San Antonio Spurs

[kamote_kid]

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Roger Mason Jr. is starting to build a reputation as one of the better clutch players in the NBA.

I don't think there is another team in the NBA who is better than the Spurs in picking and turning players into good contributors. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili where nobodies in terms of NBA basketball when the Spurs picked them, 29th and 57th in the draft and look at them now. Matt Bonner and Roger Mason also got big breaks with the Spurs this season, these are no big players when they played for other teams. Rookie George Hill is also a surprise this season. Nobody knew him before he played good basketball for San Antonio. With his age, Michael Finley is supposed to be heading the retirement door if he's playing for other teams but the Spurs still find ways of utilizing him.. and his experience and leadership.

Gregg Popovich is a very great tactician and mentor, there's no surprise seeing San Antonio still dominate despite of their age.

[koontz_circle]

where is the Lakers? I think Mason give them some ******

[tackielarla]

nakataghap napud!!!hehehe

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

[tackielarla]

New Spurs preserve old rivalry
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns


SAN ANTONIO – Kobe Bryant channeled his inner Sam Cassell, dancing along the sideline, serving up a healthy plate of huevos grandes moments after he had driven a 3-point dagger into the heart of South Texas. Roger Mason Jr. watched Bryant taunt the crowd. As he turned to walk toward the bench, the newest member of the San Antonio Spurs knew what he wanted.

A chance.

That’s all the Spurs have ever wanted against Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, and what happened next explains why they woke up Thursday morning thinking they still have one. Mason walked back onto the court, caught a pass that wasn’t supposed to go to him, stuck his hip into Derek Fisher and threw in an 18-footer. This time, unlike eight months earlier, the whistle blew.


“We’re fortunate,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after Mason’s three-point play with 10.5 seconds left handed the Lakers just their seventh loss of the season. “What goes around comes around.”

For more than a decade now, it’s been this way between these teams. The Spurs swept the Lakers from the playoffs on their way to a championship in 1999. When they met again two years later, the Lakers returned the favor. Robert Horry’s final-second 3-pointer, one of the last he took for L.A., dropped three-quarters of the way through the rim before popping out to give the Spurs a series-turning Game 5 victory in 2003. In Game 5 the following year, Fisher stunned the Spurs with his .4 heroics.

Then came last season’s Western Conference finals. Stretched to a seventh game by the New Orleans Hornets, forced to spend the night on their grounded jet, the Spurs staggered into Los Angeles, took a 20-point lead and watched Bryant rush the Lakers past them. Down two in Game 4, Brent Barry spotted up for the potential winning shot and watched Fisher land on his shoulder. No foul came, and the league later announced its officiating crew blew the call.

So when Trevor Ariza drove into a crowd of Spurs on Wednesday’s final possession? And was whistled for a travel when the Lakers thought he had been tripped?

Bryant shrugged.

“It’s the least we can do to return the favor,” he said, “after Fish .4-ed them.”

The Lakers have little reason to fret over the loss. If anything, it further emboldened them. They came to San Antonio 24 hours after a tough victory in Houston, missing three rotation players, and still erased an 11-point deficit against a healthy team that had enjoyed two days of rest. Lamar Odom’s bruised knee hasn’t completely healed and Fisher had to leave briefly Wednesday after tweaking his groin. Yes, the Lakers are hurting. But neither their injuries nor their loss to San Antonio blemishes their best-in-the-West status. When the Spurs visit L.A. in 10 days, the verdict could be decidedly different.

As Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, “We won everything but the free-throw line.”

Still, Jackson and Bryant also know these games against the Spurs often come down to one free throw, one shot, one call, and that’s why San Antonio sees reason to believe. After all, isn’t Mason growing into Big Shot Jr.?

Robert Horry was in the building on Wednesday, sitting in the box of Spurs general manager RC Buford. He built a career with similar heroics, and he smiled after the thrilling finish.

Mason doesn’t have Horry’s seven rings. He’s appeared in just 10 playoff games, and June heat has a way of melting the hearts of even the most experienced players.

But so far for these Spurs, Mason has looked smart and fearless. Ask the Phoenix Suns. Mason ruined their Christmas with a 3-pointer at the buzzer. He buried another winning three with 8.4 seconds left to beat the Clippers in November.

“He has the confidence to do it,” Popovich said, “and he has the license to do it.”

That says something considering Mason shares the floor with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Spurs officials would like to tell you they knew Mason was this cold-blooded, but they didn’t. Mason might not have even known, having spent the past two seasons with the Washington Wizards and Gilbert Arenas.

“Gilbert wouldn’t let me take that shot with him on the floor,” Mason said. “And then when he was gone, Caron Butler wouldn’t let me take the winning shot with him on the floor.”

Still, the Spurs have long seen something in Mason. They worked him out in their gym in the summers of ’06 and ’07, but never extended the type of guaranteed offer to make him stay. Assistant coach Mike Budenholzer continued to push for Mason. Popovich and Buford listened.

“He was one of those players that Pop talked about,” Ginobili said.

After flirting with Corey Maggette and J.R. Smith this past summer, the Spurs handed Mason a two-year, $7.3 million contract. More than a few rival execs thought San Antonio overpaid. But in a season of high-priced busts (Maggette, Baron Davis and Elton Brand to name a few), has any free agent produced more value for the dollar?

Mason wasn’t the only bargain the Spurs found over the summer. Rookie George Hill was taken late in the first round and looked ready to play himself off the roster after one summer-league game. Now he gives the Spurs a steady 12-15 minutes a night backing up Parker.

Neither Hill (10 points and four rebounds) nor Mason, who made three 3-pointers among his 18 points, looked rattled against the Lakers. Another sign of how much the Spurs have changed: Mason was assigned as the primary defender on Bryant. Bruce Bowen, who has shadowed Bryant for eight seasons, left his seat on the bench for all of six minutes.

Mason didn’t do much to deter Bryant, but he’s at least quickly learned how much the Spurs value defense. During Sunday’s loss to the Orlando Magic, he blew a key possession by doubling Dwight Howard at the expense of leaving J.J. Redick for an open 3-pointer. Popovich promptly sat Mason.

“Everything here is a learning process,” Mason said. “It’s all about building up for the playoffs.”

Until then, the Spurs will likely chase the Lakers. They can’t match L.A.’s depth or length, and that’s why they’ve made no secret of their desire to add another big man, preferably one who can space the floor, before the trade deadline. The problem: About 25 other teams could use the same, and the Spurs don’t have much to offer in return. As unlikely as a reunion with Horry is, team officials won’t say they’ve completely ruled it out.

For now, January victories don’t mean much in either San Antonio or Los Angeles. But the Spurs saw a few reasons to think they’ll be a factor when the playoffs begin. Duncan just missed a triple-double, and Ginobili – who limped through the Lakers series on an injured left ankle – finally looked like the player who led them for much of last season, scoring 27 points in a dazzling performance.

“Playing a team like the Lakers … it made me feel good,” Ginobili said. “And I used it.”

The Lakers and Spurs usually bring out the best in each other, and their latest meeting was no different. Seconds after Ariza drained a 3-pointer over him, Ginobili answered from 29 feet at the third-quarter buzzer. Duncan threw in a shot over his shoulder while stumbling away from the basket. Bryant followed with his dagger.

“This is the highest level of play I’ve seen from two teams all season,” one scout said.

Mason got his first taste of the rivalry when he bought a ticket to Game 5 of last season’s West finals while visiting Los Angeles. He watched the Lakers run over the Spurs to close out the series, not knowing he would decide their next meeting.

So eight months later and 12 seconds left, there stood Mason. Bryant had just silenced the frenzied crowd, and Popovich drew up a play to put the game in Ginobili’s hands. The newest Spur walked out of the huddle and told himself this: If I get the ball, I’m shooting.

Mason got his chance. Come May, he just might give the Spurs theirs.

[tackielarla]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailyd...ge=dime-090115



Mason Provides Exciting Ending To Spurs' Win Over Lakers
Stein

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Archive)

SAN ANTONIO -- He makes the big shots and gets the crunch-time call when he collides in midair with Derek Fisher.

Looks like Roger Mason is a bigger free-agent steal than the San Antonio Spurs had ever allowed themselves to believe.

So we have to talk about that first.

Remember that Mason dagger from the corner that beat Phoenix at the buzzer on Christmas Day? That was a yawn compared to the wild scenes of Wednesday night, when Mason was not only asked to replace Bruce Bowen as the Spurs' primary Kobe Bryant defender but also intersected in the final seconds with the most notorious Spurs Killer not named Kobe Bryant ... and out-Fishered him.

"Typical Spurs-Lakers stuff," Bryant said with a smile, trying to shrug off the crazy back-and-forth of a final 28.9 seconds that somehow left San Antonio clinging to a 112-111 victory.

"That's how it is," Kobe continued. "I hope they get it out of their system and there are no bullets left."

It was the first encounter for these teams since last spring's Western Conference Finals ... and it was honestly more than anyone could have hoped for. Except that the amazing ending to this game of ridiculously good execution and shot-making really wasn't so typical.

Not in this building. Not when Fisher's involved. Surely you're aware, if you've followed this Spurs-Lakers stuff with any regularity, that it's rare when the final play doesn't go Fisher's way at the AT&T Center.

Exhibit A for the forgetful: Fisher's crushing shot to beat the Spurs in Game 5 of a second-round series in 2004 after catching, spinning and shooting with four-tenths of a second on the clock. Exhibit B: Fisher landing on Brent Barry -- but avoiding a whistle -- on the last shot in Game 4 of the 2008 conference finals.

Asked to do a little reflecting after the crowd around his locker dispersed late Wednesday, Fisher conceded: "I guess I've been involved in some interesting moments here."

This, however, is January.

So ...

Sweet as it was for the Spurs to see Mason (18 points) shake free from Fisher near the baseline, gather Matt Bonner's hurried fastball pass and do what Barry couldn't -- initiate contact but also draw the foul as he banged home a long jumper that put him on the line for the decisive point -- there is only so much vengeance San Antonio can claim from a regular-season game. Even an extraordinary regular-season game during which Bryant, before Mason's magic, responded to Tim Duncan's go-ahead heave in the lane by splashing in his own 3-pointer from the left wing with 12.9 seconds remaining.

Which brings us to Part 2 of this tale.

That would be the part about the Lakers looking so good with three regulars out and dressing only eight guys Phil Jackson trusted to play on the second night of a back-to-back. (Fine: It's nine if you count Sun Yue's 82-second stint.)

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said something afterward about how "what goes around comes around," in an apparent reference to San Antonio's luck with Fisher, but Pop's words were a lot louder last week when he said of the purple and gold: "We're just not in the same league with the Lakers right now."

You have to wonder how he sees it after this.

Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton are sidelined by injury. Odom isn't all the way back after rushing back this week from a bruised knee after sitting out just three games. Fisher managed to suffer a groin injury during Wednesday's busy proceedings but was cleared to return for the finish after some quickie treatment from Lakers flexibility specialist Alex McKechnie.

Yet none of that stopped the Lakers, after winning the previous night in Houston, from finding the gas to erase San Antonio's 11-point lead with 6:55 to play.

"That was a big game for us," Jackson said. "This was a game that I was proud of the guys for coming back and playing like that. [San Antonio has] been here for three days waiting for us."

So Jackson could live with the Lakers' final possession, when San Antonio forced the ball out of Bryant's hands, only for Trevor Ariza to be hit with a traveling call as he drove to the bucket. He saw no need to chastise Bryant for what turned out to be a premature rendition of Sam Cassell's infamous celebration dance, after Kobe's 3 put L.A. up 111-109. Like Popovich with Mason, Jackson clearly enjoyed having options -- such as using the long-limbed Ariza to guard Parker or putting Andrew Bynum (18 points) on Duncan -- that he didn't have in May.

The comeback, even in defeat, might have made a louder statement about L.A.'s well-chronicled depth than anything we've seen all season. The rally actually gathered steam when Kobe found himself running side pick-and-rolls in crunch time with the little-used Josh Powell on back-to-back possessions ... both of them ending with Powell leaving his hand in the air to punctuate a drained mid-range jumper after rolling into daylight and getting the ball from the blitzed Bryant.

Let's be clear here: San Antonio should get a tangible boost from pulling this one out. Manu Ginobili scored a season-high 27 points -- which included a buzzer-beating 3 to cap an equally chaotic final minute of the third quarter -- with the sort of power in his legs that we never saw when the teams met in the playoffs. Duncan had two big buckets in the final 1:15 and quietly flirted with a triple-double (20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists). The Spurs also indoctrinated rookie George Hill to the rivalry with 14 quality minutes and wound up enhancing Mason's growing reputation to the point that no one even remembered to ask Popovich why Bowen received only six minutes off the bench.

Yet it's no secret in NBA front-office circles that the Spurs, in spite of their limited trade assets, hope to acquire at least one more quality player before the Feb. 19 trade deadline. It would be tough, on this evidence, to dispute the theory that they'll need another big man or another scoring threat to move into what Pop is now referring to as the Lakers' league.

That's especially true if the Lakers -- given all of their health issues -- can bank on the following claim from Bryant as L.A. prepares for two more immediate challenges: Orlando visits Staples Center on Friday, followed by Cleveland on Monday.

Before racking up 29 points, 10 assists and seven boards in defeat, when asked in a pregame chat if he can withstand L.A.'s wave of injuries, Kobe said: "I feel as good as I've felt in a long time."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

[skyblue_lord]

nkataghap jud ang spurs.....dah.........

[tackielarla]

nkataghap jud ang spurs.....dah.........

Maayoha jud nimo mu-analyze bro...

[Archer sensAtion]

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mura pildi na jud ang Spurs vs Sixers...

tabla na sila ug pildi sa Nuggets (13)...hehehehhe


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[sadahkingjam]

toing manday huyang ang team napildi hinoon...

[EvenStar]

oi na piti man sa Sixers,winning streak unta to sa Spurs.sayang!!