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tough one
Tuesday: Spurs (33-14) at Nuggets (31-16)
Express-News
Time: 8 p.m.
TV: KMYS, NBA TV
Radio: WOAI-AM 1200, KCOR-AM 1350
STARTING LINEUPS
POS - SPURS - NUGGETS
PG - 9 Tony Parker (6-2, 8th yr) - 7 Chauncey Billups (6-3, 12th yr)
Parker, Billups will take turns backing up Chris Paul in Feb. 15 All-Star Game.
SG - 8 Roger Mason (6-5, 5th yr) - 30 Dahntay Jones (6-6, 6th yr)
Fun but meaningless stat: Nuggets are 17-5 when Jones logs at least 20 minutes.
SG - 4 Michael Finley (6-7, 14th yr) - 15 Carmelo Anthony (6-8, 6th yr)
All-Star snub bothered Anthony, but ill-timed fractured hand hurt his candidacy.
PF - 21 Tim Duncan (6-11, 12th yr) - 4 Kenyon Martin (6-9, 9th yr)
Duncan continues two-step with Parker for Spurs’ scoring lead.
C - 15 Matt Bonner (6-10, 5th yr) - 31 Nenê (6-11, 7th yr)
Nenê leads the NBA with 61.7 shooting percentage.
SPURS RESERVES
12 Bruce Bowen, F, 6-7, 13th yr
20 Manu Ginobili, G, 6-6, 7th yr
3 George Hill, G, 6-2, 1st yr
7 Fabricio Oberto, C/F, 6-10, 4th yr
40 Kurt Thomas, C/F, 6-9, 14th yr
5 Ime Udoka, G/F, 6-5, 5th yr
1 Malik Hairston, G, 6-5, 1st yr
NUGGETS RESERVES
11 Chris Andersen, F/C, 6-10, 7th yr
32 Renaldo Balkman, F, 6-8, 3rd yr
25 Anthony Carter, G, 6-2, 10th yr
43 Linas Kleiza, F, 6-8, 4th yr
27 Johan Petro, C, 7-0, 4th yr
1 J.R. Smith, G, 6-6, 5th yr
13 Sonny Weems, G/F, 6-6, 1st yr
COACHES
Spurs: Gregg Popovich
Nuggets: George Karl
INJURIES
Spurs: Ian Mahinmi (right ankle surgery) is out.
Nuggets: Steven Hunter (right knee surgery) is out. Anthony (fractured right hand) is probable.
PROJECTED INACTIVE PLAYERS
Spurs: Mahinmi, Jacque Vaughn.
Nuggets: Hunter.
NOTABLE
Not-so-fresh off of Monday’s game against the run-and-gun Warriors, the Spurs complete one of the season’s most grueling back-to-backs tonight in the high al ude of Denver. ... Spurs and Nuggets have split two games this season, which each team winning on the other’s home court. Spurs beat Denver 108-91 on Dec. 4 at the Pepsi Center in most recent meeting. ... Nuggets are 30-13 since trading for Billups on Nov. 3.
- Jeff McDonald
tough one
I want this win.
hairston is 6'5? not exactly good size for SF. i wonder how bonner will match up against nene... not very good i prediict.
playing the nuggets in denver on the second of a back-to-back after winning in overtime against a very game warriors? no problemo.
spurs will lose this one.
Final meeting between these two ball clubs, hopefully the Spurs have enough in the tank to get this win.
San Antonio (33-14) at Denver (31-16) Preview
Game info: 9:00 pm EST Tue Feb 3, 2009
TV: My35, ALT
By Brett Huston
It looked like the San Antonio Spurs’ marathon road trip was about to get off to a rocky start against the worst defensive team in the NBA, but the team’s three stars made sure that wouldn’t be the case.
Escaping with a win in Denver could be considerably more difficult.
A night after needing overtime to pick up their fourth straight victory, the Spurs will try to win for the ninth time in 10 games on Tuesday when they visit the Nuggets, who are happy to have their superstar back on the floor.
San Antonio’s “rodeo” road trip has been a major success over the past six seasons, as coach Gregg Popovich’s team has gone 35-13 on the annual journey since 2002-03.
This year’s eight-game trek began at Golden State on Monday, and the Spurs (33-14) found themselves down 89-77 with less than nine minutes left to the defensively challenged Warriors.
But San Antonio closed regulation on an 18-6 run - including four Manu Ginobili free throws in the final minute to tie the score - and won 110-105 in overtime despite Tim Duncan fouling out.
Ginobili finished with 32 points, and is averaging 28.0 points in his last three games. He’s 35-of-36 from the free-throw line.
“(Ginobili) is really finding his stride and been playing great the last five or six games,” said Duncan, who also had 32 points. “It looks like he’s feeling good about it and is getting back to the basket a lot more which is only going to help us.”
Tony Parker had 23 points and seven assists as the team improved to 15-7 away from home.
The Spurs’ next two games on their trip appear to be their toughest. Following their visit to the Pepsi Center, they’ll have four days off before playing defending champion Boston on Sunday. The trip closes with four of five games against sub-.500 teams.
Denver (31-16) had a three-game lead over Portland in the Northwest Division when Carmelo Anthony went down with a broken hand on Jan. 6, and went 6-4 in the three weeks he missed.
The Nuggets’ lead is down to a game over the streaking Trail Blazers now, but Anthony didn’t look too rusty in his first game back on Friday. He had 19 points and five assists in 30 minutes as Denver beat Charlotte 110-99.
“It felt pretty good,” Anthony said of his hand. “It’s still a little tender. That’s going to be something that I have to fight through.”
Chauncey Billups scored 21.6 points per game in Anthony’s absence and J.R. Smith averaged 16.7 points, but it was Linas Kleiza who stepped up offensively.
Kleiza was only scoring 9.7 ppg when Anthony went down, but averaged 14.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in the 10 games his two-time All-Star teammate missed. With Anthony back on Friday, Kleiza’s play didn’t suffer - he scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Nene, meanwhile, is shooting 61.7 percent from the field to lead the league, but has been even better recently. He’s averaging 17.8 points on 68.9 percent shooting in his last six games, including a 10-for-11 performance against the Bobcats.
“The sky’s the limit for this team,” Anthony said. “They made my time (out) a little bit easier by winning games. Now, we want to build on that.”
Nene will be in for a challenge down low against Duncan, who had 21 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks at Denver in a 108-91 Spurs win on Dec. 4. Parker had a game-high 22 and Ginobili 21 in that contest.
Duncan is averaging 23.8 points and 11.8 rebounds in 21 career regular-season games in Denver.
Notes
Spurs:
Monday's win came in the opener of a season-high, eight-game road trip for the Spurs. Forced into the extensive trek due to the rodeo at AT&T Center, San Antonio has gone 35-13 over the previous six seasons - including 6-3 in 2007-08 - during the annual trip. ... F Tim Duncan fouled out for just the second time this season, doing so with 3:17 remaining in overtime. He finished with 32 points and 15 rebounds. ... The Spurs committed 20 turnovers. Duncan and G Tony Parker had six apiece. ... San Antonio hit only 3-of-13 (23 percent) 3-pointers.
Nuggets:
The Nuggets are 15-1 when scoring 110 points this season and 10-0 at home when doing so. ... Denver outrebounded Charlotte, 39-30, Friday, improving to 12-1 at home when outrebounding its opponent. ... C Nene registered his 14th double-double of the season with 22 points and 12 rebounds. ... F Carmelo Anthony returned from a 10-game absence after suffering a non-displaced third metacarpal fracture on his right hand against the Indiana Pacers on January 5. He scored 19 points in just under 30 minutes.
Team Stat Leaders
Points
Tony Parker SA 20.6
Carmelo Anthony Den 21.1
Rebounds
Tim Duncan SA 10.3
Nene Hilario Den 8.2
Assists
Tony Parker SA 6.5
Chauncey Billups Den 6.5
Team Comparison
Team Record Standings PF PA Road/Home Streak L10
San Antonio 33-14 1st Southwest / 2nd West 97.6 94.3 Road 15-7 Won 4 8-2
Denver 31-16 1st Northwest / 3rd West 104.1 100.3 Home 19-6 Won 1 6-4
I hope we win this.
Manu better get his 3 pt shot back for tomorrow. I don't trust that punk, Carmelo.
Incredibly tough game for all the reasons already mentioned. I hope Pop limits TD and TP to 32-34 minutes and Manu to 26-28... Give the bench a shot to win this game for the Spurs. Mason, Hill and Bonner are going to have to step up and lets hope KT continues his stellar play.
I can't see them winning it and have a feeling Denver will get out early and hold a 8-12pt for most of the game.
Hard game, specially after a OT game the day before... hope we can pull it off.
Dont have a good feeling about this one.
back to back ,really tough game
go spurs go
Don't worry guys, coach nelson might find a way to this up and bowen is there to piss off melo.
don't worry, i have a solution. switch the bench with the starters. start hill, mason, bowen, bonner, and oberto. why not? popovich has already lost his mind by going micro ball against the warriors. finley at center? wtf.
i noticed bowen only played for 15 minutes today despite jackson's 33 pts. popovich definitely preserving him for melo.
pop should go back to the lineup when gino and parker was out injured....
duncan, bonner, bowen, finley, hill
just watch out and try not to get injured cuz injury is now like a plage in the league.
Is there any way both teams could lose this game?
Actually I hope Manu doesn't play at all the way he was banged up last night.Manu better get his 3 pt shot back for tomorrow. I don't trust that punk, Carmelo.
Look for the Nuggets to blow the Spurs away in this one.
Close game the 1st half, then we get blown out (out of gas) in the 2nd - book it.
Spurs represent measuring stick for Nuggets
By Aaron J. Lopez, Rocky Mountain News
Notorious for pacing themselves during the regular season in recent years, the San Antonio Spurs were limping along at 9-8 when their bus pulled into the Pepsi Center parking lot two months ago.
They had spent most of November as an incomplete unit, first without shooting guard Manu Ginobili and then without point guard Tony Parker.
Given a chance to use injuries as an excuse, All-Star forward Tim Duncan instead expressed his concern.
"I don't remember it ever being like this," Duncan said after San Antonio's Dec. 4 shootaround.
That night, with Ginobili and Parker healthy, the Spurs went out and dismantled the Nuggets 108-91, triggering a six-game winning streak.
They have stumbled only a handful of times since.
San Antonio, 32-14 entering its game at Golden State on Monday night, returns to Denver tonight boasting the second-best record in the West — thanks primarily to a 23-6 stretch that started with the lopsided victory against the Nuggets.
"I think the Lakers, Spurs (and) maybe New Orleans in the West have shown that they're a little ahead of the curve being a championship contender," Nuggets coach George Karl said Monday. "I think everybody's giving the Lakers the benefit of the doubt, but I think from a mental toughness standpoint, San Antonio's ahead of everybody."
Much of the credit goes to Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Bruce Bowen — the four remaining Spurs who have been on all three of San Antonio's le-winning teams in the past six seasons.
The consistent quartet reminds Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups of his time with the Detroit Pistons, whose core players were together for six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference finals and an NBA championship run in 2006.
"The one thing that's different — and it's a major thing, to be honest — is (the Spurs have) been able to stay consistent at the top as far as a coach," Billups said. "We went through like four coaches (in Detroit). When you can stay with one coach that's been great, it makes a difference."
Now in his 13th NBA season — all with the Spurs — coach Gregg Popovich has a good chance to add to his four championship rings.
Two of the les (2005 and 2007) came after defeating Denver in the first round of the playoffs, but the Nuggets are hoping to make an early statement in the teams' final regular-season meeting tonight.
With the standings tight and the season series tied 1-1, a win would give Denver the tiebreaker in case of playoff seeding.
"We had looked forward to that (Dec. 4) game, actually, and just came out and got dominated," Billups said. "That was one of our most disappointing losses, probably.
"I know that we're going to fight. It's a good game for us to measure where we're at because they are one of the elite teams and we want to get to that level. That's a team that we could see later on down the road."
Spurs at Nuggets
When: 7 tonight.
Where: Pepsi Center.
TV/radio: Al ude; KCKK-AM (1510).
Probable starting lineups
San Antonio (32-14) Pos. Ht. Pts.
4 Michael Finley F 6-7 9.6
21 Tim Duncan F 6-11 20.4
15 Matt Bonner C 6-10 8.2
8 Roger Mason Jr. G 6-5 11.7
9 Tony Parker G 6-2 20.6
Coach:Gregg Popovich
Denver (31-16) Pos. Ht. Pts.
15 Carmelo Anthony F 6-8 21.1
4 Kenyon Martin F 6-9 13.0
31 Nene C 6-11 15.1
30 Dahntay Jones G 6-6 6.0
7 Chauncey Billups G 6-3 18.6
Coach:George Karl
Injuries:
San Antonio - C Ian Mahinmi (right ankle surgery) is out.
Denver - F/C Steven Hunter (knee surgery) is out.
Notes:
Tonight is Denver's final home game before playing eight straight on the road. "Crazy month on the road," Billups said. "We've been a pretty good road team (12-10) and we're going to have to be this month." . . . Nene is 22-of-23 from the floor in his past two home games, but he has made only 6-of-11 free throws. . . . The Nuggets are 24-1 when leading after three quarters. . . . Karl used the past three days to help incorporate Anthony into the offensive and defensive game plan. Anthony had not practiced leading to his return Friday from a broken bone in his hand. . . . The Spurs are 16-4 in games decided by six points or fewer and 9-2 in games decided by three points or fewer. . . . San Antonio is 7-3 in the second of back-to-back games this season.
Spurs continue road trip against Nuggets
(Sports Network) - The streaking San Antonio Spurs shoot for their fifth straight win Tuesday as they resume their annual eight-game "rodeo" road trip in Denver against the Nuggets.
The Spurs hit the road every year at this time while the rodeo inhabits the AT&T Center in the Alamo City.
San Antonio, which will also visit Boston, New Jersey, Toronto, New York, Detroit and Washington on the swing, has traditionally flourished on the long trips. Since 2002-03, when the rodeo moved to the AT&T Center from the smaller Freeman Coliseum, the Spurs have compiled a gaudy 36-13 mark on their annual trek after winning the opener of the latest rodeo road trip in Oakland on Monday.
Tim Duncan scored 32 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, and Manu Ginobili got the game into overtime with two free throws late in regulation, as the Spurs downed the Warriors, 110-105, in that one.
Duncan fouled out with 3:17 left in overtime, but he had already done plenty of damage, making 13-of-20 shots from the floor. Ginobili added 32 as well and Tony Parker tallied 23 points with seven assists for the Spurs, who improved their division lead to four games over New Orleans, who lost a game and perhaps Chris Paul as well due to injury on Monday night. San Antonio has won eight of its last nine games and improved to 15-7 on the road.
The Northwest Division-leading Nuggets, meanwhile, won the opener of a quick two-game homestand last Friday when Carmelo Anthony scored 19 points in his return to the Denver lineup and the Nuggets earned a 110-99 win over the Charlotte Bobcats.
Nene scored 22 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for Denver, which has won four of its last five games. Linas Kleiza scored 21 for the Nuggets, who shot 54.8 percent from the field.
Anthony, who missed the previous 10 games after fracturing his right hand, went 5-of-12 from the field and missed just two of his 11 foul shots in nearly 30 minutes of action.
"It felt pretty good," said Anthony of his hand after the game. "It's still a little tender, but that's something that I have to fight through."
Denver, which is 19-6 at the Pepsi Center, will hit the road for an eight-game road trip of its own after tonight's game.
These two teams have split a pair of meetings this season with each club winning on the opposition's home floor. The Spurs downed Denver, 108-91, at the Pepsi Center on December 4.
Referee Assignments
Tue. Feb. 3
San Antonio @ Denver: K. Mauer, B. Adams, G. Zielinski
huh?The consistent quartet reminds Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups of his time with the Detroit Pistons, whose core players were together for six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference finals and an NBA championship run in 2006.
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