Spurs Brazil
12-02-2007, 06:53 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA120207.NBABeat.en.1e9e243.html
Mike Monroe's NBA Beat: Elite teams want to win now, but not at any cost
Web Posted: 12/01/2007 07:54 PM CST
Mike Monroe
San Antonio Express-News
I phoned Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni on Friday and asked him when he planned to bring Mick Jagger to town to give his players a pregame pep talk.
"I think I'll bring Keith Richards, instead," D'Antoni said. "Now there's a guy that can inspire you just by the fact he's still alive."
What do the Rolling Stones have to do with basketball?
D'Antoni, old enough to have heard the Stones while Jagger and Richards were still 20-something, responded to his team's first losing streak of the season by suggesting it lacked the requisite professionalism to avoid indifference.
Discussing this concern with an Arizona Republic columnist, D'Antoni dropped this gem: "If you watch Mick Jagger, he doesn't go out and say, 'You know, I've done this for 10 years. Today, I'm giving a bad concert.' He has the same enthusiasm probably he had 20 years ago. That's what makes him great."
And how does that apply to the Suns?
"This should be happening now," D'Antoni said. "Live in the moment. It's a great team."
What D'Antoni is discovering is what Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has known for most of the past decade: When you are an annual NBA title contender, you try to complete the first few months of the season with minimum damage to limbs and egos.
How do you get motivated for a game on a numbingly cold night in Minnesota when all you really want to do is get to April with a decent playoff seed and a healthy roster?
Teams like the Spurs beat teams like the Timberwolves because they know that a professional approach doesn't require pregame foaming at the mouth. Attention to detail and a helping of Manu Ginobili's energy usually is enough.
Since winning their first title, the Spurs have gone 91-39 in the first full month of each season (plus eight games in October in nine seasons). That's a winning percentage of 70 percent. Their worst regular-season record over those nine seasons was 53-29 in 1999-2000.
The core is back from the Spurs' 2007 title run. The players understand how to pace themselves through the grind of the season. Popovich is the master of monitoring minutes.
The Suns have not won a championship, but they have won 177 games in the first three full seasons they have played under D'Antoni, whose approach to offense is to get up a shot in the first seven seconds of every possession. They're off to a pretty good start this season, too. They went to 12-4 after a Friday night victory over Orlando, one of the Eastern Conference's best teams. It was their second victory over the Magic in three weeks.
The Suns' coach, though, occasionally wonders why they don't find as much joy in the process as they should.
"I'm not really worried about our motivation," D'Antoni said a few hours before his team's victory over a team that seems to have enough talent to come out of the East in June. "We just have to turn it up that extra notch, and sometimes it's hard to do that. We can't play slow, and it's never easy to play as fast as we like to play."
The Dallas Mavericks also have been in a funk. A team that won 67 games last season before the Golden State Warriors shocked them in the first round of the playoffs, the Mavs were feeling good about themselves after they thumped the Spurs on Nov. 15. But a three-game losing streak, including defeats against three sub-500 teams, rattled them last week.
"We see that we're not good enough to coast," Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki told Dallas reporters.
Sustaining consistent effort isn't easy for any team over 82 games. D'Antoni knows there was something magical about his team's 62-20 run in 2004-05. His system was perfect for Steve Nash, and vice versa. He knows it is unrealistic to expect the same kind of early-season feeling from his core players three years later.
He also knows it is more important to have his team playing its best in April. Popovich always aims his team toward optimal playoff performance. Now the Mavs' Avery Johnson has eased back his team's workload, understanding that 67 regular-season victories mean nothing when you lose in the first playoff round.
D'Antoni has an eye on April, too.
"The only thing we've done differently is take a few more extra days off and cut back on practice early," he said. "So right now, we're not quite physically there and not quite sharp. We are conscious of the long grind."
Aren't rolling stones often used in grinders?
Mike Monroe's NBA Beat: Elite teams want to win now, but not at any cost
Web Posted: 12/01/2007 07:54 PM CST
Mike Monroe
San Antonio Express-News
I phoned Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni on Friday and asked him when he planned to bring Mick Jagger to town to give his players a pregame pep talk.
"I think I'll bring Keith Richards, instead," D'Antoni said. "Now there's a guy that can inspire you just by the fact he's still alive."
What do the Rolling Stones have to do with basketball?
D'Antoni, old enough to have heard the Stones while Jagger and Richards were still 20-something, responded to his team's first losing streak of the season by suggesting it lacked the requisite professionalism to avoid indifference.
Discussing this concern with an Arizona Republic columnist, D'Antoni dropped this gem: "If you watch Mick Jagger, he doesn't go out and say, 'You know, I've done this for 10 years. Today, I'm giving a bad concert.' He has the same enthusiasm probably he had 20 years ago. That's what makes him great."
And how does that apply to the Suns?
"This should be happening now," D'Antoni said. "Live in the moment. It's a great team."
What D'Antoni is discovering is what Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has known for most of the past decade: When you are an annual NBA title contender, you try to complete the first few months of the season with minimum damage to limbs and egos.
How do you get motivated for a game on a numbingly cold night in Minnesota when all you really want to do is get to April with a decent playoff seed and a healthy roster?
Teams like the Spurs beat teams like the Timberwolves because they know that a professional approach doesn't require pregame foaming at the mouth. Attention to detail and a helping of Manu Ginobili's energy usually is enough.
Since winning their first title, the Spurs have gone 91-39 in the first full month of each season (plus eight games in October in nine seasons). That's a winning percentage of 70 percent. Their worst regular-season record over those nine seasons was 53-29 in 1999-2000.
The core is back from the Spurs' 2007 title run. The players understand how to pace themselves through the grind of the season. Popovich is the master of monitoring minutes.
The Suns have not won a championship, but they have won 177 games in the first three full seasons they have played under D'Antoni, whose approach to offense is to get up a shot in the first seven seconds of every possession. They're off to a pretty good start this season, too. They went to 12-4 after a Friday night victory over Orlando, one of the Eastern Conference's best teams. It was their second victory over the Magic in three weeks.
The Suns' coach, though, occasionally wonders why they don't find as much joy in the process as they should.
"I'm not really worried about our motivation," D'Antoni said a few hours before his team's victory over a team that seems to have enough talent to come out of the East in June. "We just have to turn it up that extra notch, and sometimes it's hard to do that. We can't play slow, and it's never easy to play as fast as we like to play."
The Dallas Mavericks also have been in a funk. A team that won 67 games last season before the Golden State Warriors shocked them in the first round of the playoffs, the Mavs were feeling good about themselves after they thumped the Spurs on Nov. 15. But a three-game losing streak, including defeats against three sub-500 teams, rattled them last week.
"We see that we're not good enough to coast," Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki told Dallas reporters.
Sustaining consistent effort isn't easy for any team over 82 games. D'Antoni knows there was something magical about his team's 62-20 run in 2004-05. His system was perfect for Steve Nash, and vice versa. He knows it is unrealistic to expect the same kind of early-season feeling from his core players three years later.
He also knows it is more important to have his team playing its best in April. Popovich always aims his team toward optimal playoff performance. Now the Mavs' Avery Johnson has eased back his team's workload, understanding that 67 regular-season victories mean nothing when you lose in the first playoff round.
D'Antoni has an eye on April, too.
"The only thing we've done differently is take a few more extra days off and cut back on practice early," he said. "So right now, we're not quite physically there and not quite sharp. We are conscious of the long grind."
Aren't rolling stones often used in grinders?