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Mid Playoffs?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????
WTF is this guy talking about?
Healthy lineup is priority No. 1 for contenders
Mike Monroe
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich asserts that no team wins an NBA le without a full complement of healthy players.
As far as I can tell, he's right. I've been covering the league since 1985 and can't recall a single champion that won without all its regular contributors.
The Lakers won the 1980 le when rookie Magic Johnson filled in for center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, down with a migraine, in deciding Game 6 against the 76ers. But that was just one game.
Remember the 1989 Finals? The Lakers were going for a three-peat, with the added incentive of wanting to send Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to retirement with another championship ring. But Byron Scott pulled a hamstring in practice before Game 1, and Magic Johnson popped a hammy in the third quarter of Game 1.
The Pistons scored a 4-0 Finals sweep.
This, of course, explains why Popovich takes the conservative approach to injured stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan.
The Rockets, today's opponent at the AT&T Center, can pass the Spurs for the Southwest Division lead with a victory. This fact means less than zero to Popovich when it comes to suiting up Ginobili or allocating more playing time to Duncan.
Only one thing matters, even at this point in the season: complete health on Day 1 of the playoffs.
When Ginobili is ready to return to action, perhaps near the end of this week, expect to see Popovich ease him back, as Doc Rivers did with Kevin Garnett in Friday's game.
Rivers' plan for Garnett, who played for the first time since Feb. 20, was to give him seven-to-eight minutes in the first quarter and another seven-to-eight at the outset of the third.
Garnett came out after 7:33 of the first, opened the second half and played 7:06, then sat for the remainder.
Friday's outcome was hanging in crunch time, but Rivers fought any impulse he may have had about putting Garnett back in the game.
Garnett knew better than to lobby for another run.
“We had made that call,” Rivers said, “and we stuck with it.”
The Lakers have watched their lead over the Cavaliers for best record in the league disappear during the past two weeks, but their timetable for the return of injured center Andrew Bynum has not changed. Phil Jackson understands his team has a better shot at giving him his 10th le as a head coach if Bynum can contribute in a potential Finals Game 7, even if it is played at Quicken Loans Arena.
Examine the legitimate contenders for this season's Larry O'Brien Trophy, and it's the Magic and the Spurs who are most challenged by Popovich's dictum.
Orlando All-Star point guard, Jameer Nelson, is out for the season.
Ginobili's sore right ankle has been so slow to heal that no reasonable observer can know for sure if he will be right by mid-playoffs. Plus, Tim Duncan's stiff knees are a worry.
The Celtics are on the mend at just the right time, and the Lakers' cautious approach to Bynum's knee injury will pay off if he is ready for the first round of playoffs.
Of course, every rule has an exception.
If you are a Rockets fan, hope there is no miracle comeback by Tracy McGrady.
Mid Playoffs?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????
WTF is this guy talking about?
Thanks for the clarification. Looks like these Express News writers ed up again.
Thought I'd throw this here.
Coro: Stars' injuries worry Spurs
by Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
San Antonio's Manu Ginobili practiced Thursday but his return from a right distal fibula stress reaction to game time was not declared imminent and the Spurs are just as worried about Tim Duncan's knee pain.
Ginobili has been out since Feb. 11 but he is progressing. Duncan's knees will hurt the rest of the season and he was held out Tuesday. He has not been himself since missing three games for quadriceps tendonosis in late February, shooting 43 percent since then.
"It's a long season, it's still sore and all that stuff," Duncan told the San Antonio Express-News. "It's going to come, and it's going to go. It's going to be something that I'll deal with and manage."
But for the first time since David Robinson was around six year ago, the Spurs have another player to post up in Drew Gooden. But he is still getting over a groin strain.
A healthy Spurs team would be as deep as ever with a defensive bench unit of Gooden, Ginobili, George Hill, Kurt Thomas and either Ime Udoka or Bruce Bowen.
The Spurs are just too banged up...
Please.
he's saying that even if ginobili comes back later this week, how do we know if his ankles will still be OK after playing thru the first half of the playoffs...Mid Playoffs?????????????????????????????
WTF is this guy talking about?
either that or he is saying, since ginobili's ankle has been so slooooow to heal so far, how do we know that even by mid-playoffs if it will even be healed yet...
a valid question either way.
. You never have anything good to say at all.....
I notice the Blazers aren't even part of the conversation, banged up or not.
*bump*
digging around in a search for priorities going into the playoffs I found this article... very much in point with Pop's way of thinking to this day.
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