Tag: Tyson Chandler

Ginobili hopeful to get touch back

By Jeff McDonald

The Western Conference finals are sure to bring about comparisons between a pair of super subs: Oklahoma City’s James Harden and the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili.

Both are left-handed. Both have NBA Sixth Man of the Year awards on their mantles. Both play with a herky-jerky style that can be murder to defend.

Harden, however, is the one with The Beard.

“Mine doesn’t get that good,” Ginobili said. “I’ve tried.”

One other key difference between the two: only Harden will enter Game 1 on Sunday with soaring confidence.

Ginobili is coming off his second straight poor-shooting series, going 17 for 42 in the second-round sweep of the Los Angeles Clippers.

That included a 6-for-21 showing from 3-point range that dropped his playoff percentage to 25.7 percent (9 of 35).

Asked after practice Wednesday to gauge his confidence level in his jump shot, Ginobili said: “Not the best it’s been.”

“I wasn’t worried against Utah (in the first round), because I didn’t take many (shots),” Ginobili said. “Against the Clippers, I took a few open, and they didn’t go in.”

Despite his shooting woes, Ginobili is averaging 12.8 points, 4.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds in the playoffs. Harden, 22, is averaging 19.1 points, five boards and 3.1 assists off the bench for the Thunder.

For the second time in this postseason, Ginobili is hopeful the start of a new series will change his luck.

“This is a whole new story, a new series, and we don’t care about what happened against Utah or the Clippers,” Ginobili said. “Hopefully, I start off on the right foot.”

Can’t block the truth: Thunder players were thrilled to learn Wednesday that forward Serge Ibaka had been voted to the NBA’s All-Defensive first team by the league’s 30 head coaches.

The notion Ibaka might not have made the first team after leading the league in blocked shots seemed impossible for some players to contemplate.

“Serge was first team?” said teammate Nazr Mohammed, a former Spurs center. “Well, duh. If he wasn’t, then it would have been a travesty.”

Ibaka averaged 3.65 blocks during the regular season, netting double figures three times. Though it wasn’t a factor in All-Defensive team balloting, the 6-foot-10 Ibaka has also logged 33 blocks in nine playoff games so far.

Ibaka’s case for first team was simple, Mohammed said.

“He affects the game without scoring a bucket, and guys like that are first-team All-Defense,” Mohammed said.

Russell Westbrook went even further in his praise of Ibaka’s defensive work.

“I feel he should have been Defensive Player of the Year,” the Thunder’s All-Star point guard said of the award, voted on by media, that went to New York center Tyson Chandler.

Honorable mention: The Spurs did not place a player on the first or second All-Defensive team for the third consecutive season.

Tim Duncan landed in the “also receiving votes” category, garnering five points, including one first-team vote.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Staff writer Mike Monroe contributed to this report.

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals (best-of-7)

Game 1: Sunday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

Game 2: Tuesday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 3: Thursday May 31 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday June 2 – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday June 4 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday June 6 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Odom, Mavs sever ties

Lamar Odom’s brief career with the Dallas Mavericks has come to an end.

ESPN.com reporter Marc Stein reported that Odom and the Mavericks that will allow the disgruntled power forward to leave the team without being released.

“The Mavericks and I have mutually agreed that it’s in the best interest of both parties for me to step away from the team,” Odom said in a statement to ESPN.com.

“I’m sorry that things didn’t work out better for both of us, but I wish the Mavs’ organization, my teammates and Dallas fans nothing but continued success in the defense of their championship.”

After the loss of key components like Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea from their 2011 NBA championship team, Odom was thought to provide some inside muscle for the Mavericks in the defense of their title when he was acquired shortly before the season from the Los Angeles Lakers.

But the 32-year-old Odom has struggled through a miserable season, averaging career-low totals of 6.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game as he has shot 35.2 percent from the field in 50 games.

Sources told ESPN that Odom’s departure will be immediate and that the Mavericks intend to simply list him as inactive for the rest of the season instead of outright releasing him, leaving open the possibility that they could still trade him after the season in conjunction with the draft.

Any team that has Odom on its roster as of June 29 must buy him out by that date for $2.4 million or otherwise accept responsibility for the full $8.2 million that Odom is scheduled to earn in 2012-13.

The Mavericks currently are the No. 7 team in the Western Conference with nine games remaining. They still face a big challenge of making the playoffs with six of their last nine games on the road, including a brutal stretch of four road games in five days later this week.

Getting rid of Odom rids them of an off-the-court headache. And it should allow them to be more unified as they approach the tough finish.

But it will be interesting to see if the Mavericks have enough depth inside to match their playoff run from their championship season.

What do you think Spurs Nation? Are the Mavericks better off without Odom?

Lin was part of Parker’s motivation. But just part.

Tony Parker said the rights things.

He said Jeremy Lin will be a good player. He said he attacked the basket because Tyson Chandler was out. And he said a post-All Star Game slump was reason enough to be ready to play.

I believe all of it.

But Parker keeps up with news around the league, and he’s seen how his peers have reacted to Linsanity. Parker also likes the stage.

So here’s the guess: Parker didn’t need the motivation, but he still used his first game against Lin as another way to find the gear he had lost lately.

It’s all unfair to Lin. He never asked for the attention, and he was never what the publicity made him out to be. Now he’s being treated as if he’s failing, when he’s just another guy trying to earn his place in the league.

“He’s really just a rookie,” Parker said, and he meant that with kindness.

Parker was a rookie once, after all, starting for a contender. But even as a teenager, even running an offense with two Hall of Fame big men, Parker had less pressure than Lin has now.

Lin also has less of a system to work with. Without Chandler, Mike D’Antoni’s defense looked the way it often did in Phoenix. The Spurs shot 54 percent and scored 118 points, and Lin wasn’t responsible for all of that.

Parker scored 32 points, all right, with Lin trying to defend him most of the second half. But Parker also stuck 42 on Russell Westbrook, and Oklahoma City had Serge Ibaka behind him.

As Parker was leaving the locker room Wednesday night, he was asked if he would have still gone to the basket with Chandler playing. Sure, he said, smiling, because he goes to the basket against everyone.

“When you are talking about quickness,” Lin said of Parker afterward, “he is up there with a select few.”

It’s willingness to use that quickness in the lane that got Parker to the All-Star Game again. But it’s as if he relaxed with the honor, most notably against Derrick Rose, and he needed to find the aggression that has made him one of the league’s best. This is where Lin came in.