San Antonio Spurs

[owNinZ]

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Popovich: First few games all about evaluation


The Spurs won't worry about honing their games to regular-season sharpness until the final few preseason games. For now, the games are all about evaluation.

Fourteen Spurs players have guaranteed contracts, but it appears the club intends to go with the NBA-allowed maximum roster of 15 players.

Between now and opening night, the basketball staff must decide among the four non-guaranteed players in camp: Malik Hairston, Marcus Williams, Curtis Jerrells and Dwayne Jones.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who despises having to tell players they've been waived, relishes the opportunity the first few preseason games afford him to make personnel judgments.

“I love these first few games because all I do is evaluate,” he said. “We need to make some tough roster decisions about some of these young guys, so all I worry about is evaluating them.”

Indeed, Popovich didn't even suit up Tim Duncan, Michael Finley, Tony Parker, Antonio McDyess and Theo Ratliff when the Spurs opened the preseason against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday at the AT&T Center.

All four of the “bubble” players logged at least 151/2 minutes. Hairston, who played 15 regular-season games with the Spurs last season, made four of seven shots, scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds.

“I thought Malik played well last night,” Parker said. “I thought he was aggressive, and he didn't force anything.

“That's the main thing when you're a young guy. You want to make sure you understand the system, and Malik did a good job of that.”

Rating camp: New big man McDyess declared after just one week that the Spurs' training camp was the best in which he had participated in 13 years in the NBA.

New small forward Richard Jefferson wasn't quite as definitive but nonetheless pleased with the camp's structure and professionalism.

“Obviously, Pop knows what he's doing,” Jefferson said. “The guys here work extremely hard. He doesn't feel the pressure to feel, ‘Oh, I've got to get this guy in shape; or this person didn't do this or that; or this person doesn't work hard, and if we're going to get him what he needs, we're going to have to get extra shots in practice.'”


Source: Popovich: First few games all about evaluation

[owNinZ]

Confidence shows in Bonner's shot


Looking even more pale than usual, Spurs forward Matt Bonner plopped down in the chair at his locker after Tuesday's preseason game against the Houston Rockets and rubbed his left shoulder.

“Flu shot,” said Bonner, who became a father over the summer when his wife, Nadia, gave birth to Evangeline-Vesper Bonner. “I hate needles, but we've got a little girl at home now, so I took one for the kid.”

Flu shots were available to all the Spurs after Tuesday's game, and most of the players sported bandages on their shoulders.

Bonner, whose 44 percent 3-point shooting last season led the Spurs, made four of seven shots from beyond the 3-point arc in Tuesday's 99-85 loss to the Rockets. One of his misses was a hurried heave after catching a pass with just tenths of a second remaining in the first half.

Bonner finished with 14 points in just 16 minutes and 21 seconds.

“He's more relaxed every year, understanding what he can do best, obviously,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He's getting rid of it more quickly than he ever has and not worrying about making a mistake. He's playing more mature basketball.”

Now in his fourth season with the Spurs, Bonner said confidence, born of experience, accounts for his willingness to fire away from long range.

“I'm just trying to build off last year,” he said. “With experience, I've learned where I can get open looks. I'm just trying to keep figuring it out.

“I don't know why it takes me so long to figure out to just let it fly. Coach Pop made it very clear last year, at the beginning of the season, that if I'm open, I need to shoot it. I've just taken that attitude ever since.”


Source: Confidence shows in Bonner's shot

[owNinZ]

Mahinmi must show Spurs his worth


When Antonio McDyess got into the first five-on-five scrimmage of training camp with his new teammates, he knew what to expect of most of the other big men.

Once he found himself matched up against Ian Mahinmi, however, he began to wonder about a youngster with uncommon size and athleticism.

“I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, this guy is good,'” McDyess said. “I wondered why I hadn't heard more about him. I love his game.”

Spurs fans have been waiting to see more of Mahinmi since the Spurs made him the 28th pick in the 2005 draft. Beginning with tonight's preseason opener at the AT&T Center against the Houston Rockets, they will get another chance.

Mahinmi knows tonight's game is the start of the most important preseason of his young career. He must prove he merits consideration for a spot in a frontline rotation that has added McDyess, veteran Theo Ratliff and rookie DeJuan Blair.

Mahinmi was just 19 when the Spurs drafted him out of the French A League. Young, athletic and raw, he stayed in France for two more seasons before the Spurs signed him on Aug. 23, 2007.

He spent most of 2007-08 with the Spurs' Austin Toros Development League team. His 23 total minutes in Spurs games were but a tease.

The 2008-09 preseason was to be Mahinmi's chance to earn a spot in the Spurs' frontline rotation. A badly sprained right ankle in an August pickup game derailed that plan. He spent most of the 2008-09 campaign looking natty in NBA-mandated business attire behind the Spurs bench.

A tiny bone chip — the source of persistent pain in the ankle — was successfully removed in January, providing relief for both Mahinmi and the Spurs.

Now in the third season of his NBA rookie scale contract, Mahinmi also faces the pressure of an important career checkpoint. The team faces an Oct. 31 deadline to decide if it will extend his contract to include a fourth season.

The Spurs are now well over the NBA's luxury tax threshold, effectively doubling the price of every added contract. Mahinmi's extension, at $1.786 million, would cost the club a total of $3.572 million.

Mahinmi understands what is at stake for him in the team's exhibition games, particularly in the first two or three, when head coach Gregg Popovich typically limits the playing time of proven veterans so he can evaluate untested players.

“I think this is really my first real chance,” he said. “My rookie year, I knew I was going to go to the D-League, so this year is my first chance, and I'm finally feeling good physically.”

Mahinmi got a scare in September when he strained a hamstring while playing for the French national team in the Eurobasket tournament in Poland, whereLes Bleus qualified for next summer's FIBA world championships. The injury proved minor, and he reported to Spurs camp in peak condition.

His ankles, he said, are 100 percent healthy.

Now 22, Mahinmi doesn't know how much playing time he will get. McDyess, Ratliff and Blair also need plenty of preseason time to adjust to the Spurs' system.

“Seriously, I don't expect anything,” he said. “I just take what they give me. Sure, I'm going to get to play, but I don't expect 30, 35 minutes. I do know they're going to play me. I know they're going to try to see what I can bring to the team.”

Popovich is anxious to see if Mahinmi's physical potential can produce tangible results.

“Ian is a very hungry player right now,” Popovich said. “For two years, he's been hurt. It's his turn to show us what he can do.

“He's running the floor really well. He's trying to make some moves offensively. He went down on the block to show he can score a little bit.

He's just anxious to exhibit the things he hasn't been able to do because of the injuries.”


Source: Mahinmi must show Spurs his worth

[johnnyblues]

awa ni ninyo -> YouTube - dejuan blair almost rips off another arm.

looks familiar? -> YouTube - Hasheem Thabeet vs. DeJuan Blair

lesson: ayaw tuga2x rebound ug si blair imo tapad or else you'll get "thabeet'ed"!

[manuginobili]

go manu go!!!...hahahaaa

[johnnyblues]

Spurs humiliate Olympiakos (Greek team - one of the best in Europe) 107-89.

[owNinZ]

Parker, Spurs look sharp in rout


It was just another preseason game, another score-doesn't-matter exhibition that would be played and forgotten in a matter of hours.

For Tony Parker, it was something more.

“Now I can take my revenge,” Parker said.

Parker said this to the scorer's table early in the first quarter of what became a 107-89 victory over traditional Greek power Olympiacos at the AT&T Center, and he said it with a knowing smile.

Nothing that happened Friday night would make up for Parker's lackluster performance against the Greeks with the French national team in

EuroBasket competition last month, especially considering three of Olympiacos' stars are American.

Instead, Parker had to be content with what he got Friday night: a dominating victory for the team that pays his bills, a wire-to-wire triumph that showcased all the new-look Spurs can become this season.

In his first appearance of the preseason, Parker made hummus out of the Greeks, scoring 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting 15 minutes. Tim Duncan, Parker's longtime pick-and-roll partner, made his debut as well and looked sharp on his way to 10 points, five rebounds and three
assists.

The Spurs raced to a 20-point lead in the first half, scoring many of their baskets on a well-timed array of pick-and-rolls and back cuts and precision ball movement. From his spot on the bench, and later the thick of the action, guard George Hill couldn't help but marvel.

“We're still trying to learn each other,” said Hill, who finished with 17 points and earned another heaping helping of praise from coach Gregg Popovich. “It's going to be scary with everybody is on the same page.”

Indeed, the Spurs are still early into this chemistry experiment called the preseason, still working and melding together a roster full of old and new faces.

Manu Ginobili is still working his way back into shape. He logged 20 minutes Friday, and looked alternately good (weaving between defenders for a silky second-quarter layup) and not-so-good (airballing a mid-range jumper in the first).

Ginobili finished with seven points on 3-of-8 shooting, but made a Hallmark moment just by stepping on the floor. When he checked into the game with 7:10 left in the first quarter, joining Parker and Duncan, it marked the first time the Spurs' Big Three had been together on an NBA floor since April 5.

“I was not very satisfied with the way I played, but I'm out of rhythm,” Ginobili said. “I just need to play more.”

There were other moments that reminded the 17,677 in attendance that this was, after all, the preseason.

One came courtesy of the replacement officials, who missed a fairly easy goaltending call when Olympiacos' Josh Childress grabbed one of Hill's layups off the rim.

Another came from two of the more experienced Spurs. Late in the second quarter, the Spurs had possession of the ball with the shot-clock off and Popovich screaming for Parker to hold for the last shot.

Parker instead shuffled the ball ahead to Ginobili, who promptly fired it out of bounds. At this point, Popovich was in regular-season form, unloading on both of his star guards at the next timeout.

Those moments, the Spurs believe, will get fewer and far between as the regular season draws near.

“We're coming along, but it's going to take a little while,” Duncan said. “It's going to take these seven preseason games, and 20 or so regular-season games, to really get where we're real comfortable with each other.”

Parker was like a comet Friday, his appearance brief but spectacular.

“TP is going to be great,” Duncan said. “He's already in season form and ready go.”

And perhaps that was the lesson of Friday. For Parker, playing well was the best revenge.


Source: Parker, Spurs look sharp in rout

[owNinZ]

Replacing Bowen's defense: A gang approach

The Spurs hit the road for the first time Saturday, flying to South Florida seeking an answer to one of the major questions of the preseason:
With Bruce Bowen gone, who fills the defensive stopper role against a premier scorer such as the Heat's Dwyane Wade? Richard Jefferson, the wing man the Spurs acquired in the trade that sent Bowen off the roster, has an easy answer.

“That's unrealistic,” he said. “That's like asking someone to fill David Robinson's role, or Tim Duncan's role. (Bruce) was one of the best perimeter defenders in the history of this league.”

The transition to a post-Bowen defense began last season, when the eight-time All-Defensive Team selection's ability to lock down the league's great scorers began to erode. Bowen slipped out of the starting lineup. His minutes dwindled to fewer than 19 per game, an all-time low for his eight seasons with the Spurs.

Now, Jefferson will be part of a gang approach to defending players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Wade, who is likely to miss today's game with a strained rib muscle. So will Manu Ginobili, George Hill, Roger Mason Jr. and Keith Bogans.

“Bruce was the best at making those kinds of guys uncomfortable, but those guys you have to guard as a team,” Ginobili said, “so we're going to have to play better team defense than the last two years.

“We all have to step up defensively.”

Jefferson understands that Spurs fans valued Bowen's defensive prowess and expect him to play up to a nearly impossible standard.

“I'm the (small forward) who's here to replace Bruce Bowen, so I have to do what I can to get better defensively,” he said. “Mentally, I haven't been as good defensively as I'd like the last few seasons. Now, here I am in the situation where they're looking for that from me.”

The Nets and Bucks, Jefferson's previous teams, needed more scoring from him than do the Spurs, whose offense is built around Duncan and Tony Parker.

“Here, it's: ‘Richard, we just need you to knock down open shots and defend other people,'” he said.

Bogans, the 6-foot-5 guard who split the 2008-09 season between Orlando and Milwaukee, was signed to a free agent contract a week before training camp began strictly for his skill as a tough perimeter defender.

He joins the Spurs at roughly the same point in his career as did Bowen, who was signed at age 30 after five NBA seasons with three teams.

Bogans, 29, has played six seasons in the NBA for four teams.

“His skill is defense, like Matt Bonner's is shooting threes,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “That's where we want him to concentrate and focus.”

Wade is one of the NBA's most explosive scorers and was the league's scoring leader last season at 30.2 points per game. If a player like
Wade gets on a scoring run and Popovich needs a defender to slow his roll, Bogans knows where he can find one.

“That's going to be me,” he said. “I just try to play him tough, every possession. Great players in this league are going to make shots. My main thing is to stay in front of him, stay with our team principles and see what happens from there.”

Staying home: Still watching the wear and tear on his veteran players, Popovich opted to leave Duncan and Ginobili in San Antonio. Ginobili played in the Spurs' first two preseason games, against Houston and the Greek team Olympiacos Piraeus, at the AT&T Center. Duncan made his preseason debut Friday night against Olympiacos.




Source: Replacing Bowen's defense: A gang approach

[menderouv]

spurs wins vs miami with close victory of 95-93

[menderouv]

Wade only watches, as Spurs beat Heat
By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer


Rookie DeJuan Blair(notes) scored 28 points on 11 of 13 shooting, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat 95-93 in a preseason game Sunday night.

Blair scored 15 of his points in the final quarter, including a nifty basket inside with 1:02 left as the Spurs erased an 11-point deficit over the final 12 minutes.

George Hill(notes) added 12 points and Michael Finley(notes) scored 10 for San Antonio (1-1 preseason), which played without Tim Duncan(notes) and Manu Ginobili(notes).

Daequan Cook(notes) scored 20 points, Mario Chalmers(notes) added 17 and Michael Beasley(notes) finished with 16 for Miami (0-3). The Heat were without several regulars, including reigning NBA scoring champion Dwyane Wade(notes).

Cook tried to win it with a 3-pointer at buzzer, but his shot bounced off the rim.