Kori Ellis
04-02-2005, 02:03 AM
A Rocky road for Spurs
Web Posted: 04/02/2005 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA040205.1C.BKNspurs.nuggets.gamer.198bdd18a.htm l
DENVER — It was nearly 10 hours before tipoff of Friday night's nationally televised game between the Spurs and the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center, and an ESPN TV crew was pulling Nuggets players aside, one after another, after their morning shootaround for sit-down interviews.
Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony sat in a corner of the Nuggets' practice facility with a senior reporter from Sports Illustrated, in town to write a feature piece on the team whose 12-2 record in March was the league's best.
The Spurs?
They were strictly extras in this made-for-TV docudrama about the league's latest big thing, the George Karl-coached Nuggets who may well wind up as the Spurs' first-round playoff foe.
They fell to the Nuggets 102-84. It was their second loss to the Nuggets in three weeks. Spurs All-Star power forward Tim Duncan missed the March 12 game at the SBC Center, a 90-87 Denver victory, after spraining his right ankle for a second time this season. Duncan wasn't even in Denver on Friday night, remaining in San Antonio with his worst right ankle sprain of the season.
With Duncan missing, Denver's Marcus Camby was the game's dominant big man. He flirted with a rare points-rebounds-blocks triple-double, missing it by two blocks. Camby's dominance in the paint was a major factor in the Spurs' 31.8 percent shooting, their worst of the season. Camby had two of his eight blocks on one five-shot Spurs possession that failed to produce a basket.
While the Spurs had seemed to regain some of their competitive fire in their three-straight home-court victories without Duncan, they again seemed lost on the road without him. Decidedly flat at the outset, they committed six turnovers in the first quarter alone.
Their most competitive moment of the first quarter came when coach Gregg Popovich blitzed referee Gary Zielinski after Camby crashed into Manu Ginobili in a chase for a loose ball and Zielinski didn't call a foul. Popovich followed Zielinski all the way to the end of the court, berating him for swallowing his whistle, as assistant coach Don Newman stepped in front of his boss to make sure Popovich's temper didn't induce a physical confrontation.
If Popovich was hoping he might inspire his troops by drawing a technical foul, Zielinski wouldn't even cooperate with that ploy. No technical was called, and the Spurs remained relatively listless.
The result: Denver led by 13 at the end of the first quarter and expanded the edge to 16 less than three minutes into the second.
Popovich was left to probe his bench for any sort of player combination that could match Denver's energy. He used all 12 players in the first half, even seldom-used guard Mike Wilks, who actually had a height advantage on Denver's 5-foot-5 super-sub point guard, Earl Boykins, the NBA's shortest player.
Nothing worked, and with three minutes left in the half, Denver scored its fourth basket off a Spurs turnover, an uncontested layup for Boykins off a long pass from Camby. That gave the Nuggets a 46-28 lead and prompted a timeout from Popovich, during which he reminded his players Duncan wasn't on his way to the arena from Texas.
"Tim Duncan isn't here," Popovich told his team. "Get over it."
The Spurs responded by scoring seven unanswered points in the final 1:24 of the half, but they still trailed by 12 when the halftime break arrived. Rasho Nesterovic made the first basket of the second half, cutting Denver's lead to 10, but the Nuggets responded with seven-straight points to put the Spurs back in a 17-point hole.
The Spurs had a 13-2 third-quarter run that trimmed Denver's lead to 62-58, but the Nuggets answered it with a 7-0 run to close the quarter.
Karl, named the Western Conference Coach of the Month on Friday morning, fretted beforehand about the national attention his team has garnered of late. He worried out loud that it could be "de-energizing" for a team not accustomed to such attention.
"Sometimes, teams that aren't experienced with it, it can be a distraction," Karl said. "I told the guys, 'You are all excited when TNT or ESPN comes in to do one of your games. But when you get really good, is when you go, 'Oh, no, not them again,' because you know you've got to give them an extra half hour of interviews.
"That's when you'll know you've arrived."
The Spurs' loss, coupled with Phoenix's victory over Minnesota on Friday, dropped them two games behind the Suns in the race for first place in the Western Conference. It also helped the Nuggets remain in seventh place in the West. If the teams remain in those spots at the end of the regular season in less than three weeks, they would match up in a playoff series that clearly would be more difficult than a typical two vs. seven first-round matchup.
Web Posted: 04/02/2005 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA040205.1C.BKNspurs.nuggets.gamer.198bdd18a.htm l
DENVER — It was nearly 10 hours before tipoff of Friday night's nationally televised game between the Spurs and the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center, and an ESPN TV crew was pulling Nuggets players aside, one after another, after their morning shootaround for sit-down interviews.
Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony sat in a corner of the Nuggets' practice facility with a senior reporter from Sports Illustrated, in town to write a feature piece on the team whose 12-2 record in March was the league's best.
The Spurs?
They were strictly extras in this made-for-TV docudrama about the league's latest big thing, the George Karl-coached Nuggets who may well wind up as the Spurs' first-round playoff foe.
They fell to the Nuggets 102-84. It was their second loss to the Nuggets in three weeks. Spurs All-Star power forward Tim Duncan missed the March 12 game at the SBC Center, a 90-87 Denver victory, after spraining his right ankle for a second time this season. Duncan wasn't even in Denver on Friday night, remaining in San Antonio with his worst right ankle sprain of the season.
With Duncan missing, Denver's Marcus Camby was the game's dominant big man. He flirted with a rare points-rebounds-blocks triple-double, missing it by two blocks. Camby's dominance in the paint was a major factor in the Spurs' 31.8 percent shooting, their worst of the season. Camby had two of his eight blocks on one five-shot Spurs possession that failed to produce a basket.
While the Spurs had seemed to regain some of their competitive fire in their three-straight home-court victories without Duncan, they again seemed lost on the road without him. Decidedly flat at the outset, they committed six turnovers in the first quarter alone.
Their most competitive moment of the first quarter came when coach Gregg Popovich blitzed referee Gary Zielinski after Camby crashed into Manu Ginobili in a chase for a loose ball and Zielinski didn't call a foul. Popovich followed Zielinski all the way to the end of the court, berating him for swallowing his whistle, as assistant coach Don Newman stepped in front of his boss to make sure Popovich's temper didn't induce a physical confrontation.
If Popovich was hoping he might inspire his troops by drawing a technical foul, Zielinski wouldn't even cooperate with that ploy. No technical was called, and the Spurs remained relatively listless.
The result: Denver led by 13 at the end of the first quarter and expanded the edge to 16 less than three minutes into the second.
Popovich was left to probe his bench for any sort of player combination that could match Denver's energy. He used all 12 players in the first half, even seldom-used guard Mike Wilks, who actually had a height advantage on Denver's 5-foot-5 super-sub point guard, Earl Boykins, the NBA's shortest player.
Nothing worked, and with three minutes left in the half, Denver scored its fourth basket off a Spurs turnover, an uncontested layup for Boykins off a long pass from Camby. That gave the Nuggets a 46-28 lead and prompted a timeout from Popovich, during which he reminded his players Duncan wasn't on his way to the arena from Texas.
"Tim Duncan isn't here," Popovich told his team. "Get over it."
The Spurs responded by scoring seven unanswered points in the final 1:24 of the half, but they still trailed by 12 when the halftime break arrived. Rasho Nesterovic made the first basket of the second half, cutting Denver's lead to 10, but the Nuggets responded with seven-straight points to put the Spurs back in a 17-point hole.
The Spurs had a 13-2 third-quarter run that trimmed Denver's lead to 62-58, but the Nuggets answered it with a 7-0 run to close the quarter.
Karl, named the Western Conference Coach of the Month on Friday morning, fretted beforehand about the national attention his team has garnered of late. He worried out loud that it could be "de-energizing" for a team not accustomed to such attention.
"Sometimes, teams that aren't experienced with it, it can be a distraction," Karl said. "I told the guys, 'You are all excited when TNT or ESPN comes in to do one of your games. But when you get really good, is when you go, 'Oh, no, not them again,' because you know you've got to give them an extra half hour of interviews.
"That's when you'll know you've arrived."
The Spurs' loss, coupled with Phoenix's victory over Minnesota on Friday, dropped them two games behind the Suns in the race for first place in the Western Conference. It also helped the Nuggets remain in seventh place in the West. If the teams remain in those spots at the end of the regular season in less than three weeks, they would match up in a playoff series that clearly would be more difficult than a typical two vs. seven first-round matchup.