duncan228
03-01-2008, 02:21 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA030108.01C.SpursBucksadvance0301.en.38ff933.ht ml
Pro basketball: Spurs begin brutal slate of March
Jeff McDonald
San Antonio Express-News
MILWAUKEE — The sweat had barely dried on the Spurs' latest biggest victory of the season, a 97-94 cliffhanger over rival Dallas on Thursday night at the AT&T Center, when someone reminded Tim Duncan where his team was headed next.
The news hit Duncan's postgame happy time like an ice-cold shower.
"Milwaukee, ugh," Duncan said. "I hate going to Milwaukee." :lol
Duncan's dread of Milwaukee, where the Spurs face the Bucks tonight at the Bradley Center, has nothing to do with a revulsion for beer and brats. It has everything to do with the team that plays there which, inexplicably, seems to give the Spurs as much trouble as anyone in its home building.
"It's always a tough game, there, it really is," Duncan said. "For whatever reason, we don't play well in that building."
Milwaukee is only the tip of the iceberg. For Duncan and his teammates, March ought to be a month full of "ughs."
Fresh of a dazzling 10-1 February and riding a season-best seven-game winning streak, the Spurs are rewarded with the busiest month in franchise history — an 18-game epic that should test their legs, their resolve, and their standing atop the Southwest Division.
The slate includes five separate sets of back-to-backs, beginning with every tourist's dream package — a Milwaukee-New Jersey two-fer this weekend.
"That schedule in March is going to be brutal," said point guard Tony Parker. "We have to be focused to make sure we get through it."
On a different page on the Gregorian calendar, the poet T.S. Eliot once penned this not-so-loving ode: "April is the cruelest month."
Eliot, however, never had to face the likes of Phoenix, Detroit, New Orleans, Boston and Denver (twice) in a 10-day span, as the Spurs must in the middle part of this month. It might have redefined the bard's understanding of the word "cruel."
That's why, even as the Spurs were tearing through a red-hot February, dispatching teams left and right with the cold-blooded brutality of a Manu Ginobili step-back 3-pointer, they didn't get too high on their own success. They knew. The monster of March loomed.
"We knew it was coming," Ginobili said. "We knew March was going to be really tough for us. We've got to be ready."
This being a leap year, at least the Spurs had an extra day to gear up for the March grind.
With Western Conference teams packed like a marathon starting line, this particular March takes on even greater importance for the Spurs.
Heading into Friday night's action, just 31/2 games separated the conference's top team — the Los Angeles Lakers — from its seventh — the suddenly Yao Ming-less Houston Rockets.
The 39-17 Spurs, meanwhile, lurk one game behind the Lakers in the West, with New Orleans prowling one game in back of them in both the conference and divisional chases. All told, it ought to soak the rest of the season with a pre-playoff intrigue seldom seen in previous NBA seasons.
"There's going to be a lot more emphasis on the regular season because no one wants to drop to seventh or eighth place," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "And that could happen to any of us."
Indeed, teams must walk a razor-thin tightrope.
"You can't afford to lose the games you're supposed to win," Parker said. "You can't have no letdown."
Which brings the Spurs to the Bradley Center tonight.
On paper, and only on paper, the Bucks would not seem to pose much of a threat to the Spurs' winning streak. Milwaukee, after all, is 22-36, having gone 4-11 in February.
But for much of the past decade the Bradley Center never has been overly hospitable to the Spurs, who have dropped seven of their past nine there. They haven't won in Milwaukee since Dec. 4, 2004.
This partially explains Duncan's abhorrence to that particular arena. It is a place that makes him go "ugh."
"We've got to go up there respecting them," Duncan said. "We've got to go up there and understand we've got to turn it up a little bit and play a much better ballgame up there."
Pro basketball: Spurs begin brutal slate of March
Jeff McDonald
San Antonio Express-News
MILWAUKEE — The sweat had barely dried on the Spurs' latest biggest victory of the season, a 97-94 cliffhanger over rival Dallas on Thursday night at the AT&T Center, when someone reminded Tim Duncan where his team was headed next.
The news hit Duncan's postgame happy time like an ice-cold shower.
"Milwaukee, ugh," Duncan said. "I hate going to Milwaukee." :lol
Duncan's dread of Milwaukee, where the Spurs face the Bucks tonight at the Bradley Center, has nothing to do with a revulsion for beer and brats. It has everything to do with the team that plays there which, inexplicably, seems to give the Spurs as much trouble as anyone in its home building.
"It's always a tough game, there, it really is," Duncan said. "For whatever reason, we don't play well in that building."
Milwaukee is only the tip of the iceberg. For Duncan and his teammates, March ought to be a month full of "ughs."
Fresh of a dazzling 10-1 February and riding a season-best seven-game winning streak, the Spurs are rewarded with the busiest month in franchise history — an 18-game epic that should test their legs, their resolve, and their standing atop the Southwest Division.
The slate includes five separate sets of back-to-backs, beginning with every tourist's dream package — a Milwaukee-New Jersey two-fer this weekend.
"That schedule in March is going to be brutal," said point guard Tony Parker. "We have to be focused to make sure we get through it."
On a different page on the Gregorian calendar, the poet T.S. Eliot once penned this not-so-loving ode: "April is the cruelest month."
Eliot, however, never had to face the likes of Phoenix, Detroit, New Orleans, Boston and Denver (twice) in a 10-day span, as the Spurs must in the middle part of this month. It might have redefined the bard's understanding of the word "cruel."
That's why, even as the Spurs were tearing through a red-hot February, dispatching teams left and right with the cold-blooded brutality of a Manu Ginobili step-back 3-pointer, they didn't get too high on their own success. They knew. The monster of March loomed.
"We knew it was coming," Ginobili said. "We knew March was going to be really tough for us. We've got to be ready."
This being a leap year, at least the Spurs had an extra day to gear up for the March grind.
With Western Conference teams packed like a marathon starting line, this particular March takes on even greater importance for the Spurs.
Heading into Friday night's action, just 31/2 games separated the conference's top team — the Los Angeles Lakers — from its seventh — the suddenly Yao Ming-less Houston Rockets.
The 39-17 Spurs, meanwhile, lurk one game behind the Lakers in the West, with New Orleans prowling one game in back of them in both the conference and divisional chases. All told, it ought to soak the rest of the season with a pre-playoff intrigue seldom seen in previous NBA seasons.
"There's going to be a lot more emphasis on the regular season because no one wants to drop to seventh or eighth place," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "And that could happen to any of us."
Indeed, teams must walk a razor-thin tightrope.
"You can't afford to lose the games you're supposed to win," Parker said. "You can't have no letdown."
Which brings the Spurs to the Bradley Center tonight.
On paper, and only on paper, the Bucks would not seem to pose much of a threat to the Spurs' winning streak. Milwaukee, after all, is 22-36, having gone 4-11 in February.
But for much of the past decade the Bradley Center never has been overly hospitable to the Spurs, who have dropped seven of their past nine there. They haven't won in Milwaukee since Dec. 4, 2004.
This partially explains Duncan's abhorrence to that particular arena. It is a place that makes him go "ugh."
"We've got to go up there respecting them," Duncan said. "We've got to go up there and understand we've got to turn it up a little bit and play a much better ballgame up there."