San Antonio Spurs

[jasonrey]

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oh yeah!

[ju-Luis]

daog na gyd tawn... hahaha... larry o`brien trophy watch out, im coming after u agen... hahaha

[tackielarla]

Riding into Indianapolis with a two-game losing streak, the Spurs were able to escape with a shootout victory. Led by Tony Parker's 31 points and ten assists, San Antonio survived a furious rally by the Pacers in the fourth quarter and put just enough point on the board to leave Indiana with the W.

Overall, this isn't a victory to be too thrilled about if you are a Spurs fan. The defense was poor, especially in the second and fourth quarters, and the Spurs needed a heroic five-point flurry from Parker late in the fourth to get on top for good.

As for the Pacers, they deserve a good amount of credit for making life tough on San Antonio's defense. They can go small and put perimeter threats at each position. Indiana also has a number of players who can create off the dribble. If they get hot from the perimeter, there aren't many teams that have the defense that can slow their roll.

The most important aspect of this game was just getting the win. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't Spurs Basketball, but it was a victory. Plus, seeing the offense flowing after the recent struggles was good to see.

-Tim Duncan only played 28 minutes but I thought he looked healthier in his time out on the court. He got a key tip-in late in the game that extended the lead to five points. Duncan's passing was once again very good. However, when isolated against a smaller player on defense, it's still obvious that he has a ways to go before he's back to his usual mobility level. Duncan's speed up and down the court and his side-to-side quickness are still lacking.

-Well, I guess Manu Ginobili is no longer seeing his minutes limited. He led the Spurs with 36 minutes and stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Ginobili also finished the game without a turnover. Offensively, I thought he did well. He picked his spots and his patience was better than we've seen since his return. Defensively, he started off really bad and slowly worked his way up to below average.

-In the last three games, Tony Parker had been tiptoeing his way around the offense. With the Big Three back, he had lost most of his aggressiveness and wasn't creating as much for himself or others. Tonight, he was back to the Parker who has carried the Spurs since the All-Star break. He got a little loose with the ball at times but on the whole I thought he did a very fine job on the offensive end. With the Spurs down by two points and under two minutes to go, Parker hit a three-pointer and then followed it up with a long jumper to put the Spurs up by three. Defensively, while his effort was consistent, the results were often lacking.

-On offense, Michael Finley showed why Pop has seemingly elevated him into the Big Four. Playing 34 minutes, Finley knocked won 7-of-11 shots from the field and his scoring was key to help build the lead in the first three quarters. However, he missed both of his shots in the fourth quarter. Defensive was an entirely different story. Finley got destroyed by Danny Granger repeatedly. Even with foul trouble, Granger put up 35 points. The fact that Finley is being used by Pop as the perimeter stopper right now is perhaps the biggest reason to be concerned about the championship hopes.

-Matt Bonner had a quality performance. He hit his shots offensively and that forced the Pacers to thin out their defense. Bonner also did a good job when defending against smaller players. His rebounding left a lot to be desired but that's been a reoccurring theme for much of the season. After struggling a bit after the signing of Drew Gooden, Bonner now seemingly has his rhythm back. In his last eight games, he's shooting better than 55% from the field.

-Roger Mason, Jr. was once again coming off the bench and might have had his quietest game of the season. I would say he struggled but he didn't do enough in his 22 minutes to classify his game one way or another. He played some point guard in the second half and didn't do a bad job. His defense was a little bit above average. But the Spurs will need him to provide some sort of scoring punch no matter if he's starting or coming off the bench. The team doesn't have enough scoring depth for Mason to dry up at this point.

-Kurt Thomas had a difficult time converting on the offensive end but the rest of his game was really good. He drew a handful of fouls because the undersized Pacers found it impossible to box him out. His seven boards in 21 minutes don't even give the full story of how much he dominated on the glass. It was a good sign to get a quality performance out of Thomas after a pair of quiet affairs.

-Drew Gooden once again showed that he doesn't have a shy bone in his body. In 13 minutes, Gooden poured in 17 points. His scoring came in a variety of ways including jump shots, hooks, moves to the bucket and at the free throw line. I also thought his defense was better than we've seen. All in all, this perhaps Gooden's most promising game to date.

-George Hill didn't play at all in the first half but ended up playing much of the second half. Although he didn't do much, I liked the way he played under control offensively and the pressure he applied defensively. He made a few mistakes but he didn't let it affect his aggression level.

-Jacque Vaughn was the backup point guard in the first half and he didn't do anything out of the ordinary. He ran the team decently well offensively and he provided his usual effort on the defensive end. I am still highly skeptical that his skill level at this point of his career would allow him to be in the rotation on a team with championship aspirations.

-Bruce Bowen got six minutes in the first half and did decent work. Assigned to try to slow Granger, Bowen made life difficult for him. Granger got a bucket after Bowen flopped and another one in transition but otherwise Bowen actually made him work for his positioning on the court.

-Pop had a mixed bag of results. First of all, I liked that he was able to rest Duncan. I thought that he used Gooden wisely. I also thought it was the right move to remove Ime Udoka from the rotation. Giving Ginobili 36 minutes was somewhat risky but at this point Ginobili needs all the minutes he can get until the real season begins. I don't agree with his use of Vaughn as the backup point and I agree even less with Pop splitting the backup point guard minutes. I'm also still baffled by why Finley is the perimeter stopper and why Pop seemingly doesn't care that he gets toasted on that end repeatedly. Oh well, I'll take the win.

Next up, is an afternoon match with the Cavs in Cleveland. It'd be nice to shake off this feeling of uneasiness within Spurs Nation by handing the Cavaliers their second home loss of the season.

Believe.

[MalditohoN]

there are times that the spurs will be relaxed, especially coming from halftime. they should not do that during playoffs! well good luck team!

[tackielarla]

Spurs close door on Pacers, eventually
Jeff McDonald

INDIANAPOLIS — Their big lead had vanished. The home crowd was howling. The Pacers, left for dead just moments earlier, were rolling.

The Spurs had seen this all before.

Change the “Indiana” on the front of their opponents' jerseys, and the Spurs could have been playing Oklahoma City, or New Orleans, or Boston, or Houston.

All those teams had overcome deficits to slip past the Spurs in the past few weeks. The Pacers positioned themselves to join the club late in what seemed like a must-win game for the Spurs Friday night at Conseco Fieldhouse.

“It really didn't look good,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “Then, we showed some character.”

Tony Parker's corner 3-pointer with 1:42 left put the Spurs on top by one, and they held on for 126-121 victory and one huge sigh of relief.

The Spurs had arrived in Indiana following a maddening March in which they lost five of their final nine games, none by more than four points.

Given that recent history, and the tightness of the Western Conference playoff race, the Spurs (49-26) weren't about to quibble with victory — even if they did blow a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and give up their most points to Indiana since 1991.

“They way we've been playing, the losses we've been taking, every win is a good win,” Tim Duncan said. “We've got to get in a rhythm; we've got to get some momentum going. So every win is a good win.”

Parker, the team's bellcow for much of the season, had 31 points and 10 assists and hit the game's two biggest shots. He followed his go-ahead 3-pointer with a pull-up 20-footer that pushed the Spurs' cushion to three.

Duncan ended with 22 points and 11 rebounds. He added numbers to both columns on another key possession, tapping in a Ginobili miss to give the Spurs a 122-117 edge with 31.4 seconds left.

“Tony was great, and Tim was great,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That was the difference.”

Those late-game plays, the likes of which the Spurs had not been making lately, allowed them to salvage a night that, for a moment, appeared to be teetering toward familiar disaster.

The Spurs led 102-88 with 9:24 left, after Ginobili canned a step-back 3-pointer. Over the next 3:45, the Spurs saw all of that lead disappear and then some.

The Pacers (32-44) went small and shot the lights out of the building. An 18-3 run, sparked by 3-pointers from Jarrett Jack, Danny Granger and two by acting center Troy Murphy, had Indiana ahead 106-105 with 5:29 remaining in the game.

Granger finished with 35 points, matching the most tallied by a Spurs' opponent this season, and Jack had 13 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter.

“They were just shooting the ball really well,” Duncan said. “I hate to keep saying that every frickin' game. We did make some defensive mistakes. But all the other shots, they were contested.”

Only moments before the Pacers' big run, the only drama left seemed to be whether Spurs rookie George Hill, an Indianapolis native, would see the floor in his homecoming game (he did). All of a sudden, the Spurs were toying with their first three-game losing streak since opening the season 0-3.

Then, Parker found his range. Duncan found a tip-in. The Spurs came up with enough defensive stops to come back and hold on.

These are the types of flawed victories the Spurs would usually nitpick. Not tonight.

“It was a sweet win,” Ginobili said.

[manuginobili]

go manu go!!!...hahahaha...i love these guys....odd number year!!!...oh yeah!!!...hahahaha

[vcmov_15]

yup its their year kay odd number ra bha... every other year ra bha mu champ ang spurs... but if they are going to the finals this year then they have to play spurs basketball and get healthy... especially manu...

[manuginobili]

yup its their year kay odd number ra bha... every other year ra bha mu champ ang spurs... but if they are going to the finals this year then they have to play spurs basketball and get healthy... especially manu...

lagi...wala pmn sa groove c manu...i thought gni xa 2 ang ma MVP sa '05 nila nga Finals...pro ok ra...its not the individual trophies mn...ehehehe...go spurs go....

[fish]

pildiha ninyo ang cleveland ha... thanks daan... hehehe!

[tackielarla]

Finals preview ni ugma pre!