Kori Ellis
12-12-2004, 02:38 AM
Cav-nots: Spurs cruise
Web Posted: 12/12/2004 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA121204.1C.BKNspurs.cavs.gamer.c57155d.html
With his players still warming up for their game against the Spurs at the SBC Center on Saturday night, Cleveland Cavaliers coach Paul Silas was discussing the futility of fretting about the fact beloved Cavs owner Gordon Gund had been made an offer he couldn't refuse to sell the team.
Then, someone asked him if he had seen Houston's Tracy McGrady score 13 points in 35 seconds to beat the Spurs on Thursday.
"Yeah," Silas said. "That's just great. We've got to come in here when they're completely ticked off. Somebody tell Tim (Duncan) we had nothing to do with that deal in Houston the other night."
Maybe not, but Duncan and the Spurs vented 2-day-old frustration on Silas' team nonetheless, scoring a 116-97 victory and producing their highest point total of the season.
And there was nothing LeBron James, the NBA's ascendant superstar, could do about it.
Duncan certainly played like a man with something to prove. He scored 25 points on 11-of-12 shooting — and that was just in a first half that was historic for its offensive efficiency. By game's end, he had missed only two of his 15 shots and scored 34 points.
"We wanted to jump on them early and get that last game out of our minds and really start turning over a new leaf," Duncan said. "So, we came out, played hard early, got a nice lead and played well throughout."
Led by Duncan's near perfection — he missed his second shot of the game and then made 10 in a row — the Spurs missed only five of their 31 first-half shots, an astounding success rate of 83.9 percent. The previous record for field-goal accuracy in a half was 78.1, against the New York Knicks on Dec. 3, 1988.
By the time Jeff McInnis rolled in a buzzer-beating lay-in to end the first half, the Spurs were 24 ahead of the stunned Cavs.
"It's unfortunate that they lost that game the way they lost it the other night and we had to be the recipient of this," Silas said of the Spurs' early focus and intensity, not to mention their shooting accuracy.
Just before the start of the second half, James picked up a statistics sheet, scowled at it, then tore it up and tossed it aside.
"They were shooting 84.5 percent from the field," James said of what he thought the box score showed him, unintentionally fudging the Spurs' accuracy slightly. "I haven't seen that since my high school days, when we used to shoot like that."
Part of the accurate shooting reflected crisp passing by point guard Tony Parker that produced wide-open shots. And with his teammates converting on nearly every pass he made, Parker had a season-high 10 assists by halftime, along with 15 points.
He finished with 13 assists, one shy of his career best, and 18 points.
"He did a great job of being consistent," Duncan said. "It wasn't as aggressive as I've seen him some nights. I thought he really had a great pace."
Duncan even managed to out-LeBron LeBron in showmanship. With just under five minutes left in the first quarter, Duncan rebounded an air-ball 12-footer by James and dribbled end-to-end, faking James one way at the foul line and going the other before laying the ball in off the glass, drawing a foul in the process and converting the three-point play.
"I don't know what he was doing," Duncan said of James' biting so hard on his mini-fake. "I was just going in a straight line, but he just went one way and I went the other."
The Spurs missed as many shots in the first 1:30 of the second half as they missed in the first 24 minutes but managed to pad their lead anyway.
By the eight-minute mark of the third, the Spurs led by 30, and Silas had seen enough of what they were doing to his man-to-man defense. The Cavs played a packed-in zone defense for the remainder of the game, daring the Spurs to shoot 3-pointers.
The defensive stratagem worked for a while — the Cavs got as close as 14 in the fourth quarter — but Bruce Bowen and Beno Udrih combined to make five 3-point shots in the final quarter.
"Some parts of our zone offense were really good," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Initially, when they first showed the zone we were great. Then I thought we got a little stale and got in a hurry when they scored quickly and went the other direction.
"At the end we started finding people again and moving the ball and getting wide-open shots for Bruce and Beno."
Web Posted: 12/12/2004 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA121204.1C.BKNspurs.cavs.gamer.c57155d.html
With his players still warming up for their game against the Spurs at the SBC Center on Saturday night, Cleveland Cavaliers coach Paul Silas was discussing the futility of fretting about the fact beloved Cavs owner Gordon Gund had been made an offer he couldn't refuse to sell the team.
Then, someone asked him if he had seen Houston's Tracy McGrady score 13 points in 35 seconds to beat the Spurs on Thursday.
"Yeah," Silas said. "That's just great. We've got to come in here when they're completely ticked off. Somebody tell Tim (Duncan) we had nothing to do with that deal in Houston the other night."
Maybe not, but Duncan and the Spurs vented 2-day-old frustration on Silas' team nonetheless, scoring a 116-97 victory and producing their highest point total of the season.
And there was nothing LeBron James, the NBA's ascendant superstar, could do about it.
Duncan certainly played like a man with something to prove. He scored 25 points on 11-of-12 shooting — and that was just in a first half that was historic for its offensive efficiency. By game's end, he had missed only two of his 15 shots and scored 34 points.
"We wanted to jump on them early and get that last game out of our minds and really start turning over a new leaf," Duncan said. "So, we came out, played hard early, got a nice lead and played well throughout."
Led by Duncan's near perfection — he missed his second shot of the game and then made 10 in a row — the Spurs missed only five of their 31 first-half shots, an astounding success rate of 83.9 percent. The previous record for field-goal accuracy in a half was 78.1, against the New York Knicks on Dec. 3, 1988.
By the time Jeff McInnis rolled in a buzzer-beating lay-in to end the first half, the Spurs were 24 ahead of the stunned Cavs.
"It's unfortunate that they lost that game the way they lost it the other night and we had to be the recipient of this," Silas said of the Spurs' early focus and intensity, not to mention their shooting accuracy.
Just before the start of the second half, James picked up a statistics sheet, scowled at it, then tore it up and tossed it aside.
"They were shooting 84.5 percent from the field," James said of what he thought the box score showed him, unintentionally fudging the Spurs' accuracy slightly. "I haven't seen that since my high school days, when we used to shoot like that."
Part of the accurate shooting reflected crisp passing by point guard Tony Parker that produced wide-open shots. And with his teammates converting on nearly every pass he made, Parker had a season-high 10 assists by halftime, along with 15 points.
He finished with 13 assists, one shy of his career best, and 18 points.
"He did a great job of being consistent," Duncan said. "It wasn't as aggressive as I've seen him some nights. I thought he really had a great pace."
Duncan even managed to out-LeBron LeBron in showmanship. With just under five minutes left in the first quarter, Duncan rebounded an air-ball 12-footer by James and dribbled end-to-end, faking James one way at the foul line and going the other before laying the ball in off the glass, drawing a foul in the process and converting the three-point play.
"I don't know what he was doing," Duncan said of James' biting so hard on his mini-fake. "I was just going in a straight line, but he just went one way and I went the other."
The Spurs missed as many shots in the first 1:30 of the second half as they missed in the first 24 minutes but managed to pad their lead anyway.
By the eight-minute mark of the third, the Spurs led by 30, and Silas had seen enough of what they were doing to his man-to-man defense. The Cavs played a packed-in zone defense for the remainder of the game, daring the Spurs to shoot 3-pointers.
The defensive stratagem worked for a while — the Cavs got as close as 14 in the fourth quarter — but Bruce Bowen and Beno Udrih combined to make five 3-point shots in the final quarter.
"Some parts of our zone offense were really good," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Initially, when they first showed the zone we were great. Then I thought we got a little stale and got in a hurry when they scored quickly and went the other direction.
"At the end we started finding people again and moving the ball and getting wide-open shots for Bruce and Beno."