Spurs At Pistons Previews

[duncan228]

San Antonio (35-17) at Detroit (27-25) Preview (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview?gid=2009021908&prov=ap)
Game info: 8:00 pm EST Thu Feb 19, 2009
TV: TNT
By Brett Huston

As hopeful contenders around the NBA clamor to make themselves better at the trade deadline, the San Antonio Spurs would gladly settle for an acquisition from within.

First, though, they’ll need Manu Ginobili’s ankle to comply.

The Spurs will likely be without their star guard for a second straight game when they look to avoid a third consecutive loss for the first time since early November on Thursday night against the reeling Detroit Pistons.

Ginobili has had a variety of minor injuries throughout his seven-year NBA career, missing at least five games in every season. Offseason surgery on his left ankle forced him to miss the first 12 games in 2008-09, and he began experiencing pain in his right ankle prior to the All-Star break.

The NBA’s reigning sixth man of the year didn’t travel to New York on Tuesday as the Spurs (35-17) continued their eight-game rodeo trip, staying in San Antonio to undergo tests on the ankle.

The Spurs haven’t released specific information about the injury, but it’s unlikely Ginobili will be available for Thursday’s game—the league’s first after the 3 p.m. EST trading deadline—or the finale of the trip Saturday in Washington.

San Antonio, which was believed to have interest in New Jersey’s Vince Carter and Milwaukee’s Richard Jefferson, could have used some help with Ginobili sidelined against the Knicks. Tim Duncan missed a potential game-winning shot at the end of regulation, then New York took control in overtime, winning 112-107.

“I got some shots to go down and started feeling good about it,” said Duncan, who had 19 of his 26 points after halftime. “I wish the last one would’ve gone, too, but such is life.”

While Duncan’s last-second shot didn’t fall, Tony Parker couldn’t get anything to go down all night. Parker, one of the top shooters among guards in the league at 48.7 percent, was 5-of-20 and finished with 14 points.

Another loss in Detroit would give San Antonio its first three-game skid since opening the season 0-3.

The Spurs had their three stars healthy for their first matchup against Detroit (27-25) this season Dec. 2, but like many of their recent meetings with the Pistons, it didn’t matter.

Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson each scored 19 points, and San Antonio let a fourth-quarter lead slip away in an 89-77 loss - its third straight and sixth in eight games to Detroit - that left coach Gregg Popovich unhappy.

“The most disturbing thing is that we were very soft,” Popovich said. “I think Detroit intimidated us. It was really sad to watch in that respect. I thought we totally folded to their aggressive play.”

The Pistons, though, haven’t been intimidating anyone with their play lately. They’ve lost four in a row and are 5-13 since Jan. 10.

Detroit is 14-14 at The Palace after going 34-7 last season and has been dreadful there recently. A 92-86 loss to the Bucks on Tuesday was the Pistons’ seventh in eight home games.

“You are supposed to play your best basketball at home, and we obviously aren’t doing that,” said Iverson, who had 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting. “I don’t think there’s any focus.

“It’s easy to be focused when you are on the road and have 20,000 of their fans cheering against you, but you can’t come home and expect your fans to win the games for you. They help, but you’ve got to play.”

While Rodney Stuckey has been struggling lately in his role as a starter, averaging 9.0 points on 33.3 percent shooting in his last five games, Richard Hamilton is thriving off the bench. Hamilton is averaging 26.2 points over his last five.

Notes

Spurs:

San Antonio fell to 4-1 in overtime games this season after Tuesday's 112-107 loss to the New York Knicks. G Roger Mason scored 20 points and G Tony Parker added 14 and seven assists in the setback. ... San Antonio had a chance to win it in regulation, but F Tim Duncan missed his patented bank shot as time expired. ... The Spurs now are 3-3 on their eight-game road trip while the rodeo occupies the AT&T Center.

Pistons:

F Antonio McDyess scored a season-high 24 points in Tuesday's loss to go with 14 boards. His previous high was 16 points on February 7 - also against Milwaukee. ... The Pistons' four-game losing streak isn't even their worst recent skid. They dropped five in a row from January 10-17. ... G Allen Iverson, G Rodney Stuckey and F-C Rasheed Wallace combined to shoot 9-of-30 in Tuesday's loss. ... Detroit has lost seven of its last eight home games.

Team Stat Leaders

Points

Tim Duncan SA 20.9
Allen Iverson Det 18.1

Rebounds

Tim Duncan SA 10.6
Antonio McDyess Det 8.8

Assists

Tony Parker SA 6.5
Allen Iverson Det 5.2

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

San Antonio 35-17 1st Southwest / 3rd West 98.0 94.8 Road 17-10 Lost 2 6-4

Detroit 27-25 2nd Central / 7th East 93.7 94.3 Home 14-14 Lost 4 3-7

[gingerwave]

Let's not make it three in a row. Let's go Spurs. :flag:

[Spork KIller]

Pistons 97
Spurms 71

[Gutter92]

This is fun. I see "Last Post By: Spork Killer" and I automatically know its going to be a good, quality, entertaining post.

[Spork KIller]

This is fun. I see "Last Post By: Spork Killer" and I automatically know its going to be a good, quality, entertaining post.

This a "previews" thread hehehe

dumbass..

The Spurms will lose...

[duncan228]

Thursday: Spurs (35-17) at Pistons (27-25) (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Thursday_Spurs_35-17_at_Pistons_27-25.html)
Express-News

Time: 7 p.m.
TV: TNT
Radio: WOAI-AM 1200, KCOR-AM 1350

STARTING LINEUPS
POS - SPURS - PISTONS

PG - 9 Tony Parker (6-2, 8th yr) - 3 Rodney Stuckey (6-5, 2nd yr)
Stuckey now a starter with Richard Hamilton's move to bench.

SG - 8 Roger Mason Jr. (6-5, 5th yr) - 1 Allen Iverson (6-0, 13th yr)
Mason has two 20-point games on rodeo trip, both with Ginobili out.

SF - 4 Michael Finley (6-7, 14th yr) - 22 Tayshaun Prince (6-9, 7th yr)
Finley 4 of 13, 0 of 5 from 3-point range in loss to Pistons.

PF - 21 Tim Duncan (6-11, 12th yr) - 24 Antonio McDyess (6-9, 14th yr)
On post-trade sabbatical, McDyess did not play in teams' previous meeting.

C - 15 Matt Bonner (6-10, 5th yr) - 36 Rasheed Wallace (6-11, 14th yr)
Wallace would look good in Spurs silver and black.

SPURS RESERVES

12 Bruce Bowen, F, 6-7, 13th yr
1 Malik Hairston, G, 6-6, 1st yr
3 George Hill, G, 6-2, 1st yr
7 Fabricio Oberto, C, 6-10, 4th yr
40 Kurt Thomas, C/F, 6-9, 14th yr
5 Ime Udoka, G/F, 6-5, 5th yr
11 Jacque Vaughn, G, 6-1, 12th yr

PISTONS RESERVES

28 Arron Afflalo, G, 6-5, 2nd yr
38 Kwame Brown, C, 6-11, 8th yr
12 Will Bynum, G, 6-0, 2nd yr
32 Richard Hamilton, G, 6-7, 9th yr
5 Walter Hermann, F, 6-9, 3rd yr
25 Amir Johnson, F, 6-9, 4th yr
54 Jason Maxiell, F, 6-7, 4th yr

COACHES

Spurs: Gregg Popovich
Pistons: Michael Curry

INJURIES

Spurs: Ian Mahinmi (right ankle surgery) and Manu Ginobili (sore right ankle) are out.

Pistons: None.

PROJECTED INACTIVE PLAYERS

Spurs: Mahinmi, Ginobili.

Pistons: Walter Sharpe.

NOTABLE

After brisk 3-1 start to rodeo trip, Spurs have dropped two in a row to fall to 3-3. They have not had a losing record on the trip since its inception in 2002. ... Spurs looking to avoid first three-game losing streak tonight in Detroit. ... Hamilton is averaging 19.4 points in 12 games as a reserve for Pistons. ... Spurs are 6-8 without Ginobili this season.

- Jeff McDonald

[Pistons < Spurs]

This is from Pistons.com Thought some of you might like to read it.




Duncan: a superstar toiling in obscurity

Two weeks ago, San Antonio won in overtime on a Monday night at Golden State. The next night in Denver, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sat his three All-Stars for the entire game. San Antonio still put up a fight, losing by eight. That game could wind up deciding which of those teams gets home-court advantage in the second round of the playoffs – Denver is 36-17, San Antonio 35-17 – so it seemed an especially curious decision.

“Tremendous luxury,” Michael Curry grinned when he was asked about it the following day.

Four days later, the Pistons won a tough overtime game at Milwaukee, then came home to host the Phoenix Suns 24 hours later. Curry didn’t rest a soul.

Popovich has put himself in rare company among NBA coaches with the four titles he’s led the Spurs to since taking over for Bob Hill midway through the 1996-97 season. Those four titles make decisions that would be labeled reckless or worse had they come from coaches with lesser resumes seem visionary. Only Popovich and Phil Jackson, really, have the latitude to get away with such boldness among today’s coaches.

So that was most of what Curry was talking about when he called Popovich’s maneuver a “tremendous luxury.” But some of it, just maybe, had to do with Tim Duncan.

Life is largely about timing, and Popovich is as good an example as any. (Though Jackson, who had the good fortune of being Doug Collins’ chief lieutenant in Chicago when Collins rubbed the Bulls’ emotions raw and got canned, is right there with him.) Six months after Popovich slid over one seat in San Antonio, the Spurs beat long odds to win the lottery, forever altering the course of Rick Pitino’s life, among many others, in the year Duncan’s Wake Forest eligibility finally expired.

Now, none of this is meant to disparage Popovich. He’s proven his mettle as a handler of big personalities, a molder of teams and a strategist of the first order. But the story of San Antonio’s decade of dominance begins with Tim Duncan.

He makes his annual visit to The Palace on Thursday night – the first of a seven-game stretch against a murderer’s row of opponents that will shape the Pistons’ season – and, at 32 going on 33, there might not be too many more chances to see him here in his prime. The guy has been nothing less than the NBA’s dominant player of his era, and he’s the biggest reason – apologies to Robert Horry – that the Pistons don’t have a fourth NBA championship banner waving over The Palace floor.

He’s also the least appreciated superstar of his era, for reasons that say far more about American mass media culture than about Duncan’s ability or impact on his sport. If Duncan had half of Shaq’s effervescence or Kobe’s dramatic sense, his jerseys would be as ubiquitous as theirs have been over the years, his commercial endorsements as coveted.

It doesn’t help his case that he plays in small-market San Antonio, beyond the fact that it probably contributes to his well-being in that the market better suits his temperament.

As the Pistons, clawing to break from a 5-13 malaise that has them teetering on the precipice of .500, prepared Wednesday for their seven-game onslaught of playoff opponents, Curry talked about San Antonio’s enduring success.

He started by saying this: “They’ve added some really good players. They have their core guys, but Bruce Bowen has been a fixture for years and he doesn’t play nearly as many minutes any more. A lot of times they’re playing Roger Mason Jr. and (Matt) Bonner a ton of minutes. So they’ve added some youth and those guys are playing really well …”

And then he got to the punch line: “But you’ve got Duncan. Any time things get off track a little bit, he can get you back on track. Whether they have injuries or added youth to their lineup, when you’ve got Duncan, that’s a rock to stand on.”

Understand that Duncan’s value only begins with his numbers, but his numbers are jaw-dropping. Consistency is his hallmark. It’s tough enough to put up 20 and 10 for one season. Duncan has done it for nine of his 11 NBA seasons – heck, his career averages are 21.6 and 11.8. He’s been a double-digit rebounder for every one of those seasons. In the two years he didn’t average 20 points, he got to 18.6 and 19.3.

He’s a near-lock to keep his streak alive, too, averaging 20.9 and 10.6 this season.

And, remember, San Antonio has been an elite defensive team annually, typically playing games in the 90s. Devoid of ego, but not competitive fire, Duncan has been perfectly happy to let Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker carry the offense – until the closing minutes of close games, at least. San Antonio has built its model on Duncan, surrounding him with 3-point shooting role players to take advantage of the double teams he demands. In a league where the average player shoots about 45 percent, Duncan, facing all those double teams, is a 51 percent career shooter.

When Ginobili began the season recuperating from ankle surgery and then Parker suffered a severe ankle sprain, Duncan kept the depleted Spurs afloat. Yet the Spurs are in solid shape to win the tough Southwest Division and make a run at the fifth NBA title of the Popovich-Duncan era.

Make that the Duncan-Popovich era. A great player is, indeed, a tremendous luxury.



-------------------------------------------------------------
# Curry is mindful not to increase the already significant pressure on Rodney Stuckey to perform, but he didn’t duck questions about Stuckey’s slump at Wednesday’s practice.

“Rodney is the key to our team, period,” he said. “I’m not blaming him, so make sure no one says we’re blaming Rodney for anything. It’s just a fact. We’ve had other guys play well and it doesn’t affect everybody. When he plays well, everybody else gets a chance to play well.

“We’ve got to find a way to get Stuckey on track. He ignites everybody else. I talked to him about some things we can do to keep him aggressive. I think he spends a lot of time trying to make sure everybody else is OK on the court, but his natural instinct is to be aggressive and we just want him to be himself.

“Most young point guards are going to go through it if they haven’t when they come in this league. It can be overwhelming at times. It’s overwhelming for a coach, at times, so I can imagine for a young point guard. But the reality is, you just go out and play extremely aggressive and do the things he can do best for us to win and let us put everybody else in position to be successful.”

# The next seven games – San Antonio, at Cleveland, at Miami, at New Orleans, at Orlando, at Boston, Denver – come against teams with a cumulative record of 253-113, a winning percentage of (gulp!) .691.

“It’s crazy,” Rip Hamilton said of the Pistons’ struggles and the upcoming stretch of games. “If you look at our record now, we’re – what, 27 and 25? That’s kind of insane to me. Especially losing a game last night (against Milwaukee) where we needed to get one because we know what type of schedule we’ve got coming up. So we’ve just got to take one game at a time and hopefully get a win tomorrow.”

“It’s going to be the toughest all year, this schedule coming up,” Tayshaun Prince said.


http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/truebluepistons.html

[ManuTP9]

i wonder if doug collins is calling the game tommorow

[duncan228]

This is from Pistons.com Thought some of you might like to read it.

Duncan: a superstar toiling in obscurity

:toast

Thanks. :)

[katuso]

Go Spurs Go!
Let's avoid a third consecutive loss .

[Gutter92]

This a "previews" thread hehehe

dumbass..

The Spurms will lose...

Oh stupid me, I did not realize "Previews" = "Post your prediction of the final score"...I am so sorry :/ It wont happen again I promise. Please dont beat me up.

[Spursfan092120]

Pistons 97
Spurms 71

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcsaAEQBfXY&feature=related

[Ghazi]

Pistons are pretty bad.

[Spork KIller]

Pistons are pretty bad.

The Knicks and Raptors too....and you saw what happened :wow :wakeup

[Austin_Toros]

Pistons are pretty bad.

yep. nowhere near the team they used to be. spurs should win easy. but after their last couple of games...

[Allanon]

It's really going to depend on the Pistons.

I've noticed the Pistons "get up" for certain teams. Which team shows up?

The one that beat the Lakers by 20 or the one that lost to the Thundah by 10.

[afireinside20]

Hope the Spurs can pull this one off, will be hard without Manu. What's up with this Spork guy? All I ever see is him talking smack about the Spurs, ok fool we get it, you hate the Spurs!!! Get a new freaking hobby!!!? How are your sorry Suns doing down there in 8th, or whatever place their in? :bang

[Chieflion]

Hope the Spurs can pull this one off, will be hard without Manu. What's up with this Spork guy? All I ever see is him talking smack about the Spurs, ok fool we get it, you hate the Spurs!!! Get a new freaking hobby!!!? How are your sorry Suns doing down there in 8th, or whatever place their in? :bang
It is a trolling thing. His posts are hilarious and this website is complete satire.

[shelshor]

Referee Assignments
Thurs. Feb. 19
San Antonio @ Detroit: R. Garretson, R. Olesiak, J. Phillips

[duncan228]

Pistons hope to snap skid vs. visiting Spurs (http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=nba/news/news.aspx?id=4213484)

(Sports Network) - The Detroit Pistons will try to avoid losing a season-high tying fifth straight game Thursday when they close out a three-game homestand Thursday night versus the San Antonio Spurs at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Pistons have dropped four straight overall and the first two tests of their residency, including Tuesday's 92-86 setback versus the Milwaukee Bucks.

Antonio McDyess led the Pistons with 24 points and 14 rebounds, while Richard Hamilton added 22 points off the bench. Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson all scored 10 points for Detroit, which is 14-14 at The Palace this season. Hamilton is averaging 26.2 points over his last five games.

The last time the Pistons lost five in a row was from January 10 - 17.

San Antonio will resume its eight-game road trip Thursday and is 3-3 so far on the trek. It has dropped two straight and three of five on the road swing, and suffered a 112-107 overtime loss at New York Tuesday evening at Madison Square Garden. Nate Robinson finished with 32 points and a career high-tying 10 rebounds to lead the Knicks to a hard-fought win.

Tim Duncan got his 33rd double-double of the season with 26 points and 15 rebounds for the Spurs, who are 17-10 away from home this season and will also visit the Washington Wizards. Roger Mason added 20 points and Tony Parker 14 in a losing cause.

Spurs guard Manu Ginobili did not travel with the team to New York because of a sore right ankle and will miss Thursday's game. He is averaging 16.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists this season.

Detroit defeated San Antonio, 89-77, on December 2 this season at the AT&T Center, as Iverson and Wallace scored 19 points apiece to lead the way. The Pistons have won three straight over the Spurs, who have dropped four of their last five at The Palace.

[bbarry]

:lol nice one, spork.