duncan228
01-19-2009, 07:37 PM
Spurs stay lucky, squeak by Bobcats (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_stay_lucky_squeak_by_Bobcats.html)
Jeff McDonald
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The ball rolled out to Boris Diaw, standing basically by himself at the 3-point line with the clock in a race to zero, nothing between him and a run-off-the-court, hug-the-nearest-teammate and kiss-your-mother victory but a successful jumper from 29 feet.
All the Spurs could do was stand and watch and wait for the worst.
After winning more games at the buzzer this season than a kid playing them out in his own imagination, the Spurs figured what goes around was about to come around.
“I was thinking we were finally due,” said Roger Mason Jr., no stranger to game-winning heroics. “The ball looked good. I thought it was good.”
One more time, fortune smiled on the Spurs on Monday afternoon. Diaw’s jumper -- soft and on line and otherwise instructional-video perfect -- clanged just short, and the Spurs escaped Time Warner Cable Arena with an 86-84 victory.
It was the eighth time in 10 games this season the Spurs won a game decided by three points or less, the most such victories in the league.
To get this one, they had to endure a frantic closing sequence in which the Bobcats’ Emeka Okafor blocked Tim Duncan’s potential game-sealer at one end, then Duncan blocked Raymond Felton on a drive at the other.
That almost ended up being the best thing to happen to Charlotte.
Duncan couldn’t have set Diaw up better if he were feeding him in a 3-point drill.
“I’m thinking I should have hit it a little softer than I did, instead of all the way to the 3-point line,” Duncan said. “I was thinking the worst, honestly, when the ball was rolling out there.”
So much for the power of positive thinking.
Thanks in part to Diaw’s game-winner that wasn’t, the Spurs (27-13) closed their three-game road trip on a two-game winning streak, after opening it with a 22-point loss at Philadelphia.
Duncan finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds to help the Spurs snap a three-game winning streak for Charlotte (16-25). Tony Parker added 13 points and 10 assists.
Raja Bell, a Phoenix transplant, had 25 points for the Bobcats, including an 11-of-11 effort from the foul line. It was his finest outing since coming to Charlotte in a Dec. 10 trade that also brought Diaw.
The Spurs survived Bell’s Bobcat breakout, as well as another tough day at the 3-point stripe. Formerly the league’s leading long-range team, the Spurs were 5-of-21 from beyond the arc Monday, making them 19 of 65 on the trip.
The Spurs salvaged the game with a second-straight sterling defensive effort, holding the Bobcats to 36.3 percent shooting and getting a series critical stops in the fourth quarter. The Spurs are 6-0 when keeping foes below 40 percent.
“Maybe getting our butts kicked in Philly made (the players) realize we did suck on defense,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s got to be our focus, because we’re going nowhere without defense.”
As the game crept down to the wire, with the Spurs overcoming a nine-point deficit to take a five-point lead in the fourth quarter on back-to-back Manu Ginobili 3-pointers, Bell began having Phoenix flashbacks.
“It felt a little like a Spurs-Suns game,” Bell said, recalling a memory bank full of high-drama playoff meetings. “Not as high scoring, but it had kind of the same feel.”
Popovich wouldn’t have minded returning Bell to Phoenix, at least for the afternoon. If Bell could have taken Diaw with him, all the better.
Diaw finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. With time winding down, he had a chance to make his day even sweeter.
Duncan swatted the ball to Diaw. The shot went up. All eyes followed it.
All that was left for the Spurs to do was to stand, and watch, and pray their luck hadn’t just run out.
“If that shot would have gone in, there was nothing we can say about it,” Ginobili said. “We’ve won many games like that. Today, we got lucky again.”
Jeff McDonald
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The ball rolled out to Boris Diaw, standing basically by himself at the 3-point line with the clock in a race to zero, nothing between him and a run-off-the-court, hug-the-nearest-teammate and kiss-your-mother victory but a successful jumper from 29 feet.
All the Spurs could do was stand and watch and wait for the worst.
After winning more games at the buzzer this season than a kid playing them out in his own imagination, the Spurs figured what goes around was about to come around.
“I was thinking we were finally due,” said Roger Mason Jr., no stranger to game-winning heroics. “The ball looked good. I thought it was good.”
One more time, fortune smiled on the Spurs on Monday afternoon. Diaw’s jumper -- soft and on line and otherwise instructional-video perfect -- clanged just short, and the Spurs escaped Time Warner Cable Arena with an 86-84 victory.
It was the eighth time in 10 games this season the Spurs won a game decided by three points or less, the most such victories in the league.
To get this one, they had to endure a frantic closing sequence in which the Bobcats’ Emeka Okafor blocked Tim Duncan’s potential game-sealer at one end, then Duncan blocked Raymond Felton on a drive at the other.
That almost ended up being the best thing to happen to Charlotte.
Duncan couldn’t have set Diaw up better if he were feeding him in a 3-point drill.
“I’m thinking I should have hit it a little softer than I did, instead of all the way to the 3-point line,” Duncan said. “I was thinking the worst, honestly, when the ball was rolling out there.”
So much for the power of positive thinking.
Thanks in part to Diaw’s game-winner that wasn’t, the Spurs (27-13) closed their three-game road trip on a two-game winning streak, after opening it with a 22-point loss at Philadelphia.
Duncan finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds to help the Spurs snap a three-game winning streak for Charlotte (16-25). Tony Parker added 13 points and 10 assists.
Raja Bell, a Phoenix transplant, had 25 points for the Bobcats, including an 11-of-11 effort from the foul line. It was his finest outing since coming to Charlotte in a Dec. 10 trade that also brought Diaw.
The Spurs survived Bell’s Bobcat breakout, as well as another tough day at the 3-point stripe. Formerly the league’s leading long-range team, the Spurs were 5-of-21 from beyond the arc Monday, making them 19 of 65 on the trip.
The Spurs salvaged the game with a second-straight sterling defensive effort, holding the Bobcats to 36.3 percent shooting and getting a series critical stops in the fourth quarter. The Spurs are 6-0 when keeping foes below 40 percent.
“Maybe getting our butts kicked in Philly made (the players) realize we did suck on defense,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s got to be our focus, because we’re going nowhere without defense.”
As the game crept down to the wire, with the Spurs overcoming a nine-point deficit to take a five-point lead in the fourth quarter on back-to-back Manu Ginobili 3-pointers, Bell began having Phoenix flashbacks.
“It felt a little like a Spurs-Suns game,” Bell said, recalling a memory bank full of high-drama playoff meetings. “Not as high scoring, but it had kind of the same feel.”
Popovich wouldn’t have minded returning Bell to Phoenix, at least for the afternoon. If Bell could have taken Diaw with him, all the better.
Diaw finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. With time winding down, he had a chance to make his day even sweeter.
Duncan swatted the ball to Diaw. The shot went up. All eyes followed it.
All that was left for the Spurs to do was to stand, and watch, and pray their luck hadn’t just run out.
“If that shot would have gone in, there was nothing we can say about it,” Ginobili said. “We’ve won many games like that. Today, we got lucky again.”