duncan228
12-12-2008, 11:19 PM
Edit: Updated version.
No heroics required as Spurs upend Wolves (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/No_heroics_required_as_Spurs_upend_Wolves.html)
By Jeff McDonald
MINNEAPOLIS — Spurs point guard Tony Parker arrived at the Target Center on Friday night with a plan. He did not want to score 55 points again.
With memories still dancing in his head of his last visit to Minnesota, when he totaled 55 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in one of the all-around great games in NBA history, Parker vowed to avoid the easy trap of attempting to repeat the unrepeatable.
“I wanted to get everybody involved,” Parker said, “and make sure I wasn’t forcing it.”
Parker took that after-you ethos to an extreme Friday, going three quarters without a basket in the Spurs’ 98-86 victory over the slumping Timberwolves.
With a strong finishing kick, Parker eventually wound up with 17 points. Tim Duncan also had 17, adding 13 rebounds for the Spurs, while Manu Ginobili, the team’s sixth man for the second straight game, added 16 points.
The Spurs (14-8) won their fifth in a row, their longest winning streak of the season.
Friday’s proceedings bore little resemblance to the teams’ Nov. 5 meeting, a back-and-forth carnival of can-you-top-this that the Spurs survived, 129-125 in two overtimes.
The difference started with Parker, who decided beforehand that it would be foolish to come out firing for a 55-point repeat. Instead of looking for his shot in the opening stages of the game, Parker looked for other players.
For a scoring guard like Parker, it was akin to asking a duck not to quack. Yet he somehow managed.
At half, Parker had zero points and had tried five field goals. Going into the fourth, he had one point and was still basket-less.
“It was hard for me not to go to the basket the first three quarters,” Parker said. “I was just thinking, ‘I’m coming, I’m coming.’ I knew I was going to be aggressive in the fourth quarter.”
After sitting on the launch pad for three quarters, Parker finally lifted off in the fourth. He scored 16 points in the final frame — more than in any quarter of his 55-point epic — as the Spurs blew apart what, until then, had been a fairly tight game.
Parker, who made 7 of 10 shots in the fourth after starting 0 for 5, also finished with nine assists.
Unlike his last visit to the Target Center, Parker’s performance wasn’t tell-your-grandchildren-about-it good. To Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, it was better than just good enough.
“He was fantastic,” Popovich said. “It was a great example of him controlling the tempo, controlling what’s going on.”
Al Jefferson, taking his nightly place as a transcendent player on an awful team, notched a 29-point, 13-rebound double-double to lead Minnesota, which has lost eight in a row.
Playing their third game since Kevin McHale replaced Randy Wittman as head coach, the Timberwolves (4-18) hung close for three quarters. Heading into the fourth, the Spurs had done just enough to carry a 66-57 lead.
Then, at long last, it was Tony Time.
For three quarters, Parker had resisted the urge to just fling up jumpers. He distributed the ball. He managed the game.
And McHale couldn’t believe his luck. In November, it had taken a superhuman effort from Parker for the Spurs to escape the Target Center, by the hair of Popovich’s chinny-chin-chin.
The guy wearing Parker’s No. 9 jersey Friday was looking, well, kind of human.
Until the fourth quarter.
Parker opened the frame with a two-minute series that, perhaps due to an editing mix-up, might have come from the highlight reel of his 55-point game.
Sixty-one seconds in, he up-faked past Sebastian Telfair for his first basket of the night. Thirty seconds later, he went contortionist to finish a drive in traffic. Thirty-two seconds after that, Parker sprinted coast-to-coast for another layup.
“In the fourth quarter, he started being Tony,” Ginobili said.
With 9:39 remaining, Duncan hit Michael Finley with a court-length pass for a basket, and the Spurs had their largest lead at 76-60.
Parker wasn’t done — he still had 10 points left in him — but for all intents and purposes, the Timberwolves were. Parker had done in Minnesota again, but in an entirely different way.
Precisely as he had planned it.
No heroics required as Spurs upend Wolves (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/No_heroics_required_as_Spurs_upend_Wolves.html)
By Jeff McDonald
MINNEAPOLIS — Spurs point guard Tony Parker arrived at the Target Center on Friday night with a plan. He did not want to score 55 points again.
With memories still dancing in his head of his last visit to Minnesota, when he totaled 55 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in one of the all-around great games in NBA history, Parker vowed to avoid the easy trap of attempting to repeat the unrepeatable.
“I wanted to get everybody involved,” Parker said, “and make sure I wasn’t forcing it.”
Parker took that after-you ethos to an extreme Friday, going three quarters without a basket in the Spurs’ 98-86 victory over the slumping Timberwolves.
With a strong finishing kick, Parker eventually wound up with 17 points. Tim Duncan also had 17, adding 13 rebounds for the Spurs, while Manu Ginobili, the team’s sixth man for the second straight game, added 16 points.
The Spurs (14-8) won their fifth in a row, their longest winning streak of the season.
Friday’s proceedings bore little resemblance to the teams’ Nov. 5 meeting, a back-and-forth carnival of can-you-top-this that the Spurs survived, 129-125 in two overtimes.
The difference started with Parker, who decided beforehand that it would be foolish to come out firing for a 55-point repeat. Instead of looking for his shot in the opening stages of the game, Parker looked for other players.
For a scoring guard like Parker, it was akin to asking a duck not to quack. Yet he somehow managed.
At half, Parker had zero points and had tried five field goals. Going into the fourth, he had one point and was still basket-less.
“It was hard for me not to go to the basket the first three quarters,” Parker said. “I was just thinking, ‘I’m coming, I’m coming.’ I knew I was going to be aggressive in the fourth quarter.”
After sitting on the launch pad for three quarters, Parker finally lifted off in the fourth. He scored 16 points in the final frame — more than in any quarter of his 55-point epic — as the Spurs blew apart what, until then, had been a fairly tight game.
Parker, who made 7 of 10 shots in the fourth after starting 0 for 5, also finished with nine assists.
Unlike his last visit to the Target Center, Parker’s performance wasn’t tell-your-grandchildren-about-it good. To Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, it was better than just good enough.
“He was fantastic,” Popovich said. “It was a great example of him controlling the tempo, controlling what’s going on.”
Al Jefferson, taking his nightly place as a transcendent player on an awful team, notched a 29-point, 13-rebound double-double to lead Minnesota, which has lost eight in a row.
Playing their third game since Kevin McHale replaced Randy Wittman as head coach, the Timberwolves (4-18) hung close for three quarters. Heading into the fourth, the Spurs had done just enough to carry a 66-57 lead.
Then, at long last, it was Tony Time.
For three quarters, Parker had resisted the urge to just fling up jumpers. He distributed the ball. He managed the game.
And McHale couldn’t believe his luck. In November, it had taken a superhuman effort from Parker for the Spurs to escape the Target Center, by the hair of Popovich’s chinny-chin-chin.
The guy wearing Parker’s No. 9 jersey Friday was looking, well, kind of human.
Until the fourth quarter.
Parker opened the frame with a two-minute series that, perhaps due to an editing mix-up, might have come from the highlight reel of his 55-point game.
Sixty-one seconds in, he up-faked past Sebastian Telfair for his first basket of the night. Thirty seconds later, he went contortionist to finish a drive in traffic. Thirty-two seconds after that, Parker sprinted coast-to-coast for another layup.
“In the fourth quarter, he started being Tony,” Ginobili said.
With 9:39 remaining, Duncan hit Michael Finley with a court-length pass for a basket, and the Spurs had their largest lead at 76-60.
Parker wasn’t done — he still had 10 points left in him — but for all intents and purposes, the Timberwolves were. Parker had done in Minnesota again, but in an entirely different way.
Precisely as he had planned it.