Spurs finally finding their footing, not a moment too soon
Fran Blinebury
NBA.com

Gregg Popovich isn't interested in turning corners. He's tried that too many times this season only to get flattened by another speeding bus.

There went another one Monday night in New Jersey.

Popovich has poked and he's prodded, he's fiddled and twisted like basketball's version of Dr. Frankenstein, waiting for a bolt of lightning to crackle through the skylight and bring his grandest experiment to life. Now, at last, the San Antonio Spurs are sitting upright on the lab table, finishing their best month of the season with 12 wins in their last 17 games, that flameout against the lowly Nets notwithstanding.

Most important was the way the Spurs ran a tough five-game gantlet of contenders (at Atlanta, at Oklahoma City, vs. the Lakers, vs. Cleveland and at Boston) with a 3-2 record, concluding with statement wins over the Cavs and Celtics.

"All I know is we're playing better than we did a month ago," Popovich said, with a shrug. "It's the best basketball that we've played all year. I don't think about now we're on a roll or anything like that. We're just playing better basketball."

Why?

In one word, Manu.

After an agonizing season of false starts and missteps, of waiting for his surgically repaired body to catch up with his instincts and desire, Manu Ginobili is back to being himself. In other words, he's making big plays at both ends of the floor, slicing through cracks in the defense to get to the basket, rising out of crowds to get key rebounds and throwing his body all over the floor to make plays that only he can see.

Ginobili's efforts last week -- 25.8 points, five assists and 4.5 rebounds -- earned him the latest Western Conference player of the week honors. Even his absence from the lineup against New Jersey demonstrated his effect on the team. After almost single-handedly saving their season by carrying the team for the past month, back spasms left Manu on the sidelines and the Spurs without their closer for one game.

The re-emergence of the Spurs as a legitimate threat has just as much to do with their perseverance. Patience has always been a Spurs' trait. While everyone else is reacting and over-reacting to every peak and valley from November through January, theirs is the organization that will sit and watch grass grow or paint dry, knowing the only thing that matters is the result in the spring.

But even the Spurs were beginning to worry when the celebrated annual "Rodeo Trip" in February came and went with a tepid 4-4 record.

What was it going to take to get things right in a season that has had point guard Tony Parker injured and sidelined for 23 games, for Richard Jefferson to find his confidence and his offense, for the likes of Keith Bogans and Antonio McDyess to find their places on the team?

As it turns out, it merely took time. And 22 different lineups.

"This team has clicked," said Popovich. "It just took longer. Every team has situations that have to be ironed out. Nothing is ever nirvana.

"It's like somebody being married saying they never really argue with their wife or their husband. 'We agree on everything every day of our marriage.' Well, that's bull----. Things happen. But there's a respect there that allows you to disagree and get on the same page and we've always managed to do that.

"We've got a steady rotation now. We trust each other more. The chemistry on the team is better. They're enjoying each other more and it's just taken a lot longer than it usually does around here to get to that point."

Any health and conditioning questions surrounding Tim Duncan had been answered positively going into the All-Star break. But in March Duncan fell off to averaging just 14.1 points per game and shot only 46.7 percent. The plans to sit Duncan on the second night of back-to-backs have been dashed by the tight playoff race and Parker's injuries. So Duncan has played in 70 of 73 games 00 he hasn't had a game off since Jan. 13 -- yet is averaging just 31.6 minutes a game, the fewest of his career.

Mostly what Popovich and his staff underestimated was the dramatic upheaval from having no fewer than nine new players on the roster.

"You don't get discouraged, but all sorts of thoughts go through your head," he said. "You wonder when you're ever going to get to the point where the team is really playing for each other. We always talk about playing for your teammate and the responsibility you have to your teammate to play, not just well, but to play with heart and to support each other and to demand from each other. That's a fine line, demanding from your teammate and supporting your teammate. That takes trusts, a real camaraderie.

"Looking back, it probably should have taken longer than usual when I look at how many new faces we had and the way everything came together."

All Popovich could do was push buttons, tinker with different combinations and hope something would click before his head exploded.

"As a coach, you try to create situations where people -- as simplistic as it sounds -- have to talk with each other, have to deal with each other," he said. "Whether it's what you might do on an airplane or on a bus ... making trips or doing things in the community, what you might do in the locker room, how you might sit people next to each other, there all kinds of ways that you try to engender communication and respect.

"But in the end one doesn't really know how well a team will gel. A lot of teams just don't and it shows in the play. Sometimes it's not because people are not good people. Sometimes it's from a lack of trust or a situation where you don't know how to act around another player on the court, because you don't know him well enough. You don't want to disappoint. Maybe you think you're disappointing somebody and that affects your game. Maybe you're disappointed in somebody else and that affects his game and your game. All those things have to be sorted out."

It looks like they finally have for the Spurs. Just in time.