Spurs Update

Sunday and Monday the Spurs played their last two home games of the season against Cleveland and Portland. Duncan dressed, but would only play if necessary Sunday, as Diaw started in his place. It's really hard to write about these games, and still try to not portray a sense of arrogance, or act as if I know what's going to happen, but things are flowing so well that they're very nearly foregone conclusions. Just as we have the last few weeks, we put up 29 against Cleveland's22 for the 1st-Q.

Just halfway through the 2nd-Q it was pretty obvious by the look of Pop's face, that Timmy may as well go bury himself in a book in the locker room. Manu, Neal, Green, and Jack were all hitting shots, and it was 43-27 before you knew it. The fiesty Cavs would, however, make a run and close to within 52-44 at the break. DeJuan Blair would then score 13 3rd-Q points, as we slowly pulled away to begin the 4th-Q at 81-70.

I think both Manu & Jackson were extra-determined, because they were huge factors in extending a late 3rd-Q 9-pt.
Manu made it clear: "I'm ready!" - Via (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

lead to 20 with 5:11 left. Jackson had 13 of his 17 in the 4th. Trying to make NBA history by winning 6 straight games by 21+, the Spurs would fall short of the record, but the 114-98 WIN was nothing to slouch about. Not our best game of the last several, but we still shot 55%, shot 40% from three, out-rebounded and out-assisted our opponent. Five players in double-figures, and ten scored 7 or more. Here is the boxscore..

_____________________________________________________________________________


The next night with Portland coming to the AT&T Center, most of us were remembering a Feb. 21 trip to Portland in which Pop rested Duncan & Parker, with Manu & Tiago both hurt. Oh, we also had an 11-game winning streak on the line, but Pop let it go by the wayside in order to have our guys rested as much as he wanted them. We lost by 40. So yeah, you bet we'd be at full-strength - at least for a while.

Danny Green started us off with two threes. The team was solid, and the Blazers weren't hitting anything. 27-10 it was with more than 2 minutes left in the first. A little Portland run closed the 1st-Q at 31-18, but Splitter & Green would come out with 6-straight (37-18), followed by 10-straight from Babbitt & Flynn (37-28)! Then Neal & Green would score 8-straight, and our lead was 45-28. It was at this point when the Blazers were already looking gassed. Tony, Timmy, Neal, & Jack kept up the aggression towards a 63-41 halftime lead.

Danny Green had a perfect night - Via (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Duncan would play sparingly from here on out, but of course, Pop still needs to keep him in "game-shape", and when he was in he dominated (26 min. 18 pts. 8 reb. 4 blk. on 8 of 13 shooting). By the end of the 3rd-Q it was obviously our game, and a little more-so (91-65). In almost back-to-back plays, a Diaw assist to James Anderson was very Globetrotter-like, followed by a sweet right-handed tip-in rebound from Manu.

Portland continued to turn it over, miss shots, relax on D, and we continued to score at will by this point. Jack hit 6, Anderson hit 5 more quick ones, and then Patty Mills entered to get some revenge on his former team - and he did so with 3 4th-Q threes. Everything was clicking as we closed out our regular-season at home with a 37-pt. beatdown WIN vs. the Trailblazers 124-89. Season-high 34 assists on 48 FGs - this with Tony playing only 22 minutes. SIX players in double-figures, and two more with 9 & 8 respectively. Oh yeah, and Manu also had 6-2-3-2 in 17 fully-charged minutes. Here's the boxscore..

With this, our 31st double-digit win of the season (NBA best), we secured the #1 Western Conference Seed. Already leading the NBA in both shooting and 3-pt. shooting, the Spurs are also now fractions of a point behind Denver for the highest-scoring team in the NBA, after averaging 116+ ppg the last eight games, and 112.3 in our last 22 wins (a 22-5 stretch), and 108.5 in our last 31 games overall (25-6). No, these are not the Spurs of old. Old? And no we're not old, either.

The last two games are at Phoenix, and at Golden State. I do not expect many - IF ANY - minutes from Tim, Tony, or Manu. They may not even travel. The #1-seed is already ours, and barring the challenge with the Bulls for the best overall record, I know Pop isn't going to go overboard in these last two games. We know he has a much larger goal in mind.

Spurs Update

This past Tuesday and Wednesday the San Antonio Spurs braced themselves for back-to-back road games at Cleveland and at Boston. We've only had one game in the last five days (two days of rest on both sides), so we should definitely be ready to rumble.

Tuesday night in Cleveland Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard started us off with several early buckets, just before Tony & Tim were successful in most of the next several trips down the floor, as we took an early lead
Image Source (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

25-16. Manu, Jack, and Neal would pile it on for a 32-18 1st-Q lead. Tiago Splitter would have a great 2nd-Q, and help the Spurs to a 19-point 60-41 halftime lead. This was a quarter that also saw Daniel Green hit 2 more threes for a total of four for the first half!

Anthony Parker would lead a Cavs' charge to open the 2nd half, as they would pinch the lead down to 14. Tony Parker was not to be denied, however, as his 10 early 3rd-Q points, along with James Anderson's 5 would lead the Spurs to a serious 27-point lead (90-63). Enter Patty Mills.

Having already relieved TP for a solid 7 points late in the 3rd-Q, Mills would score another 13 in the 4th for an incredible 20-2-2 line on 8 of 11 shooting (4 of 5 from three). Blair & Neal had super 4th-Q's as well as the lead would balloon to as much as 37. Wow. The Cavaliers were never in this game, although to their credit, they had seven players in double figures - led by Antawn Jamison (15). We out-shot the Cavs 59%-42%, 46-27 rebs., 31-23 assts., and hit 11 of 23 from three - a nice 48%. The 125-90 beatdown WIN was an example of the way we should be beating almost every team right now. Here's the boxscore..

That would be 8 in a row, now.

___________________________________________________________


Wednesday night in Boston things didn't come quite as easy. The Celtics have been playing very well lately, having won their last 5, and 7 of 8. They would also get Ray Allen back tonight after several games with an injured ankle. Kevin Garnett would come out angry, and make almost everything he put up for the first several minutes. Boston would jump out to a quick 16-11 lead. Resilient, Parker, Splitter, and Jackson would lead the Spurs on a 16-4 run to close the 1st-Q for a
Image Source (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

27-20 lead. But then the Celtics would make the game close again very quickly, as Avery Bradley would nail 11-straight for them. He's a good player. (Former UT product!) The Spurs, however, would go on another serious 14-2 run to take the 36-36 tie to a 50-38 lead. Bonner, Neal, & Duncan were key in this little run. Danny Green would close out the exciting half with a three, and the 59-48 lead.

As fun as this has been so far, the 3rd-Q was probably the worst Q of basketball we've played this season. And it wasn't just us. Boston was "playing along" and supplemented our sloppiness with more sloppiness. For the quarter, it was Boston 16, Spurs 9. Six Spurs' turnovers, many bad decisions, and ...well you didn't miss anything at all if you missed this Q. I think we were scoreless for 8 total minutes in 2 separate stretches of the 3rd.

So holding a 4-pt. lead, the energy for the 4th-Q was.. no different. We continued to turn it over. But the good thing is Boston continued to miss shot after shot, and I remember thinking "how in the world are we up by 13???". Our scoring was spotty, as Boston started to make the shots they got, and would be within 2 at 70-68. After a dominant Splitter drive to take a 77-70 lead, we would again go scoreless for almost 4 minutes. This is the 3rd serious scoring drought of this game, and this is alarming. Manu would finally sink the toughest shot of the season, but a few seconds later, Boston would take their first lead since 18-17 in the 1st-Q (81-79).

After a clutch Duncan jumper, Brandon Bass would again hit a shot to take a 2-pt lead. But Gary Neal nailed the three we were expecting to give us the 1-pt lead at 84-83. A sweet defensive stop later, Timmy would hit 1 of 2 FTs, and then after a second critical D-stop again, Matt Bonner nailed a 10-footer from the block on a crazy pass from Manu, and our lead was 87-83. After a timeout, one of the best shooters in the game, Ray Allen hit the three they needed (87-86), and with 16 seconds, Danny Green missed a three that would've clinched it.

Celtics had one last play, but Paul Pierce missed his fade-away jumper on the drawn-up play. And we got away with one: An 87-86 WIN with a terrible 2nd half that consisted of a measly 28 points. We had 5 guys in double figures, and killed them on the boards 53-39, but 17 TOs, and 7 of 28 from three is no good at all.. not to mention only 17 assists. TP and Manu both had bad games the same night, and we still won, so yeah.. we're lucky tonight. Here's the boxscore..

And that's 9-straight. OKC lost at Miami tonight, so we are now tied in the loss column. Sweet!

Here are the current NBA standings, courtesy of ESPN Dot Com.

LeBron: No One Should Wear 23 Anymore

In a post-game interview with NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager, LeBron James was recorded claiming he doesn't feel anyone in the league should ever wear #23 again. This was James' response when asked how he felt about Michael Jordan being present at the game to watch him go head-to-head against Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade. He mentioned it would be easy for him to change his number to 6, the number he's worn for USA Olympic basketball.

When asked what team will be creating this new #6 for him, he declined to comment - as he's doing for months. No doubt he's bothered by that possibility, but obvious to most he could pretty much write his own contract.

By the way, I happen to agree with LeBron. The number 23 should be permanently retired.

ESPN's Game page

Surely I'll be updating this post. Click on LeBron up above to read Ohio.com's first-news take on the story. I got my info from the actual live ESPN post-game interview.