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Duncan & Co. bear down in 2nd half, beat Grizzlies

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Spurs 107, Grizzlies 97: April 12, 2012

The Spurs’ Tony Parker drives to the basket under Memphis Grizzlies’ Gilbert Arenas as Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol looks on during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tim Duncan and Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol grab for a rebound during first half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tony Parker shoots over Memphis Grizzlies’ Marreese Speights during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili shoots around Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ DeJuan Blair looks for room around Memphis Grizzlies’ Marreese Speights during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili is fouled by Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol as Memphis Grizzlies’ Quincy Pondexter looks on during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tim Duncan shoots around Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tony Parker shoots between Memphis Grizzlies’ O.J. Mayo and Memphis Grizzlies’ Zach Randolph during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tim Duncan and Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol grab for a loose ball during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili defends Memphis Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

Memphis Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay grabs for a rebound over the Spurs’ Tim Duncan, DeJuan Blair, and Kawhi Leonard during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tony Parker looks for room under Memphis Grizzlies’ O.J. Mayo during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich yells instructions to the team against the Memphis Grizzlies during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tony Parker lies on the floor after getting fouled by Memphis Grizzlies’ Gilbert Arenas during first half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tony Parker (from left), Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan stand during the national anthem before the game with the Memphis Grizzlies Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili grabs a rebound over Memphis Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

The Spurs’ Tiago Splitter defends Memphis Grizzlies’ Zach Randolph during first half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (EDWARD A. ORNELAS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

FOR SPORTS – San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan shoots around Memphis Grizzlies’ Marreese Speights during second half action Thursday April 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. The Spurs won 107-97. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

FOR SPORTS – San Antonio Spurs’ Stephen Jackson drives to the basket against Memphis Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay during first half action Thursday April, 12, 2012 at the ATT Center. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS) (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

By Jeff McDonald

Time after time, the Spurs came down the floor in the second half Thursday and pulled out a playbook page from their past.

On five consecutive occasions during a rugged 107-97 victory over Memphis at the ATT Center, the Spurs cleared out for Tim Duncan on the low block and let him go to work.

The play is called “four down.” And Duncan could scarcely recall the last time he’d seen such a steady diet of it.

“It’s been forever,” he said. “Since the old days.”

Fueled in part by four down, Duncan matched a season high with 28 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and added a pair of blocks for good measure, at times simply willing the Spurs to win over the Grizzlies and steering them clear of a three-game losing streak.

It was a stirring bounce-back win for the Spurs, who a night earlier on their home floor were beaten up by the Lakers’ twin tower tandem of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

After the loss to Los Angeles, Duncan guaranteed his team would put forth a better effort against a Grizzlies club that had won nine of its last 11 and had clobbered the Spurs into submission in last season’s playoffs.

A night after being outrebounded by 27 against L.A., the Spurs (41-16) battled the Grizzlies to a draw on the glass, holding Memphis to just 15 rebounds in the second half, including three in the third quarter.

“We got pushed around and beat up against the Lakers,” forward Stephen Jackson said. “They were the most physical team, and it showed. Today, we hit back.”

Before the game, and again at halftime with the Spurs trailing 49-45, coach Gregg Popovich challenged his team with a test of its toughness.

After the Spurs finished off a 4-0 regular-season sweep of Memphis (34-24), Popovich said he was proud of the way his team rebounded — in more ways than one. He praised the Spurs — who remained tied in the loss column with Oklahoma City for first in the Western Conference — for playing with “physicality” and “a bit of an edge.”

“I was proud of them to come back after an embarrassing loss like that and play the way they did,” he said.

One moment in particular provided the snapshot. When Zach Randolph rose for a shot in the fourth quarter, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili jumped him from behind, coming away with both the ball and Memphis forward’s signature headband as spoils.

Ginobili finished with 20 points, including 10 in the fourth. He was 11 of 11 from the foul line, hitting six free throws in the final minute to seal the win.

For the Grizzlies, it snapped a string of 11 straight games without surrendering 100 points.

Duncan, the Spurs’ venerable captain, expected such a bounce-back after the way the Lakers had handled them so easily.

“I didn’t have to say anything,” Duncan said. “We were disappointed in ourselves. We refocus. We come back. We play better. We always do.”

On a night that could have gone the other way, with the Spurs trailing well into the third quarter, it was Duncan —13 days shy of his 36th birthday —who carried them.

Duncan scored the Spurs’ first eight points of the second half, beginning with a vintage turnaround jumper on Marc Gasol, and totaled 14 points in the third.

Duncan finished 10 of 15 from the field and went to the foul line 11 times, converting eight. Eventually, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins was left with little choice but to double him.

Behind Duncan’s eruption, much of it coming out of “four down” calls, the Spurs took an 82-74 lead into the fourth quarter and never trailed again.

This is the Duncan the Grizzlies did not see in last season’s playoffs. Playing on a chronically sore knee and recently sprained ankle, he averaged a meager 12.7 points and was often exposed defensively in the six-game series.

He’s turned back the clock this season, and Thursday he flipped back the pages of the Spurs’ playbook.

“He was a monster,” Popovich said.

Just like the old days indeed.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

New team, same results for ex-Spurs guard Hill

Walking across the stage at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on draft night last June, Kawhi Leonard fitted an Indiana Pacers cap carefully over his braids, then shook hands with commissioner David Stern as photographers captured his first moments as an NBA player.

Within minutes he got an early lesson in the business of the league. He could keep the blue and gold Pacers cap as a souvenir if he liked, but his rookie uniform would be silver and black.

The Pacers had used their 15th pick in the first round to select him for the Spurs, the small forward from San Diego State was told. Leonard was the biggest piece of a package sent by the Pacers so they could acquire George Hill, a combo guard who had become one of the most popular Spurs, both to his coach and the team’s fans.

The stoic Leonard, 20 years old at the time, accepted the news with a shoulder shrug, determined to stay in a moment he described as “living the dream.”

For Hill, that moment was a nightmare, even if it meant returning to Indianapolis, where he had been a high school and college star. Hill could think only of his three seasons with the Spurs, during which he had gone from a relative unknown out of a mid-major college to a key reserve on a 60-win team.

Embracing San Antonio as if he had been born in the shadow of the Alamo, he envisioned a long career as a Spur.

The player Gregg Popovich called “Indiana George” returns tonight to ATT Center, playing much the same role for the Pacers he had with the Spurs: a backup at both guard spots and defensive stopper whose true value defies quantification.

Indicative of the respect he had earned from a coach not given to sentimentality, Hill got a phone call from Popovich alerting him about the draft night trade hours before it was announced.

The conversation was difficult on both ends.

“Emotions were bare,” Hill recalled. “Coach Pop explained the nature of the business, which I respected, and explained how difficult the decision was and how bad he felt. At the time, he said it was something he had to do for the betterment of the team.

“It was difficult to swallow, but from Day 1 he had been honest with me. It meant a lot that he had the respect to give me a heads-up.”

Popovich described the difficulty of the decision to send Hill to Indiana.

“On a scale of one to 10,” he said, “it was a 10 and a half.”

Fully recovered from a Jan. 31 chip fracture of the left ankle that sidelined him for 12 games, Hill enters tonight averaging 9.4 points on 46 percent shooting and 40.4 percent 3-point shooting for a Pacers team with the fourth-best record (30-20) in the Eastern Conference.

That he is playing well in an important role with his hometown team offers some solace for Popovich.

“We’re thrilled for him,” Popovich said. “I want nothing but for him to be successful, and our players want the same for him, and he has been.

“One thing that gave us a little bit of peace about it is that we were sending him back home. He’s back in his hometown, and he was doing some great community work there, just like he was here. It made it a little more palatable, knowing he was going back home.”

No Spur misses Hill more than DeJuan Blair, the starting center who found a best friend in the locker next to his at the ATT Center.

“I was in a cab in New York City when I heard the news,” Blair said. “I was devastated. I said a few curse words.”

Before tipoff tonight, Hill will share a hug with Blair and the other teammates left from his three seasons in black and silver.

“It’s going to be kind of weird,” Hill said. “You know I’m going to have fun out there. It will be good to see everyone again and see everyone smile, but emotional because you miss those guys. You’ve created a bond with them, but now you understand it’s a business, so you play it like a regular game and have fun.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA

Spurs 50-win streak ranks as NBA’s longest

Several e-mailers were interested in where the Spurs’ streak of 50-win seasons, mentioned in a post yesterday, ranks among teams and current streaks in the NBA.

The Spurs’ current streak of 12 50-win seasons leads the nine NBA teams with a current 50-win season streak after last season.

Here’s a listing of the teams and their current 50-win season streaks.

San Antonio 12

Dallas 11

Boston 4

Denver 4

L.A. Lakers 4

Orlando 4

Oklahoma City 2

Chicago 1

Miami 1

Chicago is the only team in the league that appears to be able to stretch its current streak with the compacted 66-game season caused by the lockout. The Bulls’ .768 winning percentage prorates to 50.688 wins over 66 games.

The current winning percentages of the rest of the teams in the league won’t reach 50 victories if they play at their current pace.

The Spurs will have to win 12 of their final 14 games to reach 50. And with the playoffs approaching, it’s not a feat that Coach Gregg Popovich will be very interested in extending compared to getting his team ready for the NBA’s second season.