San Antonio Spurs

[aykiman]

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Timmy still has 3 years in his contract; him and Manu will be back next season healthier and stronger. They will sign a big name next season (considering the savings they had with Tim's contract). The FO WILL give Timmy his 5th and last ring, even if they have to move heaven and earth for that.

ganahan gihapon ko na maka-champion si duncan bisan kausa nalang tungod ato iyang gibuhat na dawat lang siyag gamay na sweldo..

paytir kaayo to na move para niya..

[vcmov_15]

boy they love Timmy that much. the spurs will not be the same without tim that's for sure. and they are less when manu is not around.

[tackielarla]

When the wolf howls, will Spurs have a hero?
Mike Finger

Gregg Popovich said he doesn't want a hero, but that's a tough sell. His players already see the villain coming.

They see him coming not only in the form of Kobe and Yao, but also under the guise of stress fractures and creaky knees. And they see themselves, for maybe the first time in nine years, as vulnerable. One day, they lose their furnace. The next, they realize the foundation they've leaned on for a decade is no longer a given.

“And without a foundation,” Spurs forward Bruce Bowen said Wednesday night, “the big, bad wolf is going to blow the house down.”

That Bowen chose a parable featuring three protagonists is appropriate, but not exactly inspirational. The third little pig got along fine on his own, but there's no way Tony Parker can survive when Manu Ginobili's ankle is made of straw and Tim Duncan's tendons flame up like sticks.

So when Popovich called for Duncan only 32 seconds after sending him onto the floor in the fourth quarter of a 95-83 loss to Portland on Wednesday, Duncan wasn't ready to believe his coach. Popovich, convinced after watching his aching star chase in vain a loose ball that he wasn't fit to finish the game, told Duncan when he came to the bench, “I don't want a hero; I want a healthy guy.”

Duncan didn't say a word.

His silence continued through the postgame, when he chose not to speak to the media, but his message was clear anyway.

A hero?

That's the bare minimum of what the Spurs need now.

A fifth championship was going to be unlikely even with Duncan playing at 100 percent, and Popovich admitted that much last month. Then, when talking about Ginobili, he said, “We're not going anywhere if he's not healthy.”

With that in mind, maybe Popovich is already thinking about the big picture. Those 32 seconds in the fourth quarter were enough for him to decide that winning Wednesday's game wasn't worth risking his future Hall of Famer's health, and perhaps this postseason will unfold the same way.

A few weeks from now, Duncan will want to play 40 minutes for the fourth time in eight days in New Orleans, or in Houston, or in Utah. And Popovich will have to talk to him again about heroes, and how they're not needed.

He'll have his reasons. Sean Elliott once had quadriceps tendonosis, the same ailment plaguing Duncan, and he needed surgery to correct it. Given that and the fact that Ginobili won't be around, would an extra month of rehab time in May be the worst thing for Duncan and the Spurs?

It will be another tough sell, especially for a guy who already sees his championship window closing. Duncan doesn't want to give away any winning opportunities — however remote — even though, as Parker pointed out Wednesday, “People don't realize Timmy's playing on one leg.”

If Ginobili was still around, one leg from Duncan might be enough. His numbers have been solid even as his knees have not, and he's always been able to find something in reserve for the playoffs. This time, though, he'll have to overcome more than defenses geared to stop him.

He'll have to handle near-constant pain, and the absence of one of the other three pigs, and a coach sometimes determined to prevent him from taking the floor. There could soon be another moment when Duncan glares at Popovich as he did Wednesday, and the next time, the big, bad wolf will be there, too.

That's when Popovich will know for sure about heroes, and whether he wants one.

[kamikaze426]

I dont like the Spurs chances if injured si Duncan and Ginobili nig playoffs. But Spurs being the spurs, they will make the adjustments.

[ju-Luis]

it aint over til its over.. go spurs go!!.. upset in the making na ni klaro kaayo..

[tackielarla]

Spurs will pay now -- and perhaps later -- for Ginobili's injury woes
Scott Howard-Cooper

And so they will be dismissed again. For what may be the 10th time in 10 years, the Spurs will be ruled out as a title contender by national acclamation, even though three of those seasons ended with San Antonio championships, obviously the result of luck or bribery or the rest of the league not trying too hard.

Except that the spring of 2009 is different. Manu Ginobili is done for the season after the stiffness in his right ankle during Sunday's game against the Cavaliers was found Monday to be a stress fracture that will not require surgery but will demand consideration of his future dependability. In a related development, the dismissers have called their meeting to order.

That's the news of the week, except that it's not.

News of the months is more like it. Losing Ginobili is an early tipping point for the entire playoffs, removing the Spurs from legit-contender status, and this time, in one of the few times, not just because it's tradition to give up on them.

This goes so much deeper than what the injury means in April and May, though, with the potential of an ailing Ginobili affecting future seasons in a ripple effect. This makes serious injuries to both ankles since last summer for someone at his best when he plays with his hair on fire.

The Spurs say Ginobili should be ready next season, so no gloomy predictions that the stress fracture is career threatening. San Antonio's string of odd-year championships -- 2003, '05, '07 -- just vaporized is all. The real outcome, the long-term outcome, is months from being known, and welcome to the first storyline of next season.

An immobile, aging Ginobili having to grind out possessions is not nearly the game-changer as the guy voted Sixth Man Award winner and third-team All-NBA last season. He scores, he defends, he ignites. This is not a catch-and-shoot role player who loiters on the perimeter.

Ginobili will be 32 heading into camp this fall, with a body that has absorbed five seasons in Argentina and Italy and seven with the Spurs, plus the equivalent of another 1¼ seasons in Spurs playoff time. And now, the surgery on the left ankle that cost him training camp, the exhibition schedule and the first 12 games of the regular season followed by the stress fracture in the right ankle that will cost him the playoffs.

"I certainly think that they can win a playoff series," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of the Spurs' chances when the postseason begins next week. "With who they've got, they've got enough experience. They played without Gino over the course of probably 30 games this season. ... They know how to play without him."

OK. A series.

But four?

"It's hard to project that," Jackson said. "Someone's going to have to step up and fill that spot. Tony [Parker] has had a great year. He's playing really great. But Gino had that little extra that he could provide at the end of the game where you could get six points in the last couple minutes or so and make a steal. They're going to miss that part of it."

Said Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale: "It hurts them like crazy. ... Ginobili shot the indefensible shots."

Ginobili has been durable, playing at least 90 percent of the games in three of the previous four seasons, and yet it is his health that has become a pressing issue. It actually was to different degrees before -- smart aleck Brent Barry once hung the perfect nickname for an Argentine teammate who played delightfully breakneck: El Contusion -- except that two threats to his mobility so close on the calendar spins 2008-09 into the new tracking history.

The ace sixth man had just been moved into the starting lineup, with coach Gregg Popovich saying he wanted Ginobili playing with Tim Duncan and Parker -- hardly a dramatic late-season change to the rotation. Instead, Roger Mason Jr. has reclaimed the job as the starting shooting guard.

Mason, a success as a free-agent signee, promptly went a combined 11-of-29 the next two games, and had managed 57 points over his past seven outings. The Spurs have lost four of six to drop to 18-16 without Ginobili and are in danger of beginning the playoffs without home-court advantage.

They get the Jazz and Hornets at home and the Kings and Warriors on the road to close the schedule. Then the playoffs, the place where franchises with high standards like San Antonio find the only measure of a season. But with Ginobili out and Duncan hobbled for weeks by a knee injury, discounting them will just be a lot easier this time around.

[tackielarla]

Spurs vs Jazz today! Go Spurs!

[jasonrey]

Spurs win!

[tackielarla]

That's what I'm talking about! Gino or no Gino, we still have what it takes to compete! Believe!!!

[o_bama]

noy idol.you are the best...