for which to play. At 48-16, they are tied with Chicago for the NBA’s best overall record — and home-court advantage during a potential Finals matchup — and must keep winning to keep pace.

Faced with a nearly identical scenario last season, Popovich showed little interest in taxing his players to outdo the Bulls.

“Everybody wants to go into the playoffs healthy, and with energy and rhythm,” Popovich said. “Hopefully, that’s the position we’re in.”

The Spurs put themselves there with a stunningly brutal winning streak, which cresendoed Monday when they did to the Blazers what they had done to the Lakers, Grizzlies and others.

The final marked a 75-point turnaround from the Spurs’ previous meeting with the Blazers, a 137-97 loss in Portland on Feb. 21 in which Duncan, Ginobili, Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter did not play.

The short-handed, playing-out-the-string Blazers — led by interim coach Kaleb Canales, a Laredo native — provided no such resistance Monday. Sparked by a season-high 34 assists, the Spurs reached 100 points against Portland for the first time since Dec. 2, 2007, breaking a streak of 14 games below the century mark.

“We want to always come out with a lot more energy than the other team and get a jump,” said Green, who scored 15 points during an opening half the Spurs dominated 63-41. “Our philosophy is to get in the first punch.”

By the end of the third, the Spurs led 91-65. The lone concern then — as it will be until Game 1 of the playoffs — was making it to the charter plane in one piece.

After Portland’s Hasheem Thabeet took out Boris Diaw and James Anderson on successive plays in the third quarter, Popovich rose to his feet to admonish official Mike Callahan.

“Are you watching that guy?” Popovich bellowed.

The Spurs did not quite escape unscathed. Later, reserve guard Gary Neal ran a little too hard into a pick set by former Spurs center Kurt Thomas and left with a shoulder stinger.

Based on the injury report bestowed on them the last time they collected a No. 1 seed, the Spurs will take a shoulder stinger and an eyeball poke, and count themselves lucky.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Does regular-season success matter?
The Spurs will finish with the best record in the Western Conference. The team now has accomplished this feat seven times in its history.