duncan228
02-28-2010, 06:40 PM
Headline changed.
Dunk won't fall, neither will Spurs (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/With_luck_Spurs_down_Suns.html)
With luck, Spurs down Suns (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/With_luck_Spurs_down_Suns.html)
Jeff McDonald
With less than a minute to play Sunday at the AT&T Center, Phoenix was mere seconds from again tying a game that had seesawed all afternoon. All the Suns needed was for a two-time NBA slam dunk champion to make the simplest and most wide-open dunk of his life.
“I would have bet the house on that one,” Spurs forward Richard Jefferson said.
Had Jefferson made a wager on what became the defining moment of the Spurs’ 113-110 victory over Phoenix, he would have been homeless today.
Jason Richardson’s uncontested, fast-break slam rattled out with 41.8 seconds left, leaving the Spurs ahead by two and able to seal the game from the foul line.
With their second win in five days over a team ahead of them in the Western Conference – wrapped around an ugly loss Friday at Houston – the Spurs hung on to seventh place heading into New Orleans Monday night.
After watching several games slip away in the final minutes this season, the Spurs (33-24) weren’t about to apologize for the luck that helped them stop Phoenix’s five-game winning streak.
“All year long, you feel the ball has been bouncing the other direction,” said Tim Duncan, who had 21 points and 10 rebounds. “It’s good to have one bounce our direction.”
Sunday, the Spurs survived a season-high 41 points from Amar’e Stoudemire, not to mention a last-gasp coast-to-coast scramble from Steve Nash that ended with an off-balance, ill-advised pass to Channing Frye as time expired.
The Spurs won with a balanced scoring attack that saw seven players notch at least nine points. Manu Ginobili had 21 – including a 6-for-6 performance from the foul line in the final 1:17 – to go with eight assists, while Jefferson scored exactly 20 for his first 20-point outing since Dec. 29.
Antonio McDyess, meanwhile, shook off a scary-looking injury in the third quarter – it turned out to be a hyperextended left knee – to add 12 points, nine rebounds and two key jumpers in the fourth.
When McDyess limped to the locker room, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich assumed he’d lost his starting center for the rest of the game, or longer.
“I was shocked,” Popovich said of McDyess’ return. “I thought he was really hurt badly, the way it looked.”
The Spurs seized an eight-point lead – the largest for either team – on McDyess’ 18-footer with 3:05 left, then gave way to the Amar’e Show. Stoudemire scored nine points in a two-minute stretch, three of them coming on a monster dunk-and-a-foul over a helpless Jefferson.
The Spurs led 107-105 as the clock crept under a minute, when George Hill made what would have been the blunder of the game, if not for what followed.
Phoenix’s Jared Dudley intercepted an off-target Hill pass intended for McDyess, and shuffled the ball ahead to Richardson – who happens to be one the league’s best dunkers and who happened to not have another player within 10 feet of him.
For Richardson, the play was quite literally a slam dunk. If it were hockey, it would have been an empty-netter.
And yet ...
“I just went up and missed the dunk,” said Richardson, who finished with 20 points. “It happens.”
Five days earlier, in a similarly big spot against Oklahoma City, Ginobili rose to thwart a Kevin Durant dunk attempt at the same goal. This time, the rim did Ginobili’s job for him.
Nobody was happier than Hill, who spent the seconds between his turnover and Richardson’s botched dunk plotting how he was going to make the Spurs’ next game.
“No way they would have let me on the plane to New Orleans,” Hill said. “I would have had to walk.”
Thanks to Richardson, Hill’s seat on the charter was safe.
The Suns left the AT&T Center on Sunday cursing their luck. The Spurs left for New Orleans refusing to apologize for theirs.
“Sometimes,” Popovich said, “that’s what it takes.”
*********************
Slideshow.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/Spurs_113_.html?c=n#1
Dunk won't fall, neither will Spurs (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/With_luck_Spurs_down_Suns.html)
With luck, Spurs down Suns (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/With_luck_Spurs_down_Suns.html)
Jeff McDonald
With less than a minute to play Sunday at the AT&T Center, Phoenix was mere seconds from again tying a game that had seesawed all afternoon. All the Suns needed was for a two-time NBA slam dunk champion to make the simplest and most wide-open dunk of his life.
“I would have bet the house on that one,” Spurs forward Richard Jefferson said.
Had Jefferson made a wager on what became the defining moment of the Spurs’ 113-110 victory over Phoenix, he would have been homeless today.
Jason Richardson’s uncontested, fast-break slam rattled out with 41.8 seconds left, leaving the Spurs ahead by two and able to seal the game from the foul line.
With their second win in five days over a team ahead of them in the Western Conference – wrapped around an ugly loss Friday at Houston – the Spurs hung on to seventh place heading into New Orleans Monday night.
After watching several games slip away in the final minutes this season, the Spurs (33-24) weren’t about to apologize for the luck that helped them stop Phoenix’s five-game winning streak.
“All year long, you feel the ball has been bouncing the other direction,” said Tim Duncan, who had 21 points and 10 rebounds. “It’s good to have one bounce our direction.”
Sunday, the Spurs survived a season-high 41 points from Amar’e Stoudemire, not to mention a last-gasp coast-to-coast scramble from Steve Nash that ended with an off-balance, ill-advised pass to Channing Frye as time expired.
The Spurs won with a balanced scoring attack that saw seven players notch at least nine points. Manu Ginobili had 21 – including a 6-for-6 performance from the foul line in the final 1:17 – to go with eight assists, while Jefferson scored exactly 20 for his first 20-point outing since Dec. 29.
Antonio McDyess, meanwhile, shook off a scary-looking injury in the third quarter – it turned out to be a hyperextended left knee – to add 12 points, nine rebounds and two key jumpers in the fourth.
When McDyess limped to the locker room, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich assumed he’d lost his starting center for the rest of the game, or longer.
“I was shocked,” Popovich said of McDyess’ return. “I thought he was really hurt badly, the way it looked.”
The Spurs seized an eight-point lead – the largest for either team – on McDyess’ 18-footer with 3:05 left, then gave way to the Amar’e Show. Stoudemire scored nine points in a two-minute stretch, three of them coming on a monster dunk-and-a-foul over a helpless Jefferson.
The Spurs led 107-105 as the clock crept under a minute, when George Hill made what would have been the blunder of the game, if not for what followed.
Phoenix’s Jared Dudley intercepted an off-target Hill pass intended for McDyess, and shuffled the ball ahead to Richardson – who happens to be one the league’s best dunkers and who happened to not have another player within 10 feet of him.
For Richardson, the play was quite literally a slam dunk. If it were hockey, it would have been an empty-netter.
And yet ...
“I just went up and missed the dunk,” said Richardson, who finished with 20 points. “It happens.”
Five days earlier, in a similarly big spot against Oklahoma City, Ginobili rose to thwart a Kevin Durant dunk attempt at the same goal. This time, the rim did Ginobili’s job for him.
Nobody was happier than Hill, who spent the seconds between his turnover and Richardson’s botched dunk plotting how he was going to make the Spurs’ next game.
“No way they would have let me on the plane to New Orleans,” Hill said. “I would have had to walk.”
Thanks to Richardson, Hill’s seat on the charter was safe.
The Suns left the AT&T Center on Sunday cursing their luck. The Spurs left for New Orleans refusing to apologize for theirs.
“Sometimes,” Popovich said, “that’s what it takes.”
*********************
Slideshow.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/Spurs_113_.html?c=n#1