Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Mavs’ haymakers KO Lakers’ reign

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

DALLAS — The end of an era was sudden and painful for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Crushed by a fusillade of 3-pointers by Dallas Mavericks reserves Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic, the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers on Sunday suffered the second-worst playoff loss in their long history, a 122-86 humiliation that swept them out of the Western Conference semifinals.

As a result, the Mavericks are headed to the Western Conference finals for the fourth time in franchise history, and Lakers Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is headed to retirement with a bitter taste in his mouth.

Jackson’s teams have won 11 NBA titles, but never in his 20 seasons on NBA benches had one of them been swept from a playoff series.

Before Jackson confirmed his intent to retire during his postgame remarks, he called the Mavericks’ performance the best game any team had ever played against one of his teams in a playoff situation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team play to that level in a series in a game like they played this afternoon,” he said. “They were terrific.”

What the Mavericks did best was shoot from long range. Terry missed only one of the 10 3-pointers he launched and scored a game-high 32 points.

Recalling his 32-point performance that led the Mavericks to a Game 1 victory in the 2006 NBA Finals, Terry hedged about calling his uncanny shooting the best of his playoff life. He clearly understood its impact.

? “For the magnitude of this game, to close those guys out, yes, it was a great game,” he said, “so it goes down as one of them. And I’m very thankful that I had the hot hand tonight.”

Stojakovic, the veteran forward the Mavericks signed as a free agent after the Toronto Raptors released him in February, was even more accurate from 3-point range, making all six of his long-distance shots. He scored 21 points.

The Mavericks made 11 3-pointers in the first half, 20 for the game — both numbers matching single-game NBA playoff records.

Amazingly, Dallas’ season scoring leader Dirk Nowitzki attempted, and made, only one 3-pointer. For the first time in one of the Mavericks’ eight playoff victories this spring, he was not his team’s top scorer. He scored only 17 points, trailing Terry, Stojakovic and another reserve, point guard J.J. Barea, who finished with 22 points.

The Lakers had no answer for the Mavericks at either end of the court. Former NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant, a two-time Finals MVP, scored 13 first-quarter points but only four thereafter. He made six of his first eight shots, then missed nine of his next 10. The game’s most feared closer had only two points in the second half.

To Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, his team’s defensive excellence matched the 3-point shooting he called breathtaking.

“You hold this (Lakers) team under 40 percent, it means you’re moving your feet, you’re guarding, and you’re rebounding,” he said. “That fueled a lot of the good things that happened for us offensively.”

By game’s end, Jackson was embarrassed by the lack of composure of center Andrew Bynum and forward Lamar Odom. Both were thrown out of the game — Odom for committing a category-2 flagrant foul on Nowitzki; Bynum for a flagrant-2 on Barea, a foot shorter but far more impactful on a Mother’s Day afternoon.

“I wasn’t happy with the way our players exited the game, on Lamar’s and Andrew’s part,” Jackson said.

Jackson also accused some unnamed players of shrinking from the magnitude of the moment.

“Well, I felt there’s a couple of players who felt daunted by the energy of the game,” he said. “Their game was depressed. There were, personally, a couple of players who didn’t step into the performance that I’d like to see them step into.”

As a result, Jackson steps into retirement, an era ended with minimal resistance and maximum pain.

Memphis blog brother respects Spurs’ historic accomplishments

 Memphis blogger Chip Crain ofprovided some blog fodder earlier in the Memphis series when he ranked Marc Gasol over Tim Duncan and Mike Conley over Tony Parker in some of his positional analysis.

After the way the series played out, Crain’s analysis was spot-on. Even with the strong history from the two key players in the Spurs’ foundation, he was correct that their Memphis counterparts now are better. They certainly played that way in the series.

In his post-series analysis, Crain has some about the Spurs.  He praised Manu Ginobili, Gregg Popovich, Duncan and Parker, along with the Spurs’ organization. In the process, he almost proclaimed brisket as the equal of  the Memphis dry-rub version of barbecue.

But his most prescient comments came when he ended his commentary. It might be something for Spurs Nation to pause and reflect on as they get ready for a long off-season.

“The Spurs never gave up. They never acted immature. They held themselves to higher standard,” Crain wrote. “They showed the same class in defeat as they have shown in their victories in the past. I won’t lie and say I feel sad that the Spurs lost but I do feel honored to have seen such an excellent example of how true champions behave.

“This may one day be looked back on as the end of an era for the Spurs but I hope the way they handled themselves in both victory and defeat will be a lesson for the teams that come. Thank you San Antonio. You have shown our young team how to handle themselves in good times and bad. I can only hope that the Grizzlies handle themselves with the same class that the Spurs have done for the past decade.” 

Here are some other takes from my blog brothers after the end of the Spurs’ season.

  • Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell.com explains why he still would vote R.C. Buford as his NBA Executive of the Year, during the next several months. Varner also proclaims that the Spurs lost the Memphis series
  • Paul Garcia of Project Spurs.com provides a about the Spurs and after the Game 6 loss to Memphis.
  • Grego21 of Pounding the Rock.com relates that Zach Randolph’s domination of the Spurs was reminiscent of the kind of to the rest of the NBA.
  • Craig “Junior” Miller, a noted Spurs fan from way back  and a big-time radio host in Dallas, writes that he’s as Memphis did in the recent series.  
  • Tom Ziller of SB Nation.com details the reasons why the in recent seasons.
  • Secretchord53 of Spurs Dynasty.com relates how the last five minutes of Memphis’ Game 6 victory over the Spurs
  • SilverandblackDavis of Pounding the Rock.com gives us a detailed reflection of the Spurs’ past season, saying that surprising presents sometimes come arrived in .
  • J. Michael Falgoust of USA Today.com writes why the Grizzlies’ series victory over the Spurs .  
  • Paul Eide of Hoops Vibe.com doesn’t expect the Spurs to once the NBA resumes play next season.
  • Wayne Vore of Spurs Planet.com writes that the Spurs’ improbable Game 5 victory helpedto the Grizzlies.  
  • Scrappy-doo of Pounding the Rock.com opines that despite back-to-back championships, the Spurs were a .
  • Josh Guyer of Pounding the Rock.com provides the for the Spurs’ Game 6 loss to Memphis.
  • Alleyoop of Spurs Dynasty.com provides a .
  • The Pro Sports Exchange provides its post-season wrapup on the . 

Pop’s offseason goal: Discover Duncan’s sidekick

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

As he has for 14 years running, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich expects to be able to chisel Tim Duncan’s name into his starting lineup for the 2011-12 campaign, whenever it begins.

Though Duncan has passed his 35th birthday, he remains under contract for next season, and Popovich sees no reason to doubt the two-time MVP will return for another go-round.

“Timmy’s given me no indication he’s considering retiring, or anything like that,” Popovich said.

In what has seemed to be an annual offseason ritual ever since David Robinson hung up his Nikes, the search is on for someone to be Duncan’s frontcourt running mate.

With the playoff wounds inflicted by Zach Randolph and Memphis’ bruising frontcourt still fresh, and with Antonio McDyess all but officially retired, Popovich said this week that finding a partner for Duncan will be the team’s top offseason personnel priority.

The Spurs have not ruled out exploring the trade or free-agent markets to accomplish that goal, once they open for business, but are more likely to look in-house to fill the void.

One returning candidate is 22-year-old DeJuan Blair, an undersized forward at 6-foot-7 who started 65 games, but battled weight issues and fell out of favor in the postseason. Another is 25-year-old Tiago Splitter, a 6-foot-11 former first-round draft pick who arrived last summer amid a frenzy of fanfare only to have his rookie season undermined by alternating spates of injury and inactivity.

Two weeks removed from a playoff ouster, and with plenty of offseason in front of him, Popovich hasn’t committed to anyone just yet. At times, however, he appears willing to talk himself into the dawning of the Splitter era.

“I think Tiago has to be a linchpin for our future here, because he has the size, the length, the toughness, the grit, the consistency,” Popovich said. “He’s going to be a stalwart of this team going forward.”

A limited offensive player, Splitter already has begun offseason work with Spurs shooting guru Chip Engelland to work on his free-throw stroke and to move his game a bit further from the basket. That work, however, is likely to be interrupted when Splitter joins the Brazilian national team for preparations for the Tournament of the Americas later this summer, and won’t resume until the NBA’s collective bargaining issues are settled.

Though Splitter did not spend much time paired with Duncan this season, and doesn’t have a jumper to spread the floor as McDyess did, Popovich thinks the two could coexist. For proof, he points to Fabricio Oberto, a player similar to Splitter who started next to Duncan on the Spurs’ 2007 championship team.

“We played with two bigs before, when Fab was here,” Popovich said. “Fab and Timmy were the starters, and we got it done.”

Splitter appeared in 60 games as a rookie, after missing all of training camp and the preseason with a calf injury. He did not see action in the postseason until Game 4 against Memphis, after which he became a rotation fixture.

“When you miss the entire training camp and you’re a rookie, you’re going to have a tough time in any program,” Popovich said. “After that, he got injured once or twice more. At the time, when he would get a little healthy and be available, we were rolling. DeJuan was starting, so we didn’t change it.”

Blair averaged 8.8 points and 7.3 rebounds as an unorthodox starting center. In mid-March, he was benched in favor of McDyess, whose defensive chops the coaching staff deemed more valuable in the postseason.

After Blair ballooned to nearly 300 pounds late in the season, Popovich challenged him to shed excess weight. In response, Blair dropped 20 pounds by cutting fast food out of his diet.

Heading into the summer, Popovich has challenged Blair again.

Blair’s future with the Spurs, the coach said, is not aligned with “working on his jumper or developing a jump hook. It’s not defense.”

“It’s personal discipline, responsibility and maturity,” Popovich said. “That will get him to the next level. Short of that, he’ll have a hard time.”

As it has been for nearly a decade of offseasons now, when it comes to Spurs’ big men, Duncan is the only sure thing.