Amuseddaysleeper
03-29-2006, 03:09 AM
Stein talks about san antonio's health issues nearing playoff time
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-060329
SPECIAL MIDWEEK EDITION:
Healthy aims for SpursBy Marc Stein
ESPN.com
LOS ANGELES -- Eight victories shy of the best win total in franchise history, with 11 chances left to get them, Gregg Popovich knows what he probably won't see even if his team gets there.
A glimpse of his team in Finals form.
Popovich suggested Tuesday night that he hasn't seen one yet, 71 games into the schedule. He's still hoping for something resembling a fearsome run in the final three weeks of the regular season, and hoping for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs along with it, but he sounds resigned to starting the playoffs without tangible proof that the deepest team the San Antonio Spurs have ever fielded can be everything he envisioned.
"I don't think we're playing at the level we were at when we played Detroit last year," Popovich said.
C'mon, Pop.
Surely you've seen a hint or two of that standard in a 55-16 campaign.
"Not really," Pop said.
Not that he's complaining.
First of all, who would listen? As we've written more than once in this cyberspace, just about any coach in the league would gladly trade for San Antonio's problems.
You were reminded of this at Staples Center, where the Spurs played their first game all season without their most consistent player and scarcely missed Tony Parker, moving the ball and protecting the paint and thus cruising past a potential first-round opponent in a 98-87 dismissal of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Secondly . . .
Popovich isn't exactly searching for what's been missing. He knows.
He knows he has a core of proven champions -- a priceless postseason advantage only the Spurs and Pistons can claim -- and he knows why teams as unproven as the Clippers (according to Sam Cassell) can come into games like this saying they match up well with the reigning champs.
The Spurs haven't been clamping down on teams defensively like they normally do in recent weeks, and rebounding has been an unexpected concern for months, but nothing has been more elusive than health.
"The nagging things," Popovich said, "haven't allowed us to be what I think we can be."
Tim Duncan. Manu Ginobili. Robert Horry. Nick Van Exel. None of them is expected to play at full capacity in the playoffs because of season-long ailments that won't go away.
And now even Parker has a shin problem interrupting the season of his life, although it's not considered serious.
It's not the longest list of guys playing hurt in the league -- "Dallas has had more injury problems than we've had," Pop volunteered -- but it's sufficiently long to have kept the Spurs' famously demanding coach on the mellow side. For longer than we've ever seen, actually.
It started in training camp, remember, when the Spurs were put through only one set of two-a-day practices. But Popovich has kept the grind in mind ever since, to the point that not even a recent defensive slump set him off. Before smothering the Clippers here, holding the hosts to 37.8-percent shooting from the floor, San Antonio had been "just a decent" defensive team all month in Pop's estimation. Yet he defended his players anyway.
"It's not that people are coasting," Popovich said. "We just haven't been able to get in a rhythm like we had last year . . . but a lot of it has been health."
Said Horry, who's finally starting to shake a hip problem: "We're not thrilled with how we've played for a lot of the season, but we're positive. We're optimistic. It's been a battle for us all year, but I'd rather gel late than early."
You knew Big Shot Rob would say that.
But his coach?
"You're going to hate my answer, but it doesn't matter if I like [our current form] or not," Popovich said. "It's where it sits, so I don't think about whether I like it or not.
"We're just trying to make sure everybody is as healthy as they can possibly be come playoff time so that we can hopefully play our best basketball. Nothing's really more important than that."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-060329
SPECIAL MIDWEEK EDITION:
Healthy aims for SpursBy Marc Stein
ESPN.com
LOS ANGELES -- Eight victories shy of the best win total in franchise history, with 11 chances left to get them, Gregg Popovich knows what he probably won't see even if his team gets there.
A glimpse of his team in Finals form.
Popovich suggested Tuesday night that he hasn't seen one yet, 71 games into the schedule. He's still hoping for something resembling a fearsome run in the final three weeks of the regular season, and hoping for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs along with it, but he sounds resigned to starting the playoffs without tangible proof that the deepest team the San Antonio Spurs have ever fielded can be everything he envisioned.
"I don't think we're playing at the level we were at when we played Detroit last year," Popovich said.
C'mon, Pop.
Surely you've seen a hint or two of that standard in a 55-16 campaign.
"Not really," Pop said.
Not that he's complaining.
First of all, who would listen? As we've written more than once in this cyberspace, just about any coach in the league would gladly trade for San Antonio's problems.
You were reminded of this at Staples Center, where the Spurs played their first game all season without their most consistent player and scarcely missed Tony Parker, moving the ball and protecting the paint and thus cruising past a potential first-round opponent in a 98-87 dismissal of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Secondly . . .
Popovich isn't exactly searching for what's been missing. He knows.
He knows he has a core of proven champions -- a priceless postseason advantage only the Spurs and Pistons can claim -- and he knows why teams as unproven as the Clippers (according to Sam Cassell) can come into games like this saying they match up well with the reigning champs.
The Spurs haven't been clamping down on teams defensively like they normally do in recent weeks, and rebounding has been an unexpected concern for months, but nothing has been more elusive than health.
"The nagging things," Popovich said, "haven't allowed us to be what I think we can be."
Tim Duncan. Manu Ginobili. Robert Horry. Nick Van Exel. None of them is expected to play at full capacity in the playoffs because of season-long ailments that won't go away.
And now even Parker has a shin problem interrupting the season of his life, although it's not considered serious.
It's not the longest list of guys playing hurt in the league -- "Dallas has had more injury problems than we've had," Pop volunteered -- but it's sufficiently long to have kept the Spurs' famously demanding coach on the mellow side. For longer than we've ever seen, actually.
It started in training camp, remember, when the Spurs were put through only one set of two-a-day practices. But Popovich has kept the grind in mind ever since, to the point that not even a recent defensive slump set him off. Before smothering the Clippers here, holding the hosts to 37.8-percent shooting from the floor, San Antonio had been "just a decent" defensive team all month in Pop's estimation. Yet he defended his players anyway.
"It's not that people are coasting," Popovich said. "We just haven't been able to get in a rhythm like we had last year . . . but a lot of it has been health."
Said Horry, who's finally starting to shake a hip problem: "We're not thrilled with how we've played for a lot of the season, but we're positive. We're optimistic. It's been a battle for us all year, but I'd rather gel late than early."
You knew Big Shot Rob would say that.
But his coach?
"You're going to hate my answer, but it doesn't matter if I like [our current form] or not," Popovich said. "It's where it sits, so I don't think about whether I like it or not.
"We're just trying to make sure everybody is as healthy as they can possibly be come playoff time so that we can hopefully play our best basketball. Nothing's really more important than that."