Ludden: Road woes becoming road kill for Spurs

[Kori Ellis]

Road woes becoming road kill for Spurs
Web Posted: 04/09/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...1bc2f2049.html

LOS ANGELES — After making quite the impression in Dallas, as well as in Detroit, Indianapolis, New York and Denver, the Spurs touched down here early Friday amid concern their arrival might set off another frenzied celebration among the locals.

For much of the past six weeks, the Spurs have used their travels as an NBA goodwill tour, boosting the self-esteem and playoff hopes of teams across the nation. Including the 104-68 beating they absorbed Thursday in Dallas, they have lost six consecutive road games and eight of their past 11.

With only two home dates among their final seven games, the Spurs will need to stomach the $17 room-service grilled cheese a while longer.

"We realize we're having a lot of trouble on the road," Manu Ginobili said. "At home, you always find something else to help — the crowd, the arena. But on the road, we don't have that. The crowd is on their side, they get all excited, and we go down."

The Spurs probably would have far less reason to question their resiliency if they weren't missing their 6-foot-11 security blanket. In the team's past eight road losses, Tim Duncan has been on the floor for a total of less than two minutes.

Duncan might be able to return as early as next week. In the meantime, his teammates hope to do a better job of playing without him.

"When Tim comes back, if the rest of the group isn't playing well, it's not going to bode well for our chances in the playoffs," Brent Barry said. "We need to be as sharp as possible, so that Tim will have time to get himself back in a rhythm, and then we can all click."

The Spurs have hardly been a well-oiled machine away from the SBC Center, averaging only 80 points on 35.6 percent shooting in the past four road games.

Thursday's loss was their most lopsided in almost four years. And it wasn't hard to see why: the Mavericks outshot them 53.2 percent to 34.6 percent and outrebounded them 51-35. The Spurs' 68 points were four more than their all-time low.

Aware of how the past few weeks have worn on his team, coach Gregg Popovich took advantage of a beautiful Southern California afternoon Friday and turned his players loose on a local high school soccer field. After Rasho Nesterovic briefly auditioned as Slovenia's first 7-foot striker, the Spurs stayed outside and scripted some offense from their chosen sport.

"You can't translate our whole season into one game," Tony Parker said. "We're obviously not happy about it, but it's not like we lost 10 games in a row."

The Spurs' inconsistency, however, has become a trend. Barry has performed well since Devin Brown went on the injured list, but the team would benefit from better production from the rest of its bench.

With Robert Horry starting in place of Duncan, the Spurs also have missed Malik Rose's energy and, even more so, his experience. Nazr Mohammed is still learning the system, and the team now has Glenn Robinson to also work into the mix.

"Me and Manu also have a tendency to try to do too much to make something happen," Parker said. "It's just frustrating because we know we can do better."

Ginobili was clearly fatigued Thursday, though the team as a whole has labored significantly when playing on consecutive nights. In their past seven back-to-backs, the Spurs have won the second game only once. The lone victory — a week ago against the Lakers — also was the lone game played at home.

The Spurs have two more back-to-backs in the next five days. After tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers — who have been off since losing Wednesday at the SBC Center — they play at Golden State on Sunday.

"I think there are a lot of built-in excuse mechanisms for how we've performed on the road recently," Barry said. "You could point to lineup changes. You could point to the opponents we've played and the positions they're in — some of them being in desperate situations and some of them fighting for their playoff lives.

"But this team has to be far beyond that. We need to put all that aside and maintain a focus and not get ourselves out of sync to the point where we can't recover."

[Summers]

the Spurs touched down here early Friday amid concern their arrival might set off another frenzied celebration among the locals.

For much of the past six weeks, the Spurs have used their travels as an NBA goodwill tour, boosting the self-esteem and playoff hopes of teams across the nation.

[pigknuckles]

Spurs just don't have the firepower without TD. We need more talent around Tony and Manu. Being a small market team I guess we take chances with horry and rasho,beno.

[Hook Dem]

As I watched the Nuggets on the road last night, it just reinforced what we all know is the problem. Our guys just can't shoot as a team. With Tim missing, we are forced to shoot from the perimeter and we are not very good at that. The defensive effort has been pretty good in the absence of Tim but even that breaks down in most 4th quarters because our confidence is shaken. Other teams are shooting from the perimiter much better than us whether it is at home or on the road. Let's hope GRob will help with that. The absence of Tim in the post has clogged the lane for us and we can not get there without being decapitated. Thats why we are not getting to the charity stripe. It's not going to change till Tim comes back. He just creates more opportunities for everyone. As long as Tim is out, we must have outstanding efforts from Horry and Barry. If that does not happen, we will not win. It's just that simple! Everyone wants to focus on Manu & Tony but Horry and Barry are the keys to winning with Tim out.I wish we could be a better perimiter team but the truth is that we are not..We'll just have to weather this storm till Tim comes back. Since we only have two home games left, I don't expect much to change till we get whole again. That being said, we can still lose with some measure of dignity and the Dallas game should be gut check time for everyone.

[boutons]

"the Dallas game should be gut check time for everyone."

DET/NYK/IND road trip was the gut check, magnificently rediscovered their guts for Rockets and Sonics, but Spurs leaves their guts @SBC when the go on the road. I wouldn't pick the Spurs to beat the Clippers if the Clippers were healthy. With the Clippers hurt, the Spurs have a slim chance.

Rick has a found ways to make Pacers competetive without Jermaine, Jamal, Ron. Why isn't Pop doing the same for the Spurs?

Are the Spurs without Tim really worse that the Pacers without Jermaine, Jamal, Ron?

[TOP-CHERRY]

Hey everyone! I'm new.

Anway, the Spurs are just in a slump right now. They play with no heart, no intensity, no will. However, watching how Tim reacted in the Mavs game, I am so excited about the playoffs (or whenever he comes back). Timmy is maaaaaad!!!!!! He's in search for vengence for those teams who kicked HIS team around. And the only way he's gonna get it is playing like he's never played before. We're gonna see a whole new mean, tough Timmy, so WATCH OUT!!!

I've been waiting for him to be his agressive self, or the way he played the Lakers and Shaq in 2003, REMEMBER!!??

And he's gonna be that when the playoffs come around. We're gonna shut all those critics jabbing us up.

Spurs will be wearing these:

[1Parker1]

Welcome Top-Cherry. Interesting quote you have there by President Bush...when did he say that?

[TOP-CHERRY]

Thanks!
It was Clinton when the Spurs (NBA Champs) visited the White House in '99.

ed) Hm.. why isn't my sig showing anymore? Weird..

[1Parker1]

Awesome, I never knew he said that. So you think Tim's got that killer look in his eyes again? Now that I think about it, I remember seeing it. Against the Cavs this year when he made that game winning shot (the one where he goal-tended the 3 pointer) and last year in the closing minutes of the 4th Quarter of Game 5 against LA.

[TOP-CHERRY]

See, what I think is that Timmy didn't really have reasons to be really too agressive this season because:

1) Shaq-less Lakers were no longer the rivals he loved to hate and play his best against. Whether it be Shaq instigating him (with his smack-talk), Phil Jackson belittling them, or whatever the rivalry was that pushed him to be aggressive and show his emotions.

2) At the beginning of the season, generally every team the Spurs played were no threat nor caused any fear to the Spurs and Timmy.

3) The Spurs were just good without much playing time from Tim.

All of these reasons, and you get a Timmy with no real reasons to be too agressive.
But now... NOW Timmy's seeing first-hand (or on the bench ) how teams who shouldn't be kicking around his Spurs and acting all y against them, ARE.
You know Timmy.. He doesn't get mad if people call him out. But he gets psycho when others belittle his teammates and HIS team.
So if teams think Timmy is gonna take all that crap from them, OH how wrong they are!! I can't wait to see Timmy go out there in the playoffs and kick all those egotistical teams out of their playoff dreams. Remember how heartening it was for us to see Timmy kick Shaq's ass the year they won it all? I'm sure he'll return three times more fierce this year when we win it all again!