Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Duncan: Sink or swim time for Spurs bench

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Two days away from playing the first game of his 15th season, Spurs captain Tim Duncan has declared himself fit, fresh and deeply concerned about the team’s depth.

A 66-game schedule being shoe-horned into 121 days will require the Spurs to play 17 sets of back-to-back games and two sets of back-to-back-to-backs.

It is one of the NBA’s most demanding schedules, and Duncan understands it will require more playing time from reserves.

“We’re going to find out if guys can play, if guys are ready to go, ready to contribute, because we’re going to have to use a lot of guys,” he said. “Whether you want to or not, you’re going to have to put guys out there and let them sink or swim.

“It’s not just our team. Everybody’s going to break down. Everybody’s going to need a deep team. That’s what it’s going to come down to.”

Duncan is one of only four big men on the Spurs roster with NBA experience, along with DeJuan Blair, Matt Bonner and Tiago Splitter. Two more big men, power forward Frank Hassell and center Luke Zeller, remain on the roster on make-good contracts.

“We need some guys to step up, a lot of guys,” Duncan said. “We’re going to need some of our bench to find their way and find their rhythm and help us out a lot. That will have to answer itself here come season time.

“We’ll have to figure out who’s going to be out there and who can give us some help, game in and game out, because it’s going to be a lot of games in not a lot of days and that depth is really going to make a difference.”

Blair’s answer: Blair, likely the starting center on opening night, has a fresh idea about how to make certain Duncan is fresh for the playoffs.

“We are going to play Tim a couple of games,” he said. “It’s 66 games in 120 days. That’s wild. I would rather Tim would sit out until the playoffs. We just have to get there first. That’s my big brother. I don’t want him to get hurt. I’m saving him.”

Of course, the Spurs’ chances of making the playoff field in the Western Conference are minuscule if Duncan plays only “a couple of games,” as Blair knows.

“He’s good and he wants to play every game if his body lets him,” Blair said. “It’s Pop’s decision and he’s going to be all right. I’ve got his back.”

Ho-ho-ho: The Spurs will practice today, but Popovich is giving his players a day off to celebrate Christmas. The truncated training camp means there hasn’t been a special emphasis on preparation for Monday’s game.

“It’s everything,” Popovich said, “squeezing a lot into a short time. We’re also not trying to go too fast. We all have to try and gauge what we think we can get in well, instead of what we think we can get in sloppily. It will take time.”

With two rookies on the roster and a new backup point guard, T.J. Ford, there has been plenty of teaching to get done in the short camp.

“They’ve been pretty efficient,” Popovich said of his new players. “The young guys are good people, good character, willing participants. I think they’re figuring things out pretty quickly.”

Spurs have their way with new-look Clippers

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

A crowd of reporters and camera operators formed a semi-circle around DeJuan Blair’s locker after the undersized center proved you don’t have to leap over a car to help the Spurs beat the Clippers.

Faced away from prying eyes and ears, Blair tied his shoes while teammate T.J. Ford told him he was about to be a local media star.

“I don’t want to be famous,” Blair said to his new backup point guard. “I just want to be regular old DeJuan, too fat to do anything good.”

Blair’s not fat, but he is a wide-bodied big man who admits he can’t jump like Blake Griffin, the Clippers All-Star who soared over a sedan to win last season’s dunk contest.

On Wednesday at the ATT Center, Blair’s earth-bound game was plenty enough. He scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds in a 115-90 Spurs victory, and there was not much Griffin could do about it.

The victory extended the Spurs’ home-court mastery of the Clippers to 17 games. L.A. last won here on Jan. 31, 2002.

There was an expectation that Wednesday’s game would be more difficult than the previous 16. The Clippers had added two All-Star guards, Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups, and another standout starter, Caron Butler, who the Spurs tried to recruit as a free agent.

It didn’t matter, not with Blair countering most of what Griffin did and Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson combining to make 8 of 12 on 3-pointers.

Off to a 2-0 start, the easy victory even allowed coach Gregg Popovich to curtail the court ? time for his starters, none of whom played more than 27 minutes.

The 6-foot-10 Griffin, who was the No. 1 overall pick in a 2009 draft in which Blair fell to the Spurs in the second round, scored 28 points in 33 minutes. Blair needed little more than 26 minutes to record the sixth 20-point game of his career.

“DeJuan was great,” said Tim Duncan, one of six Spurs who scored in double figures. “He made some great shots in there. He was solid on Blake. He rebounded the ball well and just picked up where he left off last year.

“He gets you those points you don’t count on and continues to attack and continues to be aggressive. He was big for us.”

Duncan’s not sure how the 6-7 Blair accomplishes what he does around the basket.

“You know what?” Duncan said. “He’s done it all his life. He doesn’t know any other way to do it, and he’s very good at it. He’s got a great touch and a great feel for the game. You can’t teach that to people. He just knows how to do it.”

Blair said he would challenge Griffin, whom he counts among his good basketball friends, and that’s what he did. He backed up his pledge, finding ways to score against him and 7-foot Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.

“I just try to read them,” Blair said. “They are very athletic and jump very high. I can jump a little bit, but it’s all about reading them. I’m undersized. I just try to find little schemes and everything to get around the taller defenders, and that’s what I try to do.

“I watch a lot of Charles Barkley and Karl Malone and try to do that, try to get a little shot. But I’m doing good and doing great with what I’m doing, so I’m good.”

What Blair was doing included hitting scoop shots, putbacks and even a fadeaway jumper from the baseline that he called “a little something coming out of my bag.”

Joseph expected to meet Spurs in Houston

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

When the Spurs arrive in Houston late Friday afternoon on their first road trip of the 2011-12 NBA preseason, they expect to be joined by their newest official teammate, Cory Joseph.

Having missed all of training camp to date while clearing immigration issues, Joseph traveled Thursday from San Antonio to his native Toronto to pick up a work visa. His return flight to the U.S. was booked to land in Houston, where he was to meet the rest of the Spurs in advance of Saturday’s preseason opener against the Rockets.

Joseph, the former Texas point guard the Spurs took 29th in the June draft, was unable to begin the process for obtaining his work visa until the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement was ratified Dec. 8. He has been in San Antonio awaiting a resolution since camp began last Friday.

Barring a last-minute snag, Joseph’s first official Spurs practice would be at shootaround in Houston on Saturday morning. He would need to sign his rookie-scale contract before taking the court.

NOVAK BACK: Forward Steve Novak, who played 23 games with the Spurs last season, was back at the practice site Thursday awaiting formal approval of a contract. He wasn’t able to practice until the contract was signed, which occurred later in the day. He will be with the traveling party for the trip to Houston.

A 6-foot-10 sharpshooter from Marquette, Novak has played parts of four seasons in the NBA for the Rockets, Clippers, Mavericks and Spurs. He came to the Spurs on a 10-day contract on Feb. 8, was re-signed to a second 10-day deal on Feb. 18 and then signed for the remainder of the season. He averaged 4.0 points per game and made 23 of 42 3-point shots.

SPECIAL CAMARADERIE: Antoine Hood, the 6-foot-4 guard added to the training camp roster on Tuesday, hopes to follow a path to the NBA similar to that of his head coach.

Like Gregg Popovich, Hood graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and served five years in the Air Force before looking to make basketball a career.

Popovich acknowledges the bond all Academy graduates feel for one another.

“Whenever you see an Academy grad, you feel a special camaraderie with him or her,” he said. “It doesn’t matter which Academy it is, because everybody respects what each other went through. He’s done his service and he wanted an opportunity to come out and display his talents, so it’s fun for me to bring him out here and let him go.”

Hood was part of an Air Force Academy team that made it to the NCAA tournament in 2006 under the guidance of former Nuggets head coach Jeff Bzdelik.

During his senior season at Air Force, Hood said Popovich’s career provided motivation that he might someday get a shot at playing in the NBA.

“Coach Popovich is the epitome of what the Air Force Academy stands for,” Hood told the Express-News in a 2005 interview. “And it’s something to look forward to. Knowing that Gregg Popovich wound up in the NBA, maybe I could do that some day.”