duncan228
12-08-2008, 11:37 PM
Defensive revisions get Spurs on track (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Defensive_revisions_get_Spurs_on_track.html)
By Jeff McDonald
DALLAS — Gregg Popovich has always been known as a defense-first coach.
He is a guy who can see the balletic beauty in a 77-75 bludgeoning. He would rather see a top-notch backside defensive rotation than a highlight-reel slam dunk. Had he helmed the losing side of Dr. Naismith's inaugural peach-basket game — which ended by the TV-unfriendly score of 2-0 — Popovich would have chastised his charges for having the audacity to give up a basket.
So when the Spurs coach marched into the practice gym on the morning of Nov. 9 and announced his team was going to get back to playing “Spurs basketball,” even players new to the scene knew what that meant.
“It meant we were going to be focusing on defense,” guard Roger Mason Jr. said.
Two nights earlier, the Spurs had dropped a 99-83 home decision to Miami to run their record to a Timberwolves-like 1-4. Adding injury to insult, the Spurs also had lost dazzling point guard Tony Parker to a sprained ankle, sending him to the sidelines, joining fellow injured guard Manu Ginobili.
Five games into the season, the Spurs were allowing 105 points per game, which might have cut it in Los Angeles or Golden State or New York, where the home team can hit triple digits about as often as a Phoenix thermometer.
But not in San Antonio. Not with about 40 points per game suddenly on the bench in street clothes. In San Antonio, it was sacrilege.
“We were giving up a bunch of points, and that's uncharacteristic of us,” Bruce Bowen said. “That's the reason we have all those championships, because of defense. That's what we had to get back to.”
A month after the Miami fiasco, the Spurs enter tonight's game at Dallas a changed team. More accurately, at least when it comes to defense, they are looking like the same team that practically asphyxiated foes on its way to four NBA titles since 1999.
Over the past 14 games, of which they have won 10, the Spurs have held opponents to an average of 87.9 points — nearly 20 points better than during their 1-4 start. All told, they are allowing 92.4 points per game, rebounding to rank fourth-best in the league.
That kind of defensive dominance again will be necessary tonight, when the Spurs face a Dallas team that thrashed them 98-81 in early November at the AT&T Center and has been piling up the points ever since. The surging Mavericks have won nine of their past 10 games, topping the century mark in six straight.
Seeds for the Spurs' defensive turnaround were sown in their first workout following that embarrassing loss to the Heat.
Popovich spent the summer making tweaks to the Spurs' defensive schemes, altering rules for on-the-ball defense and backside rotations. Five defensively deficient games into the season, he went back to the drawing board and erased it all.
Two games after the Miami debacle, Popovich proclaimed a new defensive direction. Meet the new defense, same as the old defense.
Popovich reinstalled the coverage rules that had made the Spurs one of the NBA's top defensive teams for much of the past 13 seasons, fixing that which hadn't been broken in the first place.
“The first four or five games, Pop wanted to try something new,” point guard Tony Parker said. “It didn't work out like we wanted, so we went back to the old way.”
The old way has produced familiar results. In their first game after returning to their roots, the Spurs held the high-octane Knicks to 80 points, a mark that remains New York's season low nearly a month later.
The Spurs won the game by 12. Popovich learned his lesson.
“It's better when the coach doesn't make too many changes over the summer and sticks pretty much with what was working well,” Popovich said.
Mason, who is in his first year with the team after spending the past two in Washington, says that “back to the basics” approach has worked wonders for the Spurs' formerly flagging defense.
“We're back to playing Spurs basketball,” he said.
The proof is in the points, or lack thereof for Spurs opponents.
By Jeff McDonald
DALLAS — Gregg Popovich has always been known as a defense-first coach.
He is a guy who can see the balletic beauty in a 77-75 bludgeoning. He would rather see a top-notch backside defensive rotation than a highlight-reel slam dunk. Had he helmed the losing side of Dr. Naismith's inaugural peach-basket game — which ended by the TV-unfriendly score of 2-0 — Popovich would have chastised his charges for having the audacity to give up a basket.
So when the Spurs coach marched into the practice gym on the morning of Nov. 9 and announced his team was going to get back to playing “Spurs basketball,” even players new to the scene knew what that meant.
“It meant we were going to be focusing on defense,” guard Roger Mason Jr. said.
Two nights earlier, the Spurs had dropped a 99-83 home decision to Miami to run their record to a Timberwolves-like 1-4. Adding injury to insult, the Spurs also had lost dazzling point guard Tony Parker to a sprained ankle, sending him to the sidelines, joining fellow injured guard Manu Ginobili.
Five games into the season, the Spurs were allowing 105 points per game, which might have cut it in Los Angeles or Golden State or New York, where the home team can hit triple digits about as often as a Phoenix thermometer.
But not in San Antonio. Not with about 40 points per game suddenly on the bench in street clothes. In San Antonio, it was sacrilege.
“We were giving up a bunch of points, and that's uncharacteristic of us,” Bruce Bowen said. “That's the reason we have all those championships, because of defense. That's what we had to get back to.”
A month after the Miami fiasco, the Spurs enter tonight's game at Dallas a changed team. More accurately, at least when it comes to defense, they are looking like the same team that practically asphyxiated foes on its way to four NBA titles since 1999.
Over the past 14 games, of which they have won 10, the Spurs have held opponents to an average of 87.9 points — nearly 20 points better than during their 1-4 start. All told, they are allowing 92.4 points per game, rebounding to rank fourth-best in the league.
That kind of defensive dominance again will be necessary tonight, when the Spurs face a Dallas team that thrashed them 98-81 in early November at the AT&T Center and has been piling up the points ever since. The surging Mavericks have won nine of their past 10 games, topping the century mark in six straight.
Seeds for the Spurs' defensive turnaround were sown in their first workout following that embarrassing loss to the Heat.
Popovich spent the summer making tweaks to the Spurs' defensive schemes, altering rules for on-the-ball defense and backside rotations. Five defensively deficient games into the season, he went back to the drawing board and erased it all.
Two games after the Miami debacle, Popovich proclaimed a new defensive direction. Meet the new defense, same as the old defense.
Popovich reinstalled the coverage rules that had made the Spurs one of the NBA's top defensive teams for much of the past 13 seasons, fixing that which hadn't been broken in the first place.
“The first four or five games, Pop wanted to try something new,” point guard Tony Parker said. “It didn't work out like we wanted, so we went back to the old way.”
The old way has produced familiar results. In their first game after returning to their roots, the Spurs held the high-octane Knicks to 80 points, a mark that remains New York's season low nearly a month later.
The Spurs won the game by 12. Popovich learned his lesson.
“It's better when the coach doesn't make too many changes over the summer and sticks pretty much with what was working well,” Popovich said.
Mason, who is in his first year with the team after spending the past two in Washington, says that “back to the basics” approach has worked wonders for the Spurs' formerly flagging defense.
“We're back to playing Spurs basketball,” he said.
The proof is in the points, or lack thereof for Spurs opponents.