duncan228
02-09-2010, 01:48 AM
Spurs have little to feel good about (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_have_little_to_feel_good_about.html)
Jeff McDonald
LOS ANGELES Lakers coach Phil Jackson received some bad medical news before Monday's game against the Spurs. Gregg Popovich did, too.
It was, in fact, the same bit of news.
Jackson learned he'd again be without star guard Kobe Bryant and starting center Andrew Bynum. In the other locker room, Popovich was hardly licking his chops.
I'd rather have it the other way, Popovich said. It's more a situation where if you win the game, I'm not sure you take a lot from it. And if you lose the game, you feel like hell.
Given the choice, the Spurs would have gladly taken option A. Instead, they left Staples Center on Monday feeling like hell.
The Lakers' three best remaining players picked up the slack for their missing stars, the Spurs suffered through another horrific shooting night, and L.A. claimed a 101-89 victory at Staples Center.
Pau Gasol had 21 points, 19 rebounds and eight assists, Ron Artest scored 18, and Lamar Odom totaled 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Lakers extended their home-court mastery over the Spurs even without their best player. Including three games in the 2008 Western Conference finals, the Lakers have now won seven in a row over the Spurs at Staples Center.
Count it as another prime opportunity wasted for the Spurs, who within the past nine days also dropped games to Denver without Carmelo Anthony and to Portland without Brandon Roy.
One of the few wounded teams the Spurs have been able to take care of, ironically, was the Lakers. With Gasol out and Bryant hobbled in a Jan. 12 game at the AT&T Center, the Spurs won by 20.
This time, the Lakers didn't need Bryant, the NBA's fourth-leading scorer and former MVP, or Bynum, their man-child center, to dispatch a Spurs team whose dream of dethroning L.A. atop the Western Conference is appearing more quixotic by the day.
The Spurs (29-21) shot 42.7 percent from the field, just one percentage point less than L.A. The Lakers (40-13), however, got key contributions from a cadre of role players. Jordan Farmar had 13 points off the bench, while Derek Fisher chipped in 13 and Shannon Brown starting for Bryant added eight.
We have a bench, Jackson said. We think those guys can play. They're on our team for a reason.
The Spurs got 21 points from Manu Ginobili, 20 from Tony Parker and not nearly enough from everyone else.
Monday's game marked the end of an extended Staples Center stay for the Spurs, who beat the Clippers 98-81 on Saturday.
One Spurs player happy to leave Los Angeles: Richard Jefferson. He totaled 14 points in the two games, shooting a combined 4 of 18. George Hill followed up his 22-point effort against the Clippers with a five-point, 2-of-8 showing Monday.
After shooting 54.5 percent in the first quarter, the Spurs made just nine of their next 39 shots.
The power outage began with a second quarter in which they hit 5 of 19, committed four turnovers and lost the lead. They were outscored 22-13, matching their lowest-scoring quarter of the season, as the Lakers were able to transform a six-point deficit entering the quarter into a 50-47 lead at the half.
Halftime did little to warm up the Spurs.
They missed seven of their first 11 attempts of the third quarter, and the Lakers cobbled together a 7-0 run, capped by an Artest 3-point play, that gave them an 11-point lead.
They made their final five tries of the quarter including a pair of Parker jumpers and a Ginobili 3-pointer to climb within 73-68 heading into the final frame.
Given the entire fourth quarter, the Spurs could get no closer. As has been the case in many of their losses of late, the Spurs were simply out-executed at the game's most critical moments.
Jeff McDonald
LOS ANGELES Lakers coach Phil Jackson received some bad medical news before Monday's game against the Spurs. Gregg Popovich did, too.
It was, in fact, the same bit of news.
Jackson learned he'd again be without star guard Kobe Bryant and starting center Andrew Bynum. In the other locker room, Popovich was hardly licking his chops.
I'd rather have it the other way, Popovich said. It's more a situation where if you win the game, I'm not sure you take a lot from it. And if you lose the game, you feel like hell.
Given the choice, the Spurs would have gladly taken option A. Instead, they left Staples Center on Monday feeling like hell.
The Lakers' three best remaining players picked up the slack for their missing stars, the Spurs suffered through another horrific shooting night, and L.A. claimed a 101-89 victory at Staples Center.
Pau Gasol had 21 points, 19 rebounds and eight assists, Ron Artest scored 18, and Lamar Odom totaled 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Lakers extended their home-court mastery over the Spurs even without their best player. Including three games in the 2008 Western Conference finals, the Lakers have now won seven in a row over the Spurs at Staples Center.
Count it as another prime opportunity wasted for the Spurs, who within the past nine days also dropped games to Denver without Carmelo Anthony and to Portland without Brandon Roy.
One of the few wounded teams the Spurs have been able to take care of, ironically, was the Lakers. With Gasol out and Bryant hobbled in a Jan. 12 game at the AT&T Center, the Spurs won by 20.
This time, the Lakers didn't need Bryant, the NBA's fourth-leading scorer and former MVP, or Bynum, their man-child center, to dispatch a Spurs team whose dream of dethroning L.A. atop the Western Conference is appearing more quixotic by the day.
The Spurs (29-21) shot 42.7 percent from the field, just one percentage point less than L.A. The Lakers (40-13), however, got key contributions from a cadre of role players. Jordan Farmar had 13 points off the bench, while Derek Fisher chipped in 13 and Shannon Brown starting for Bryant added eight.
We have a bench, Jackson said. We think those guys can play. They're on our team for a reason.
The Spurs got 21 points from Manu Ginobili, 20 from Tony Parker and not nearly enough from everyone else.
Monday's game marked the end of an extended Staples Center stay for the Spurs, who beat the Clippers 98-81 on Saturday.
One Spurs player happy to leave Los Angeles: Richard Jefferson. He totaled 14 points in the two games, shooting a combined 4 of 18. George Hill followed up his 22-point effort against the Clippers with a five-point, 2-of-8 showing Monday.
After shooting 54.5 percent in the first quarter, the Spurs made just nine of their next 39 shots.
The power outage began with a second quarter in which they hit 5 of 19, committed four turnovers and lost the lead. They were outscored 22-13, matching their lowest-scoring quarter of the season, as the Lakers were able to transform a six-point deficit entering the quarter into a 50-47 lead at the half.
Halftime did little to warm up the Spurs.
They missed seven of their first 11 attempts of the third quarter, and the Lakers cobbled together a 7-0 run, capped by an Artest 3-point play, that gave them an 11-point lead.
They made their final five tries of the quarter including a pair of Parker jumpers and a Ginobili 3-pointer to climb within 73-68 heading into the final frame.
Given the entire fourth quarter, the Spurs could get no closer. As has been the case in many of their losses of late, the Spurs were simply out-executed at the game's most critical moments.