No extra effort needed; Ginobili back

[Kori Ellis]

No extra effort needed; Ginobili back
Web Posted: 04/13/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA041305.1E.BKNspurs-blazers.gamer.1d11ce4c4.html

Tony Parker watched Beno Udrih walk to the scorer's table midway through Tuesday's third quarter and smiled.

"I don't need no rest!" Parker shouted from the court.

After becoming the first NBA team to win back-to-back, double-overtime games, Parker and the Spurs had enough energy Tuesday to ensure one thing: They don't have to work any longer for the Southwest Division title.

Manu Ginobili returned from a one-game sabbatical to score 30 points in a 95-89 victory over Portland that gave the Spurs their fifth division title in seven years and no worse than the Western Conference's No. 2 playoff seed.

The Spurs, who improved to a league-best 37-3 at the SBC Center, are assured of having homecourt advantage, if necessary, through at least the first two rounds of the playoffs. Phoenix remained one game ahead of them atop the conference standings after beating New Orleans on Tuesday.

"It's a great first step," Ginobili said of the division title. "When Timmy (Duncan) went down, we started to get a little worried ... The last three games were huge for us."

The Spurs had to go to double OT to win the first two. After Ginobili scored 40 points in a career-high 50 minutes in Saturday's victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday, coach Gregg Popovich was worried enough about exhausting his frenetic All-Star that he didn't play him Sunday against Golden State.

The rest appeared to do Ginobili some good. He made 10 of 16 shots, including 4 of 5 3-point attempts, and added seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. He closed out the victory with a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:05 remaining.

"The game against the Clippers was so tough," Ginobili said. "I played too many minutes. After that I was all messed up."

He looked fine Tuesday. After Portland narrowed the Spurs' 19-point lead to 64-56 late in the third quarter, Ginobili responded by burying a 3-pointer as he was fouled.

The Trail Blazers were still within nine points with a little more than two minutes remaining when Robert Horry's short jump shot skipped off the rim. Ginobili caught the rebound with one hand and banked in a layup. Without his feet ever touching the ground.

"He does something that gives me pause," Popovich said, "each and every game."

Parker didn't duplicate the career-best 35-point performance he had in Sunday's 136-134 victory over Golden State, but his teammates were impressed he felt good enough to play at all. In the previous two games, he was on the floor for 99 of a possible 116 minutes.

"That's unbelievable," Ginobili said. "He came out today chasing (Portland guard Damon) Stoudamire all over the place. I think we all did a very good job and stuck together."

Nazr Mohammed started at center and totaled 10 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks, giving him 29, 29 and six in the two games since Rasho Nesterovic went on the injured list. Twelve of Mohammed's rebounds came in the first half, matching Nesterovic's season high for a game.

"Guys don't get an opportunity too often," Bruce Bowen said. "Whenever you do get one, you want to do your best."

With four games remaining and Duncan possibly returning Saturday, the Spurs still can catch the Suns and land the top seed. But Popovich wants to make sure the team also has enough rest going into the playoffs.

"If someone said, 'what's your choice,' you'd say you want one," Popovich said. "Beyond that, it's all psycho-babble and doesn't mean anything."

Ginobili will be glad when tonight is over. After Tuesday's victory, the Spurs flew to Utah where they will play their sixth game in eight days.

"Back-to-back, back-to-back, back-to-back is not easy, especially in this part of the season," he said. "But we are a little more calm knowing we got (the second seed).

"Now we will wait for Phoenix to make a mistake."

[Solid D]

After becoming the first NBA team to win back-to-back, double-overtime games, Parker and the Spurs had enough energy Tuesday to ensure one thing: They don't have to work any longer for the Southwest Division title.

[slayermin]

I thought Beno played well tonight. He reminded me of the way he played in the OT game at Phoenix. Maybe this will get him on track.

[Frenchise player]

This stretch of game without Duncan has some positives effects, the team seems ready for the playoffs and with Tim back, they will find everything much more easy.

[team-work]

Trying times on schedule: Back-to-back games are a part of life for the Spurs and each NBA team
Web Posted: 04/13/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer

This morning, the Spurs will awaken in their rooms in Salt Lake City after arriving in Utah on their chartered jet sometime around 1:30 in the morning, roughly three hours after the final buzzer of their Tuesday night game against the Portland Trail Blazers at the SBC Center.

They may have a morning shoot-around at the Delta Center or perhaps a morning walk-through in a hotel ballroom. As late as it is in the regular season, they might even choose to forego a morning practice altogether. Regardless, they will play the Utah Jazz tonight.

It will be their sixth game in eight nights, on legs still weary from Tuesday night's work, and 72 hours removed from their second consecutive double-overtime game, both played within another 48-hour period.

Welcome to the world of NBA scheduling, where the term "back to back" sounds a lot like a four-letter word.

For the Spurs, having to play three sets of back to backs in an eight-day stretch during which they have battled numerous injuries served to make the schedule even more trying. Throw in two double-overtime games in their Saturday-Sunday set against the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, and the set against the Trail Blazers and Jazz becomes even more of a grind.

"The (late-season) schedule is ridiculous," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, even before the Spurs departed for their three-game trip that ended Sunday night in Oakland, Calif. "For the (Denver-Lakers) back to back (last week), we got back about 4:30 in the morning and played the next night. It was crazy, and then it's being followed by six games in eight nights.

"That's tough for any team at the end of a season. That's something you would not want. But in our situation, we have to be very careful we don't break Tony (Parker) and Manu (Ginobili) down by the time the playoffs start just to get wins. We're going to go out and play, but these guys are going to have to get their rest if we want them to be ready for the playoffs."

It's not like the Spurs are being picked on. Every NBA team plays nearly half its games in back-to-back sets, and the reason is simple: There are 171 days in the regular season, and each team plays 82 games. Throw in the four-day All-Star break, no games being scheduled on Christmas Eve or the Monday of the NCAA championship basketball game, and the league's schedule makers must squeeze each team's 82 games into 165 dates.

Add the most limiting factor — arena scheduling conflicts, such as the San Antonio stock show and rodeo — and it is no wonder some teams this season will play as many as 23 sets of back-to-back games.

For the past 20 years, Matt Winick, NBA vice-president of basketball operations, has been the man coaches and general managers sometimes curse when it seems the schedule has worked a hardship on their team.

"It doesn't even faze me," Winick said of the criticism he has received from teams that believe their particular set of back-to-back games was particularly challenging. The Spurs thought so when ESPN dictated a start time for their April 1 game in Denver, against the Nuggets, followed by their home date the next night against the Lakers.

"I do what I've got to do," said Winick, "and I'm not expecting anyone to say, 'Thanks.' I don't get a lot of complaints in July when the schedule is out. They seem to come in February, March and April, when a team loses a couple games in a row."

Once Winick and those with whom he works on the schedule finish a rough draft, he goes over it, team by team, date by date, with a goal to reduce number of back-to-back dates. It is a process of trial and error guaranteed to leave some teams unhappy.

"There are 1,230 games each season," Winick said. "It's like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle with 1,230 pieces, and all of them have to fit. If one doesn't fit, there's no puzzle."

Winick points out that he is responsible only for the dates teams play. The start times are at the discretion of the home team. Thus, had the Spurs wanted an extra hour of rest before their April 2 game against the Lakers, they could have scheduled an 8:30 p.m. start time.

Players adapt to back-to-back scheduling. They are more aware of the need to eat properly and to rest whenever they can.

What players can't do: approach the second game of a back-to-back set any differently than other games. What a team such as the Spurs can do is try to get a comfortable victory in the first game to give key players a chance for a little more rest.

"There's not much you can do about it," Parker said of the Spurs' difficult schedule. "You just try to save energies when you can. If you've got a lead and can get an easy win, OK. If not, you've just got to forget it.

"The following day you've got to rest better, eat better. You can't play today thinking about the one tomorrow."

The worst thing players can do, said Spurs forward Bruce Bowen, is focus too much on apparent injustice.

"It's the NBA," Bowen said. "It is what it is. Get over it and play the game."

It is worth noting that it wasn't until 1976 that the league limited to two the number of consecutive games a team could play. In the past, Eastern teams sometimes would play a night game in one Eastern city and a day game the next day in another.

Clippers assistant coach Kim Hughes, who played in the ABA, laughed at the notion of back-to-back games being a terrible hardship.

"We sometimes played three or four games in as many nights," Hughes said. "And we didn't have charters. We had to be on the first flight the next morning. We might travel from New York to Denver to San Antonio to St. Louis and have to get up at 5:30 every morning, get to the hotel around 1:30 in the afternoon, get to the gym about 5:30 for the game that night.

"I've seen a lot of guys have their best games when they're overtired, because then they don't think."

Winick's job is one nobody envies and few appreciate, but it has one important fringe benefit: Long-term job security.

"I had breakfast with (then-NBA president of basketball operations) Scotty Stirling one morning 20 years ago," Winick recalled. "He told me, 'You're going to do the schedule from now on.'

"I said, "Why would I want to do the schedule?' and he said it would turn into a lifetime job, because nobody else would want to do it."

Stirling was right. Winick ranks No. 2 in seniority at the league office, and for 20 of his 25 seasons with the league the schedule has been one of his primary responsibilities.

Can anybody kindly tell me why the NBA schedule has to be so tightly packed (regular season : 82 games from end of Oct to mid-April; not to mention the playoffs). This might be the reason why Duncan and Ginobili got injured, instead of the fact that they played in the Olympics!

[waly.mg]

Devin And Rasho Don´t Play In The Olympics

[T Park]

They took alot of days off in february.

Damn near a week. More than the average amount for a team going into the All star weekend.


Gotta make it up somewhere.


I would rather play alot of games in November, then have days off in April.

[exstatic]

They took alot of days off in february.

Damn near a week. More than the average amount for a team going into the All star weekend.

Realistically, TPark, there were only 3 game days in there with no game. That one week fell over the All Star break, four days in which NO ONE plays any games. The Spurs also headed into the break with about as many games already played as anyone, fifty-something, IIRC.