milkyway21
05-29-2008, 03:58 AM
Spurs Don't Dwell on Losses
Coach Says Luck Figures In Quest for Elusive Repeat
by Michael Lee
Washington Post
SAN ANTONIO, May 28 -- San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich knows that if his franchise hadn't had the good fortune to win the NBA draft lottery in 1987, and beaten the odds to win it again 10 years later, it never would've gotten David Robinson or Tim Duncan, and there wouldn't be four championship banners in the rafters of AT&T Center.
He is also aware that if not for Duncan's knee injury just four games before the 2000 playoffs, Laker Derek Fisher's blink-of-an-eye jumper in Game 5 of the 2004 conference semifinals and Manu Ginóbili's foul of Dirk Nowitzki in Game 7 of the 2006 conference semifinals, the Spurs could be hailed in more dynastic terms. Four championships in nine seasons? Not bad.
But what if they were going for their eighth title this season?
Talent, execution and solid defense are some of the keys to being a champion, but Popovich has been around long enough to know that it also takes something else to get through an 82-game season and four rounds of the playoffs to finally hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy and bathe in champagne showers: luck.
"I've always said you have to have some good fortune," Popovich said. "Good fortune means a bad shot might go in, maybe you get a good call, maybe you get a good whistle, maybe your health is perfect, maybe the schedule works in your favor. All those sorts of things really help in a championship run and usually something like that, one or two or all of those things go your way when you win a championship."
The Spurs have had one, two or all of those things go in their favor during their championship runs in 1999, 2003, 2005 and last season. But their luck always seems to run out the following season to deny them back-to-back titles.
This is the farthest San Antonio has gone in a title defense, but if the Spurs are unable to come back from a 3-1 deficit against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, the no-call when Fisher collided with Brent Barry at the end of Game 4 on Tuesday may join the list of unfortunate events in "the Years After."
Popovich and his players refused to blame the loss on the whistle that didn't blow during a disappointing 93-91 loss that put them one loss from elimination Thursday night in Game 5 at Staples Center. Fisher clearly bumped Barry's left side on the final play, which, if called a foul, would have sent Barry -- an 82 percent career foul shooter -- to the line for at least two free throws that could have sent the game into overtime. But Popovich said Wednesday afternoon he accepts that officials rarely make those calls in late-game situations "unless it is really gross or obvious."
Barry tried his best to avoid Fisher after his pump fake sent Fisher into flight. Instead of jumping into Fisher, Barry sidestepped him to get a better look at the basket, and his desperation, three-point heave banged hard off the backboard. "That play was not where the game was lost," Barry said.
Wednesday night, an NBA spokesman acknowledged that a foul should have been called.
The Spurs were fortunate to even be in position to win, after the Lakers nearly squandered a seven-point lead in the final 56.5 seconds. Pau Gasol missed two free throws, then Kobe Bryant, one of the few seasoned veterans on the Lakers, lost his sense of time and shot an ill-advised layup with 33 seconds remaining instead of taking more time off of the clock.
"We held them to 19 points below what they are averaging in the playoffs, Kobe doesn't go to the line and we lose. What's wrong with this picture?" Popovich said. "It's a tough loss. The players and the coaches are humans. We have to focus because it is our job, in hopes that we can win that game and survive. It's not as difficult as one might think. We have to let it go."
Popovich then walked away to catch a flight to Los Angeles aboard the private charter plane provided by Cablevision, the parent company of the New York Knicks. The Spurs changed planes after severing ties with charter carrier Champion Air, the company that got the Spurs started on this run of bad breaks. Mechanical problems forced the team to sleep on the plane for several hours after the Spurs defeated New Orleans in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. Two days later, they blew a 20-point second-half lead in Los Angeles, then they lost by 30 points two days after that. The latest mishap involving Barry has them on the edge of another failed title defense.
"We're trying to win championships. And we've always said if we happen to repeat to win a championship this year then it means we repeated," Popovich said. "So repeat, that word, really doesn't mean much. Winning championships is what's important. It's always difficult and anyone who has ever won one will tell you how difficult it is. If it wasn't difficult, there would be 15, 20, 25 teams that would have championships, but there are very few."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052803352.html
Coach Says Luck Figures In Quest for Elusive Repeat
by Michael Lee
Washington Post
SAN ANTONIO, May 28 -- San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich knows that if his franchise hadn't had the good fortune to win the NBA draft lottery in 1987, and beaten the odds to win it again 10 years later, it never would've gotten David Robinson or Tim Duncan, and there wouldn't be four championship banners in the rafters of AT&T Center.
He is also aware that if not for Duncan's knee injury just four games before the 2000 playoffs, Laker Derek Fisher's blink-of-an-eye jumper in Game 5 of the 2004 conference semifinals and Manu Ginóbili's foul of Dirk Nowitzki in Game 7 of the 2006 conference semifinals, the Spurs could be hailed in more dynastic terms. Four championships in nine seasons? Not bad.
But what if they were going for their eighth title this season?
Talent, execution and solid defense are some of the keys to being a champion, but Popovich has been around long enough to know that it also takes something else to get through an 82-game season and four rounds of the playoffs to finally hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy and bathe in champagne showers: luck.
"I've always said you have to have some good fortune," Popovich said. "Good fortune means a bad shot might go in, maybe you get a good call, maybe you get a good whistle, maybe your health is perfect, maybe the schedule works in your favor. All those sorts of things really help in a championship run and usually something like that, one or two or all of those things go your way when you win a championship."
The Spurs have had one, two or all of those things go in their favor during their championship runs in 1999, 2003, 2005 and last season. But their luck always seems to run out the following season to deny them back-to-back titles.
This is the farthest San Antonio has gone in a title defense, but if the Spurs are unable to come back from a 3-1 deficit against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, the no-call when Fisher collided with Brent Barry at the end of Game 4 on Tuesday may join the list of unfortunate events in "the Years After."
Popovich and his players refused to blame the loss on the whistle that didn't blow during a disappointing 93-91 loss that put them one loss from elimination Thursday night in Game 5 at Staples Center. Fisher clearly bumped Barry's left side on the final play, which, if called a foul, would have sent Barry -- an 82 percent career foul shooter -- to the line for at least two free throws that could have sent the game into overtime. But Popovich said Wednesday afternoon he accepts that officials rarely make those calls in late-game situations "unless it is really gross or obvious."
Barry tried his best to avoid Fisher after his pump fake sent Fisher into flight. Instead of jumping into Fisher, Barry sidestepped him to get a better look at the basket, and his desperation, three-point heave banged hard off the backboard. "That play was not where the game was lost," Barry said.
Wednesday night, an NBA spokesman acknowledged that a foul should have been called.
The Spurs were fortunate to even be in position to win, after the Lakers nearly squandered a seven-point lead in the final 56.5 seconds. Pau Gasol missed two free throws, then Kobe Bryant, one of the few seasoned veterans on the Lakers, lost his sense of time and shot an ill-advised layup with 33 seconds remaining instead of taking more time off of the clock.
"We held them to 19 points below what they are averaging in the playoffs, Kobe doesn't go to the line and we lose. What's wrong with this picture?" Popovich said. "It's a tough loss. The players and the coaches are humans. We have to focus because it is our job, in hopes that we can win that game and survive. It's not as difficult as one might think. We have to let it go."
Popovich then walked away to catch a flight to Los Angeles aboard the private charter plane provided by Cablevision, the parent company of the New York Knicks. The Spurs changed planes after severing ties with charter carrier Champion Air, the company that got the Spurs started on this run of bad breaks. Mechanical problems forced the team to sleep on the plane for several hours after the Spurs defeated New Orleans in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. Two days later, they blew a 20-point second-half lead in Los Angeles, then they lost by 30 points two days after that. The latest mishap involving Barry has them on the edge of another failed title defense.
"We're trying to win championships. And we've always said if we happen to repeat to win a championship this year then it means we repeated," Popovich said. "So repeat, that word, really doesn't mean much. Winning championships is what's important. It's always difficult and anyone who has ever won one will tell you how difficult it is. If it wasn't difficult, there would be 15, 20, 25 teams that would have championships, but there are very few."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052803352.html