San Antonio Spurs

[SQUiDnine]

---

yay! teammates na! hehehe! pinaka da best nga bungot! Gooden!!!

[kamikaze426]

may nalang another scorer for the spurs inside and out.

[tackielarla]

^^ I'm more ecstatic on the fact that the dude can reach double-digit rebounding numbers easily.

[rynzco]

^^ I'm more ecstatic on the fact that the dude can reach double-digit rebounding numbers easily.

yep pariha2 rani clag caliber n boozer

[tackielarla]

Mason enjoys creating for mates
Mike Monroe

DALLAS — Roger Mason Jr. suffered through his worst shooting night of the season on Monday at Staples Center, a 1 for 9 clunker against the Clippers that was more minor annoyance than major concern.

Making a rare case of bricklayer's disease tolerable was the ease with which Mason transitioned back into a role as Tony Parker's primary backup at point guard, along with having grabbed a season-high nine rebounds.

Mason ran the Spurs' offense for three portions of Monday's 106-78 victory and exited the game happy with the number of open shots that had been created for his teammates during his turns at the point, especially during the second quarter, when the Spurs turned the game into a blowout.

“Honestly, I came into (the Clippers game) telling myself I wasn't going to worry about scoring the ball,” Mason said. “I wanted to do other things to help the team. I would have loved to have shot better, but I really wanted to focus in defensively.

“Coach told me I was going to be playing some backup (point guard), so I wanted to get other guys involved. It would have been nice to hit a few more shots, but it felt good to run a team again.”

Mason doesn't know if he will be asked to run the point more in the Spurs' remaining 23 games, with rookie George Hill sliding more to the shooting guard role.

“I have no idea about that,” he said. “I enjoyed it. I like it. I think we had a good thing going in the second quarter. We had some open shots, but I will do whatever they ask me to do.”

Back to normal: Power forward Tim Duncan said his right knee felt good, both before and after he scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against the Clippers.

Duncan, who missed three games last week with tendonosis of the right quadriceps tendon, said he regained most of his on-court rhythm in his 28 minutes of work on Monday.

“I feel good,” he said. “Just trying to get my rhythm and wind back and trying to feel good on the court.”

Duncan said the Spurs are aware that guard Manu Ginobili, battling a stress reaction in his right ankle, on Thursday will reach the two-week mark of his projected two-to-three-week absence with the injury.

“You come into every year, and the one thing I always say is that if we're healthy, we have a chance,” Duncan said. “Obviously, we've dealt with some injuries throughout the year. Luckily enough, if you look around the league, it's been minor, compared to some other teams.

“We're fighting through it and playing through it. We can't wait to get Manu back soon and try to make a run for it at the end of the year.”

[tackielarla]

San Antonio (40-19) at Dallas (36-24) Preview
Game info: 9:00 pm EST Wed Mar 4, 2009
TV: ESPN, KTXA
By Brett Huston

A blowout loss against a San Antonio team missing Tim Duncan last week was just one example of the Dallas Mavericks’ recent road struggles, but at home they’ve looked unbeatable of late.

With Duncan back as the Spurs pay a visit, though, Dallas can’t be feeling particularly confident.

San Antonio has dominated the Mavericks lately with or without Duncan, and the two-time league MVP will be on the floor Wednesday night when his Spurs look for their sixth win in the last seven meetings against Dallas.

The Mavericks (36-24) have lost 10 of 14 on the road, and they haven’t scored more than 87 in dropping their last four away from home.

One of those losses came Feb. 24 in San Antonio, where Duncan sat out his first of three games with a sore knee and right quad injury. His absence didn’t make a difference, though, as the Spurs (40-19)—already without Manu Ginobili — won 93-76 behind 37 points and 12 assists from Tony Parker.

“I can only shutter to think what would happen had (Duncan and Ginobili) played,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.

Duncan, Parker and Ginobili have all been on the floor only three times in the past six games against Dallas, but that hasn’t kept the Spurs from dominating the series. San Antonio has won five of those meetings - two without Duncan - and both road games, including a thrilling 133-126 double-overtime victory Dec. 9.

Duncan returned Sunday night in Portland, but the Spurs looked lost, falling behind by 27 at halftime en route to a 102-84 defeat. They looked much better a night later at Staples Center, though, getting 26 points and 10 assists from Parker and 18 points and 12 rebounds from Duncan, who sat out the fourth quarter of a 106-78 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

“We wanted to bounce back after a poor performance against Portland and bring some energy and shoot better,” Parker said. “Tonight we moved the ball pretty well and shot the ball well.”

The Mavericks have shot the ball extremely well at home over the past six weeks, making 49.5 percent from the field. They’ve averaged 111.4 points while going 10-1 in that stretch, winning by an average of 10.7 points.

But they’ve lost by an average of 9.2 points during their 4-10 road stretch since the start of 2009, and the last four games have been especially ugly. Dallas has shot 39.1 percent - 28.0 from 3-point range - while losing by 15.3 points per game.

The latest road loss came Monday in Oklahoma City to a Thunder team that was missing Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. Down four at halftime, the Mavericks fell behind by 20 after three quarters and lost 96-87.

“I just thought that the first three quarters were just a pitiful display for a team that has aspirations to be in the playoffs and try to move up in the standings,” Carlisle said. “We’ve seen this before, too many times.”

Dirk Nowitzki had 28 points Monday and is averaging 31.0 over his last three games, but he may need to do more against the Spurs. Josh Howard didn’t return after halftime of the loss to the Thunder after aggravating his left ankle, which caused him to miss 11 games earlier this season.

Howard’s status for Wednesday is unclear, but Dallas will have Jason Terry, who’s been back two games after missing eight with a fractured finger.

Terry averaged 24.0 points in the Mavericks’ first two games against the Spurs this season.

Notes

Spurs:

The Spurs outrebounded the Clippers, 58-44, on Monday. ... San Antonio recorded 28 assists, 12 more than Los Angeles. ... F Michael Finley finished 4-of-7 from beyond the arc, hitting all of his 3-pointers in the third quarter. Despite Finley's assault from long range, the Spurs made only 7-of-23 (30 percent) threes.

Mavs:

F Dirk Nowitzki and G Jason Terry combined for 48 points, the duo ranks as the third highest scoring tandem in the NBA averaging 44.8 points per game. ... G Jason Terry has hit a least one three pointer in 41 consecutive games, trailing on Orlando's Rashard Lewis' streak of 51 games. ... G Jason Kidd racked up six steals, and is now 37 shy of passing Clyde Drexler for sixth place All-Time.

Team Stat Leaders

Points

Tony Parker SA 20.5
Dirk Nowitzki Dal 25.2

Rebounds

Tim Duncan SA 10.6
Dirk Nowitzki Dal 8.3

Assists

Tony Parker SA 6.7
Jason Kidd Dal 8.5

Team Comparison
Team Record Standings PF PA Road/Home Streak L10

San Antonio 40-19 1st Southwest / 2nd West 97.3 93.5 Road 20-11 Won 1 6-4

Dallas 36-24 4th Southwest / 8th West 100.9 99.4 Home 22-8 Lost 1 6-4

[rynzco]

kng makuha na nla c gooden
dli na ma sayon2 sa lakers ang spurs

myo unta modaog cla sa west...

[MalditohoN]

with gooden on the 4 position, duncan won't have to handle tough and hard offensive big men like KG or maybe Howard, Gasol, West and other offensive player big men. the burden of playing both on offense and defense, that defense needs more attention. especially, the spurs are one of the best defensive team, they won games by beating them on the defensive side.

on the offensive side, with the help of gooden, there are two options on the low post area, either on duncan or gooden, that creates more double team and let shooters like ginobili, mason, finley and booner to take the advantage. also help parker creates his own shot, especially on pick and roll and drop passes.

[menderouv]

way to go spurs!

[MalditohoN]

all the spurs must be healthy during the playoffs so that they a chance of winning their 5th title in the last 10 years...