duncan228
05-02-2008, 12:41 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA.050208_Finley.en.bce59713.html
Pro basketball: Practice makes perfect for Finley
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
The subject was volume shooting, and Robert Horry was lamenting an injury-plagued season that had denied him opportunity to develop the rhythmic feel great shooters need before they can believe every shot will be perfect.
On a practice court behind him at the Spurs’ training facility Thursday, Michael Finley was sweating a light-gray T-shirt nearly black, casting up so many 3-point shots that assistant coach Don Newman worried he would tear the rotator cuff in his right shoulder from firing so many passes to the 35-year-old veteran.
After getting up only 19 shots in the final four games of the Spurs’ first-round playoff series against the Suns, Finley wanted to be certain his shooting stroke was honed for the Spurs’ Western Conference semifinal matchup against New Orleans. So he took a few extra trips around the 3-point arc, and by the time he finally called a halt, Newman needed a fresh T-shirt, too.
“It takes a lot for certain guys to get it going,” Horry said, “and a lot of guys it doesn’t. Now me, I need a lot of shots to get going, and I haven’t gotten many shots. But Fin is a workaholic. He’s out here practicing hard every day, and I don’t think he has anything to worry about.”
He’s going to get his shots up and he’s going to be fine for us.”
Finley’s 3-pointer at the end of the fourth quarter sent Game 1 of the first-round series into overtime and the Spurs on to victory. He followed that with an eight-point second quarter that blunted the Suns’ early momentum in Game 2.
It was hardly a surprise when the Suns chose to deny Finley open looks in the games that followed, with instructions to ace defender Raja Bell to stick tight to him, no matter what. What followed was a bonanza for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, and Finley just smiled at the notion he could have impacted the series in a meaningful way averaging just six shots a game.
“I think I played my role fairly well,” he said. “The most important thing is that we won the series, and when I had opportunities, when I was put in situations where I could do things, for the most part I took advantage of those situations.”
Finley was happy just to occupy the Suns’ best perimeter defender in the final three games, enjoying the view of Parker’s and Duncan’s action in the lane.
“Fin is the type of player who just takes what’s given to him,” Horry said. “I don’t think in that (Suns) series he was able to get a lot of shots to get a rhythm because Tim was doing his thing, Tony was doing his thing and Manu (Ginobili) was doing his thing.”
Finley said the Spurs understand their 4-1 elimination of the Suns was much more difficult than it might have seemed to casual observers.
The benefit was the additional knowledge that eliminating mistakes in the most demanding moments is required to survive the pressure of playoff crunch time.
“In a perfect world, you wish all the games were easy, like Game 3, and enough to get us to win the series,” he said. “But in that series, we know that one bounce here or one bounce there and we could easily have been down 2-1.”
But from a mental standpoint, the mental toughness it took for us to get through those close games will definitely help us be prepared for this series.”
Pro basketball: Practice makes perfect for Finley
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
The subject was volume shooting, and Robert Horry was lamenting an injury-plagued season that had denied him opportunity to develop the rhythmic feel great shooters need before they can believe every shot will be perfect.
On a practice court behind him at the Spurs’ training facility Thursday, Michael Finley was sweating a light-gray T-shirt nearly black, casting up so many 3-point shots that assistant coach Don Newman worried he would tear the rotator cuff in his right shoulder from firing so many passes to the 35-year-old veteran.
After getting up only 19 shots in the final four games of the Spurs’ first-round playoff series against the Suns, Finley wanted to be certain his shooting stroke was honed for the Spurs’ Western Conference semifinal matchup against New Orleans. So he took a few extra trips around the 3-point arc, and by the time he finally called a halt, Newman needed a fresh T-shirt, too.
“It takes a lot for certain guys to get it going,” Horry said, “and a lot of guys it doesn’t. Now me, I need a lot of shots to get going, and I haven’t gotten many shots. But Fin is a workaholic. He’s out here practicing hard every day, and I don’t think he has anything to worry about.”
He’s going to get his shots up and he’s going to be fine for us.”
Finley’s 3-pointer at the end of the fourth quarter sent Game 1 of the first-round series into overtime and the Spurs on to victory. He followed that with an eight-point second quarter that blunted the Suns’ early momentum in Game 2.
It was hardly a surprise when the Suns chose to deny Finley open looks in the games that followed, with instructions to ace defender Raja Bell to stick tight to him, no matter what. What followed was a bonanza for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, and Finley just smiled at the notion he could have impacted the series in a meaningful way averaging just six shots a game.
“I think I played my role fairly well,” he said. “The most important thing is that we won the series, and when I had opportunities, when I was put in situations where I could do things, for the most part I took advantage of those situations.”
Finley was happy just to occupy the Suns’ best perimeter defender in the final three games, enjoying the view of Parker’s and Duncan’s action in the lane.
“Fin is the type of player who just takes what’s given to him,” Horry said. “I don’t think in that (Suns) series he was able to get a lot of shots to get a rhythm because Tim was doing his thing, Tony was doing his thing and Manu (Ginobili) was doing his thing.”
Finley said the Spurs understand their 4-1 elimination of the Suns was much more difficult than it might have seemed to casual observers.
The benefit was the additional knowledge that eliminating mistakes in the most demanding moments is required to survive the pressure of playoff crunch time.
“In a perfect world, you wish all the games were easy, like Game 3, and enough to get us to win the series,” he said. “But in that series, we know that one bounce here or one bounce there and we could easily have been down 2-1.”
But from a mental standpoint, the mental toughness it took for us to get through those close games will definitely help us be prepared for this series.”