Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Popovich decides to cut losses against Rockets

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

HOUSTON — Two minutes into the second quarter of the Spurs’ first loss of the young season, Matt Bonner drilled a 3-pointer that capped a 13-2 run to tie things up with the Houston Rockets at 23-23.

It would be more than 30 minutes and eight straight misses before the Spurs would hit another from long range, and by then it did nothing but make a huge deficit slightly less embarrassing.

The Spurs came in with convincing victories over the Grizzlies — the team that ran them out of the playoffs last spring — and the Clippers, the biggest winners in post-lockout free agency. But Thursday, they were awful in a 105-85 loss that enabled the Rockets to celebrate their home opener in front of an announced sellout crowd of 18,267 at Toyota Center.

Houston was as sharp as the Spurs had been in their Wednesday night home victory over Los Angeles, making 50.6 percent of its shots. Rockets guard Kevin Martin scored 25 in the first three quarters and wasn’t even needed in the final period after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich elected to treat the second half like a preseason game.

In a post-lockout campaign that includes serial sets of back-to-back games and a few sets of three games in three nights, there will be plenty of peculiarities based on the reality of a brutal schedule.

On Thursday there was this: Spurs captain and future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan, willing and able to play, sitting the entire second half as his coach made a judgment based on the quirkiness of a 66-game schedule compressed into 120 days.

Popovich had a perfectly understandable explanation for limiting Duncan to just over 15 minutes of playing time and holding Manu Ginobili, who played only the halfway through the third period, to under 20 minutes.

The rationale came in bullet points:

“Down 18.”

“Third game in four nights.”

“On the road.”

“We weren’t playing well.”

Duncan exited the Spurs locker room without answering questions.

The ultra-competitive Ginobili wasn’t entirely pleased with throwing in the towel early, but understood the reasoning.

“(The Rockets) played a terrific game,” he said, “and after a back-to-back Pop never wants to risk going with everything to make our comeback because it gets dangerous and they just killed us.”

Ginobili predicted there will be more nights when Popovich holds Duncan, now 35, out of big chunks of games, perhaps holding him out of a few contests in their entirety.

“In a season like this one, I’m not going to say you’ll see it very often, but kind of often,” he said. “It’s really hard to send everybody to make a huge effort that you’re not sure is going to pay back. Then we have the (game on) Saturday, Jan. 2 and back-to-back (on Jan. 4-5).

“You have to be smart and just let it go and think about the next one.”

Popovich started thinking about Saturday’s game at the ATT Center against the Utah Jazz after the Rockets blitzed the Spurs in the final 4??1/2 minutes of the first half. With Martin leading the way by scoring 15 of his 25 in the game’s decisive stretch, the Rockets took a 34-31 advantage to 58-35 before the Spurs finished with a mini-flurry of their own and cut the lead to 18 at halftime.

“I’m not sure how many times I want to be down 18 in this shortened season and work Timmy, Manu and Tony (Parker) to work us out of that hole,” Popovich said. “Not this early in the season.

“Later on, depending on our situation, it might make more sense. But at this point, it was a great opportunity to treat it like training camp and get a lot of the younger kids out there and treat it like practice.”

Spurs survive minus Manu

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

In the first of what likely will be dozens of games without injured All-Star Manu Ginobili, the Spurs on Wednesday night needed a lift from someone, anyone, when the Warriors took an eight-point lead with 6:46 remaining at the ATT Center.

They got it from point guard Tony Parker, with an animated assist from coach Gregg Popovich.

The result was a 101-95 victory that was tonic for the Spurs’ confidence and proof that Popovich can still get from the bench to midcourt in just a few excitable seconds.

Parker scored 10 of his 21 points in the final 3:41 after Popovich had spent all of the previous Warriors possessions screaming at him to continue attacking on offense.

When Parker followed with an aggressive move to the basket for a 10-foot teardrop bucket that gave the Spurs a 91-88 lead, Warriors coach Mark Jackson called a timeout, and Popovich ran briskly to midcourt to greet Parker.

“That’s what I want,” the coach yelled on his way to meet Parker, who got a hug and a playful slap on the cheek, laughing at his coach as they headed to the Spurs’ bench.

“Everybody needs to be in attack mode all the time, and Tony’s no different,” Popovich said. “Tony’s a great player, and when he’s in attack mode, he’s an even better player.”

Spurs captain Tim Duncan watched his coach’s show of emo? tion and shared a laugh with Parker. But he understood the effect Popovich had on the game.

“He was pretty fired up in that situation for a couple of reasons, and that’s the fire we’re going to need to push this team along right now with Manu out,” Duncan said.

“He’s the one to give it to us, so that’s great.”

Parker and T.J. Ford teamed up in a double-point guard backcourt for the final six minutes of a game in which the Spurs trailed from early in the first quarter until the final period.

Like the Minnesota Timberwolves, who made 57.7 percent of their shots in Monday’s game in which Ginobili fractured the fifth metacarpal on his left hand, the Warriors were torrid from the floor in the first half. Guards Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry combined to make 15 of 19 shots, and an ankle sprain suffered by Curry with 2:49 left in the third period forced him from the game and factored into the Spurs’ comeback.

With Curry gone, Popovich put reserve guard Danny Green on Ellis, and Green helped to limit Ellis to 4-for-11 shooting in the fourth quarter.

Green logged all of his 15:41 in the second half and scored eight points, but it was mostly his defensive work on Ellis that prompted Popovich to credit him with a “fantastic” game.

Ford also had his best game with the Spurs. He played the entire fourth quarter — all of it in attack mode — and scored seven points, with four assists in the period.

Popovich liked what he saw of the mini-backcourt.

“We needed to chase those guys,” he said. “I wanted to get Tony back in the game, but T.J. was playing great, so we just matched them up that way.”

Duncan recorded his first points-rebounds double-double of the season and was more aggressive in the post than in the first five games.

“You make some shots early and get some double teams,” he said. “I’ve got to do a better job and get more involved in the post and make some moves and make some plays. But a pretty good game all around.”

Ginobili watched the action from behind the bench, leaning in to listen to Popovich’s animated instructions during fourth-quarter timeouts and high-fiving his teammates with his healthy right hand at game’s end.

“Obviously, with Manu out and coming off a loss and just being at home, we needed to protect our home court,” Duncan said. “Good win for us. We find a way to come back, find a way to get some stops and get back into the game.”

Ice earns honorary degree from EMU

Hall of Fame Spurs player George Gervin was awarded an honorary doctorate of education degree from Eastern Michigan University at the school’s most recent commencement ceremonies earlier this week.

Gervin attended Eastern Michigan for two season while heplayed there in 1971-72. He was recognized for his commitment to serving youth in San Antonio through various efforts. 

“I am truly humbled and honored to be the recipient of the honorary doctorate of education from my alma mater, Eastern Michigan University,” said Gervin, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in May of 1996.

And it sounds like officials at his old school were just as happy for Gervin to be honored. 

“It was great to have George Gervin back on Eastern’s campus,” Eastern Michigan University president Susan Martin said. ”His commencement address to students conveyed powerful and important themes about education being a lifelong process, the importance of family, and the value of giving back and volunteering to help your community. We respect the amazing skills he brought to the basketball court here at Eastern and in San Antonio, but even more importantly we admire the efforts of George and his wife, Joyce, to help children and families in San Antonio to better their lives and achieve their dreams.”

It’s a great honor for one of  the most iconic  players in the Spurs’ rich history.