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Mike Monroe swayed by the glitz and glitter....
stand up for your team, man.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...n.389bfd3.html
Review-preview: Spurs will go back to L.A., but for only one game
Mike Monroe
Express-News
The backstage mix before, and after, Lakers games is never boring. Celebrities mingle easily with the athletes and officials. It's hard to tell who most admires whom.
Admiration and adulation flow in both directions and hero worship takes many forms, but when you see referees Ken Mauer and Tony Brothers posing for photos with actor Denzel Washington after the game, you don't have to ask who requested the shot.
When Washington followed his photo session Friday by talking with a Lakers beat writer, well, was it really eavesdropping when I listened in?
Saying their good-byes, the reporter asked the actor if he would be back at Staples on Thursday for Game 5.
“If there is a Game 5,” Washington said, laughing.
I couldn't resist. I scribbled in my notepad: “Denzel predicts sweep.”
“Denzel,” said a Staples Center official in our little mix, “meet Mike Monroe from the San Antonio Express-News. I think you just made a headline in his paper.”
All four of us had a good laugh.
“All right,” Washington asked, “what do you think is going to happen?”
What I told Washington definitely isn't what Spurs fans want to hear: There will be another Western Conference finals game at Staples Center on Thursday, but none after that. The Spurs are professional enough to win one game at the AT&T Center, but the league's oldest team is spent after a tough series against the Hornets.
These Lakers aren't those Hornets. They don't need a roaring home crowd to energize their game. They have Kobe Bryant, with three championship rings, and Derek Fisher, his teammate on those Lakers le teams. They have answers when the Spurs pose problems like those that stumped the Hornets.
When Gregg Popovich said blowing that 20-point lead in the final 18 minutes of Game 1 “hurt like ,” he had to know the Spurs' best chance of winning the series was to steal Game 1, then coast a bit in Game 2.
The Spurs are proud and professional, and Manu Ginobili is on a mission to atone for his inability to dominate while playing on one leg. He got to rest early in Game 2, and that will help.
So Denzel will be back in his courtside seat Thursday, but the game he watches at Staples Center after that will be NBA Finals, Game 3.
* * *
ALTERATIONS
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has a history of dictating playoff matchups by shuffling his starting lineups. It was during the Spurs' first-round series against the Nuggets in 2005 that Manu Ginobili first slid into the sixth-man role that ultimately became his regular-season routine, part of a plan to manage his minutes.
Popovich went to the well one more time in Game 2 when he brought Ginobili off the bench and started Michael Finley. We know now that the move was out of concern for Ginobili's battered body. The alternative the coach considered was sitting him altogether.
It's also clear Popovich has been hoping to get something special, one more time, from Robert Horry. He has been the first big man off the bench for the last four playoff games. In the two games in Los Angeles, Horry came up empty, and you have to wonder if Popovich might tweak his big-man rotation, or perhaps choose to play more small ball.
Kurt Thomas has been relegated to a lesser role, and that has a lot to do with the nature of the Lakers' long front line. Thomas doesn't match up very well against Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom or Vladimir Radmanovic.
Mike Monroe swayed by the glitz and glitter....
stand up for your team, man.
Omg Everybody Freakouttt
Denzel, diehard Lakers and Yankees fan.
rofl.
Probably Cowboys or Niners fan too. Needs to get off the bandwagon.
Now, there's an objective writer. He deserves a raise!
Man! we are not bandwaggoners! just cause i cheer for the Lakers,Pats(and a cowboy fan) and the Yanks, USC fro football and Duke for bball, so what? i just go for teams that are good.
Monroe sucks.
Truth is...he's right.
Monroe is right
Spurs will go back to LA only for a game
because we will close the series at home in game 6
That's right...
Yeah--Monroe--when I said you sucked--well--in the words of the late Gilda Radner...
Nevermind...
Anyone who doesn't believe the Spurs can win this series still is soft as pudding. Weak column, Monroe. He was just desperate to blab about standing next to Denzel Washigton. Monroe, he changes his shorts like you and me.
Mike is right, if the Spurs can't deny the split of games3,4.
Spurs going back to LA 1-3 to win Game5? GMAFB
My fear is that Manu will try too hard to compensate for his Games1,2. As the advice goes, he's got to let the game come to him.
(He also has to put arc back in his 3s. They were very flat in LA.)
Hey I love the person in your avatar! I'm glad America got it right this time. David Cook is the man!
Now about the Spurs, that game 1 hurt as . They really let that slip away. I've been usually pessimistic about the Spurs chances which has been good for them coz they have kept proving me wrong all season long, so I'll keep on doing that. I really don't think the Spurs can pull off another series win after being down 0-2 so this really makes me sad knowing it would've been a different series had they won game 1. And I really feel that running out of gas has been the biggest factor in all of this. Add to that the impotent offense and Manu Ginobili's injury.
I got a question though, is the Laker defense really good? Coz I can see Parker and Manu having a hard time driving in. What is causing this?
once again...tho i hated when it happened...letting go of a younger beno and replacing him with a old mighty mouse killed us....AND.....trading our only 7'0 footer who was a proven championship caliber backup center with length, Elson for a old 6'9 dont know squat about winning championships only losing them thomas........thats when our season ended..i said that the day after we got and lost both those players.........win or lose...........go spurs go
No, Party Animal Beno Udrih was replaced with the now long-forgotten dearly departed Darius Washington. Might Mini Mouse was just a spare part.
"The race doesn't always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong--but that's the way to bet." Damon Runyon, sportswriter.
We beat Phoenix with a miracle shot for overtime. We beat NO in 7 after coming back from 0-2. How many miracles will the basketball gods allow the Spurs in one playoff season?
How can the team's own beatwriter give up on them? I mean even if he thinks that, how the can he even state it?
Especially when we have yet to play ONE game on our home floor!!How can the team's own beatwriter give up on them? I mean even if he thinks that, how the can he even state it?
I am surprised at the article.
He should've saved it had the Lakers gone up 3-0.
Monroe has an opinion. He has no clue as to what will happen tonight and on Tuesday.
Never, ever, doubt the heart of a champion.
Fire Monroe.
So Denzel will be back in his courtside seat Thursday, but the game he watches at Staples Center after that will be NBA Finals, Game 3.
Yes, Monroe is right!
This is not suprising. Monroe is not from here. He lost a job at a national media outlet and has been a Laker lover since he got the job for the Express-News. I get the impression from his writing he is not happy here and cannot wait for the first job offer somewhere else to hightail it out of here.
hahahaha i forgot about washington...oh well...sure could use someone at the point who knows the system, but uh, we let him go...haha @spare part go spurs go
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