hater
03-11-2009, 10:01 AM
"I don't think I'm exactly 100 percent, but I don't know that I will be. It's just the wear and tear of the season. This is just how I'm going to be for the rest of the way here."
San Antonio's Tim Duncan, acknowledging that his season-long sharpness hasn't been there since he took three games off to rest his ailing right knee.
Duncan shot 20-for-47 from the field in his first three games back and blamed himself for San Antonio's 107-102 loss in Dallas on Wednesday, insisting that he was "awful" at both ends.
He chastised himself for flubbing defensive rotations on a Dirk Nowitzki 3-pointer and a Josh Howard drive -- both in crunch time -- and acknowledged that he allowed himself to get too frustrated by a few non-calls on his own work inside … without acknowledging any of the referees by name on a night when Duncan and Joey Crawford were back in American Airlines Center some two years removed from the late-season game when Crawford ejected Duncan as the Spurs star laughed on the bench.
It probably wasn't the best night, adding up all those details, to ask Duncan how he was feeling. He was undoubtedly being unusually hard on himself, in trademark Spurs fashion, after a tough loss to a team they still view as a rival … even if few league observers still have the Mavs in San Antonio's class.
But the comments about his knee have to be filed away, because the prospect of a competitive Western Conference finals probably rests on Duncan's health. And Manu Ginobili's.
Should the Spurs be able to keep the newly signed Drew Gooden (and his dodgy groin) on the floor, along with smash-hit summer signing Roger Mason and the emerging Matt Bonner, they've quietly assembled what appears to be the most offensively potent supporting cast for Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker they've ever had in San Antonio. Add the scorers to the supporting-cast vets who have been well-drilled in the Spurs' ways -- Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley, Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas -- and you have the one team out West that can conceivably beat the Lakers in a seven-game series. Even if L.A. gets Andrew Bynum back.
But that's obviously only if the stars that flank Parker are reasonably sturdy in late May. Ginobili had surgery on his left ankle in the offseason and has been out since the Spurs returned from the All-Star break, when increasing pain in the other ankle forced San Antonio's medical staff to put his right foot in a boot for a week. Duncan's struggles were more surprising, even though he's 32 and Ginobili is 31, because Timmy looked so fresh and spry in November, December and January after a summer of boxing training and tossing tractor tires to prepare for his 12th season.
"He's Tim," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, insisting that he's not doing any extra fretting about Duncan's condition.
"There's no 'progress to be made.' It's not like he was out [so] long where he's got to get a rhythm back or anything. … Overall he's doing fine."
San Antonio's Tim Duncan, acknowledging that his season-long sharpness hasn't been there since he took three games off to rest his ailing right knee.
Duncan shot 20-for-47 from the field in his first three games back and blamed himself for San Antonio's 107-102 loss in Dallas on Wednesday, insisting that he was "awful" at both ends.
He chastised himself for flubbing defensive rotations on a Dirk Nowitzki 3-pointer and a Josh Howard drive -- both in crunch time -- and acknowledged that he allowed himself to get too frustrated by a few non-calls on his own work inside … without acknowledging any of the referees by name on a night when Duncan and Joey Crawford were back in American Airlines Center some two years removed from the late-season game when Crawford ejected Duncan as the Spurs star laughed on the bench.
It probably wasn't the best night, adding up all those details, to ask Duncan how he was feeling. He was undoubtedly being unusually hard on himself, in trademark Spurs fashion, after a tough loss to a team they still view as a rival … even if few league observers still have the Mavs in San Antonio's class.
But the comments about his knee have to be filed away, because the prospect of a competitive Western Conference finals probably rests on Duncan's health. And Manu Ginobili's.
Should the Spurs be able to keep the newly signed Drew Gooden (and his dodgy groin) on the floor, along with smash-hit summer signing Roger Mason and the emerging Matt Bonner, they've quietly assembled what appears to be the most offensively potent supporting cast for Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker they've ever had in San Antonio. Add the scorers to the supporting-cast vets who have been well-drilled in the Spurs' ways -- Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley, Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas -- and you have the one team out West that can conceivably beat the Lakers in a seven-game series. Even if L.A. gets Andrew Bynum back.
But that's obviously only if the stars that flank Parker are reasonably sturdy in late May. Ginobili had surgery on his left ankle in the offseason and has been out since the Spurs returned from the All-Star break, when increasing pain in the other ankle forced San Antonio's medical staff to put his right foot in a boot for a week. Duncan's struggles were more surprising, even though he's 32 and Ginobili is 31, because Timmy looked so fresh and spry in November, December and January after a summer of boxing training and tossing tractor tires to prepare for his 12th season.
"He's Tim," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, insisting that he's not doing any extra fretting about Duncan's condition.
"There's no 'progress to be made.' It's not like he was out [so] long where he's got to get a rhythm back or anything. … Overall he's doing fine."