duncan228
03-14-2008, 04:18 PM
I've been out of touch a couple of days but I didn't see this posted.
Forgive me if I missed it.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA031408_SpursParker.en.50aa9049.html
Pro basketball: Spurs' Parker still has his balky days
Jeff McDonald
Express-News Staff Writer
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — There have been moments, over the past 19 days, when the Spurs' youngest player has felt young again.
Out of nowhere, Tony Parker will turn on the afterburners, streak past a defender, slice through two others and finish with a flourish over a player twice his size. During these moments, Parker feels as he did last June, when he was the MVP of the NBA Finals and nobody could stop him.
These are good days on the way back from an ankle injury that robbed most of Parker's February. But they don't come every day.
“Sometimes I feel I'm right there, and then I fall back again,” Parker said. “Some games I feel great, and some games I'm out of rhythm.”
Physically, Parker is over the ankle inflammation that cost him nine games from Jan. 29 to Feb. 19. The mental part — what he calls “waiting for the basketball to come back” — is still a work in progress.
In the 12 games since his return, Parker has experienced mixed results in his quest to rediscover his groove.
He has sprinkled stellar performances (25 and 26 points on back-to-back nights against Milwaukee and New Jersey) with cringe-worthy ones (four points and five turnovers at Denver).
“Hopefully, I can be more consistent as the season goes along,” Parker said. “When you play five or six games in a row consistently, that's how you know you're back.”
By that measure, there are signs that the Parker of last June — or at least November — is beginning to re-emerge.
He has put together three solid games in a row, and — along with Tim Duncan — was a rare bright spot in the Spurs' otherwise dismal 100-75 loss at New Orleans on Wednesday.
Parker finished with 24 points, going for 18 of them in the first half. He aims for more improvement tonight against Detroit and Chauncey Billups, the Pistons' bowling ball of a point guard.
In March, Parker is averaging 18.9 points and shooting 55 percent from the field.
“I think he's doing really well,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He's been really aggressive, playing confidently.”
When it comes to measuring Parker's progress, Popovich uses but one barometer.
“It's always about aggressiveness with Tony,” Parker said.
If there has been one flaw in Parker's game since easing back into the lineup, one latent cause at the root of his inconsistency, it's that he's tended to defer to other players at times. It was an understandable reaction — the Spurs were 7-2 without him, with Manu Ginobili playing out of his mind.
Ginobili averaged 25.9 points during an 11-game span that encompassed Parker's absence. During a five-game portion of that stretch, Ginobili averaged 34.4 points per game.
From his spot on his couch, Parker took notice.
“You don't want to mess up what's going good,” Parker said.
But Popovich still wants Parker to be aggressive, get to the basket, draw defenders and kick to shooters.
Parker says he's been struggling to walk that tight rope between following orders — “be aggressive” — and keeping Ginobili and Duncan rolling. He correctly notes that only one of the Spurs' so-called “Big Three” can control the basketball at one time.
“They want me to be aggressive, but at the same time I don't have the ball all the time,” Parker said. “I can't be aggressive if I don't have the ball, you know? You always have to find the middle.”
Parker's search for middle ground continues tonight against Detroit.
“We'll find it,” Parker said. “We found it before. We won three championships, playing all three together.”
In the meantime, Parker will continue to look for small signs that his basketball has come back. At some point tonight, he will kick on the afterburners, slice through the Detroit defense and throw in a layup.
He will feel young again. And he will hope for more such moments to come.
Forgive me if I missed it.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA031408_SpursParker.en.50aa9049.html
Pro basketball: Spurs' Parker still has his balky days
Jeff McDonald
Express-News Staff Writer
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — There have been moments, over the past 19 days, when the Spurs' youngest player has felt young again.
Out of nowhere, Tony Parker will turn on the afterburners, streak past a defender, slice through two others and finish with a flourish over a player twice his size. During these moments, Parker feels as he did last June, when he was the MVP of the NBA Finals and nobody could stop him.
These are good days on the way back from an ankle injury that robbed most of Parker's February. But they don't come every day.
“Sometimes I feel I'm right there, and then I fall back again,” Parker said. “Some games I feel great, and some games I'm out of rhythm.”
Physically, Parker is over the ankle inflammation that cost him nine games from Jan. 29 to Feb. 19. The mental part — what he calls “waiting for the basketball to come back” — is still a work in progress.
In the 12 games since his return, Parker has experienced mixed results in his quest to rediscover his groove.
He has sprinkled stellar performances (25 and 26 points on back-to-back nights against Milwaukee and New Jersey) with cringe-worthy ones (four points and five turnovers at Denver).
“Hopefully, I can be more consistent as the season goes along,” Parker said. “When you play five or six games in a row consistently, that's how you know you're back.”
By that measure, there are signs that the Parker of last June — or at least November — is beginning to re-emerge.
He has put together three solid games in a row, and — along with Tim Duncan — was a rare bright spot in the Spurs' otherwise dismal 100-75 loss at New Orleans on Wednesday.
Parker finished with 24 points, going for 18 of them in the first half. He aims for more improvement tonight against Detroit and Chauncey Billups, the Pistons' bowling ball of a point guard.
In March, Parker is averaging 18.9 points and shooting 55 percent from the field.
“I think he's doing really well,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He's been really aggressive, playing confidently.”
When it comes to measuring Parker's progress, Popovich uses but one barometer.
“It's always about aggressiveness with Tony,” Parker said.
If there has been one flaw in Parker's game since easing back into the lineup, one latent cause at the root of his inconsistency, it's that he's tended to defer to other players at times. It was an understandable reaction — the Spurs were 7-2 without him, with Manu Ginobili playing out of his mind.
Ginobili averaged 25.9 points during an 11-game span that encompassed Parker's absence. During a five-game portion of that stretch, Ginobili averaged 34.4 points per game.
From his spot on his couch, Parker took notice.
“You don't want to mess up what's going good,” Parker said.
But Popovich still wants Parker to be aggressive, get to the basket, draw defenders and kick to shooters.
Parker says he's been struggling to walk that tight rope between following orders — “be aggressive” — and keeping Ginobili and Duncan rolling. He correctly notes that only one of the Spurs' so-called “Big Three” can control the basketball at one time.
“They want me to be aggressive, but at the same time I don't have the ball all the time,” Parker said. “I can't be aggressive if I don't have the ball, you know? You always have to find the middle.”
Parker's search for middle ground continues tonight against Detroit.
“We'll find it,” Parker said. “We found it before. We won three championships, playing all three together.”
In the meantime, Parker will continue to look for small signs that his basketball has come back. At some point tonight, he will kick on the afterburners, slice through the Detroit defense and throw in a layup.
He will feel young again. And he will hope for more such moments to come.