McDonald: Bible Study With Bruce [Archive]

duncan228

11-09-2008, 07:53 PM

Jeff McDonald: Bible study with Bruce (http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/archives/2008/11/jeff_mcdonald_b_17.html)

It was Sunday morning after all. So what better time for Bruce Bowen to lead the unwashed media in a bit of Bible study?

At today's post-practice interview session, Bowen was asked how the team was handling its 1-4 start, the team's worst after five games in 12 years.

In answering, Bowen went Biblical.

"This is a time where you really have to trust in the coaching staff," he said. "It's kind of like the Israelites traveling through the wilderness. We know where we're trying to get, but if you start to have people second-guessing, is starts to get disruptive."

Sunday school continued from there.

On some days, Rev. Bowen was asked, are the Spurs starting to feel more like poor Job than the Israelites?

"Not like Job. But it's one of those situations, because you haven't been through it, you want to try to find out 'Who's fault is it?' That's a concern you have to continue to put at bay."

In Tony Parker's absence, George Hill is going to be thrown into the NBA fire. Would he be considered Shadrach, Meschach or Abednego?

"Either or, it's a great opportunity for him. He's going to be tried through the fire and come out unharmed."

If the Spurs are the Israelites, who does that make Tim Duncan?

"Tim. Tim is Moses. He's got the beard."

And what about the Yahweh of the Spurs' universe, Gregg Popovich?

"Well, Tim communes with Pop and gets instructions from Pop. No one wants to hear that Voice of Thunder."

duncan228

11-09-2008, 11:34 PM

Updated. Or finished.

Spurs searching for way out of wilderness (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_searching_for_way_out_of_wilderness.html)
By Jeff McDonald

Perhaps the Spurs should begin by looking on the bright side of all this.

They have yet to be attacked by a swarm of angry locusts. They haven't been caught in a once-in-a-lifetime flood without an ark. Last time anybody checked, the San Antonio River was still running muddy, not bloody.

Beset by nothing more supernatural than a rash of injuries and plain bad basketball, the Spurs' 1-4 start isn't exactly a problem of Biblical proportions. The way forward Bruce Bowen sees it, that doesn't mean it can't be overcome by the most Biblical of all solutions.

Faith.

“This is a time where you really have to trust in the coaching staff,” Bowen said. “It's kind of like the Israelites traveling through the wilderness. We know where we're trying to get, but if you start second-guessing, it starts to get disruptive.”

The Spurs already were scuffling without star guard Manu Ginobili, who has yet to play this season while recovering from ankle surgery. Now, with fellow All-Star Tony Parker expected to miss as many as four weeks with a sprained ankle of his own, the Spurs are officially in trouble.

Normally, November is not a time for hand-wringing or scoreboard-watching.

Yet in a power-packed Western Conference, in which 48 victories were not enough to assure a playoff spot last season, the Spurs can't afford to dig too deep a hole while awaiting reinforcements.

As the good Rev. Bowen put it, “It's a long season, but we don't want to be wandering in the wilderness for too long.”

The Spurs are coming off Friday night's 99-83 loss at home to a Miami team that won 15 games a year ago. And in their current incarnation — Tim Duncan surrounded by a bunch of role players — they look much like the hapless Heat did by the end of last season.

There is one difference, albeit a major one: For the Spurs, the All-Star cavalry is still coming, just as soon as it gets out of the training room.

In the meantime, even the Spurs' next game — what would otherwise have been considered a gimme against the lowly Knicks on Tuesday at home — has taken on the complexion of a crapshoot.

“The NBA is a challenge if you're healthy,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “Sure, (the injury epidemic) makes it more difficult, but in the regular season, with everyone healthy, it's still a challenge.”

The Spurs could not control the various acts of God that have transformed both members of their All-Star backcourt into bum ankle brothers. Other factors contributing to their sluggish start — the club's worst after five games in 12 years — were their own doing.

The Spurs' trademark defense, a suffocating hallmark of their championship teams past, has been largely MIA so far. Spurs' opponents are shooting 47.8 percent, the fifth-highest mark in the league.

His team minus one star guard and then two, Duncan has ratcheted up his game, averaging 26 points. But aside from Roger Mason, who is scoring at a 16.2 points-per-game clip, Duncan hasn't gotten much scoring help from the rest of his cast of role players.

The Spurs have brought much of their problems on themselves.

“We're the cause of the things that are taking place, as far as effort,” Bowen said. “It's more about energy and intensity than anything else.”

In their own missteps, however, the Spurs surprisingly see a silver lining.

“The encouraging thing is I think we're better than what we are playing,” Mason said. “We've got some guys out, sure, but we've got guys in this locker room who are better than what they are playing.”

Hope remains that once Ginobili and Parker return next month and the team is at full strength, there will still be time for Spurs to become the title contenders they once were.

Between now and then, as they wander the NBA wilderness and endure this latest round of plagues, the Spurs will rely on one of the few healthy things they have left.

Faith.

“You just have to keep fighting,” Bowen said, “and stay true to the thing we're working toward.”