Snake
04-24-2007, 05:42 AM
San Antonio - While San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popo- vich joked Monday he had little problem shaking off his team's 95-89 loss Sunday to the Nuggets - "I just had a couple of beers and went right to bed. Slept fine," he cracked - the truth was a far different matter.
The adjustments that invariably happen after every postseason contest began early. By midnight, just a few hours after the opening contest had been decided, Popovich already began dissecting the hows and whys. After just a few hours of sleep, he was up by 6 a.m., going over the tapes again. Not long after that, the coach was in his office, working with his staff on coming back from a defeat that was confounding on any number of levels.
One was the sense that, despite 31 points from Allen Iverson and another 30 from Carmelo Anthony, Popovich felt like his team played pretty good defense. The uptempo attack favored by Denver was largely negated - the Nuggets had but three fast-break points in the game, well below their season average (18.6). Similarly, Denver led the NBA in points in the paint with almost 47 per game; on Sunday they finished with 36. And, while the visitors' 25 free-throw attempts were 15 more than San Antonio, that was still five fewer than the Nuggets averaged during the regular season.
"We did a lot of good things, but we still lost," Popovich said.
And really, that's where the trouble truly begins for the Spurs. A team that has won three league championships in the past eight seasons, based in large part on the idea of being mentally and physically tougher than its opponents, was neither Sunday night.
"The Nuggets had an edge about them," Popovich admitted. "I was disappointed in our physicality and our pursuit of the basketball. I thought the only guy who was really there in the sense of it being the playoffs and what we want, was Jacque Vaughn. There was no one else in his category."
No offense to Vaughn, but when a reserve point guard who played only 11 minutes is the team's standard-bearer - especially a squad with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, et al. - it can't be a good sign.
That might have been why Ginobili, the supersub who averages 16 points a game but finished with just nine in Game 1 on 4-of-15 shooting, spent much of his interview time Monday berating himself for not providing more for the Spurs. However, teammate Robert Horry said the idea of trying to take on too much may have been a factor in San Antonio's troubles.
"You look at the films and there are things where you think you're doing something, but you're not," Horry said. "We thought we were playing well offensively, but we really didn't pass the ball very well. You could see everybody thought they had to take it upon themselves to lift the team."
Provided they had the opportunity to do so. When Bruce Bowen picked up two fouls in the opening seven minutes of play Sunday, he was relegated to the bench. The defensive stopper, a member of the all-NBA defensive team the past six seasons, finished with only three personals, but played only 19 minutes total, helpless to stop Anthony or Iverson from taking over the game.
"That bothered me," Bowen said. "It's always the coach's decision. They don't want you getting three fouls in the first half. But when you finish the game with just three and you've played only 19 minutes, you're thinking, 'Yeah, I really wanted to be out there."'
Good article... :p:
The adjustments that invariably happen after every postseason contest began early. By midnight, just a few hours after the opening contest had been decided, Popovich already began dissecting the hows and whys. After just a few hours of sleep, he was up by 6 a.m., going over the tapes again. Not long after that, the coach was in his office, working with his staff on coming back from a defeat that was confounding on any number of levels.
One was the sense that, despite 31 points from Allen Iverson and another 30 from Carmelo Anthony, Popovich felt like his team played pretty good defense. The uptempo attack favored by Denver was largely negated - the Nuggets had but three fast-break points in the game, well below their season average (18.6). Similarly, Denver led the NBA in points in the paint with almost 47 per game; on Sunday they finished with 36. And, while the visitors' 25 free-throw attempts were 15 more than San Antonio, that was still five fewer than the Nuggets averaged during the regular season.
"We did a lot of good things, but we still lost," Popovich said.
And really, that's where the trouble truly begins for the Spurs. A team that has won three league championships in the past eight seasons, based in large part on the idea of being mentally and physically tougher than its opponents, was neither Sunday night.
"The Nuggets had an edge about them," Popovich admitted. "I was disappointed in our physicality and our pursuit of the basketball. I thought the only guy who was really there in the sense of it being the playoffs and what we want, was Jacque Vaughn. There was no one else in his category."
No offense to Vaughn, but when a reserve point guard who played only 11 minutes is the team's standard-bearer - especially a squad with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, et al. - it can't be a good sign.
That might have been why Ginobili, the supersub who averages 16 points a game but finished with just nine in Game 1 on 4-of-15 shooting, spent much of his interview time Monday berating himself for not providing more for the Spurs. However, teammate Robert Horry said the idea of trying to take on too much may have been a factor in San Antonio's troubles.
"You look at the films and there are things where you think you're doing something, but you're not," Horry said. "We thought we were playing well offensively, but we really didn't pass the ball very well. You could see everybody thought they had to take it upon themselves to lift the team."
Provided they had the opportunity to do so. When Bruce Bowen picked up two fouls in the opening seven minutes of play Sunday, he was relegated to the bench. The defensive stopper, a member of the all-NBA defensive team the past six seasons, finished with only three personals, but played only 19 minutes total, helpless to stop Anthony or Iverson from taking over the game.
"That bothered me," Bowen said. "It's always the coach's decision. They don't want you getting three fouls in the first half. But when you finish the game with just three and you've played only 19 minutes, you're thinking, 'Yeah, I really wanted to be out there."'
Good article... :p: