Parker takes over
Mike Monroe
ATLANTA — Tony Parker already had torched the Atlanta Hawks for 24 points in the first three quarters of the Spurs' 102-92 victory at Philips Arena here Wednesday night, making 12 of 15 shots, and Hawks coach Mike Woodson had seen enough.
Between periods, Woodson beseeched his players to cut off Parker's lanes to the basket.
His plea: “Make him shoot jumpers.”
“But, Coach,” Hawks center Al Horford told Woodson, “he's making all of those, too.”
In fact, Parker missed a few shots against the Hawks. It only seemed as if all his shots went in.
The Spurs' All-Star point guard finished with 42 points and added 10 assists in what may have been his most complete game of the season.
It was Parker's second game in 48 hours with at least 30 points and 10 assists. He had 30 and 10 in Tuesday's win over the Golden State Warriors at the AT&T Center.
On Wednesday night, All-Star forward Tim Duncan lost a debate with Gregg Popovich about playing the second game of a back-to-back on achy knees. Manu Ginobili returned to the court — for limited minutes and with a month's worth of rust on his game. So Parker's performance was both remarkable and necessary.
If the Spurs wanted to retain their tenuous hold on second place in the Western Conference standings, their lone totally healthy All-Star needed something akin to his career scoring night of Nov. 5, when he poured in 55 points in a double-overtime win in Minnesota.
In fact, Parker scored 42 in regulation time that night, too.
“Tony Parker was incredible, obviously,” Popovich said, “and I thought our team defense was very good. Those two factors gave us a chance to win.”
Seizing that opportunity pushed the Spurs (47-24) to a full game lead on Houston for both the Southwest Division and second place in the West, behind the Lakers.
The Spurs' lock-down defense in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter allowed Parker opportunity to give the Spurs the cushion they needed to beat a team that had won eight in a row on its home court, including victories over four of the teams — New Orleans, Portland, Utah and Dallas — pursuing them in the Western race.
Atlanta didn't score in the first 3:53 of the fourth. By the time Joe Johnson made a running 10-footer, with 8:07 left, Parker had nailed two driving layins and a 17-foot jumper. He played every second of the final period, scoring 18. He made 6 of 10 shots and all six of his free throws.
Parker was part of the Spurs' end-game defensive excellence, too. His Atlanta counterpart, Mike Bibby, made only 5 of 13 shots and had only four assists.
“Tony made great choices all night long,” Popovich said. “Plus, he's working at the other end trying to keep Michael (Bibby) from knocking down shots. His effort was pretty amazing.”
Though Parker had matched his career production for a non-overtime game, he insisted he had done nothing remarkable.
“I don't feel like I'm on fire, or anything,” he said. “I've been playing like that since Timmy and Manu was out. My outside shot was feeling pretty good tonight. That opened some stuff up in the second half for me to go to the basket.”
Johnson tried to match Parker, drive for drive, in the fourth. Popovich put muscular Ime Udoka on the Hawks' top scorer, and Udoka made things tough for him. Johnson made 5 of 7 shots, but none of them came easily.
“Ime was great,” Popovich said. “You're not going to stop Joe. It's like guarding a Kobe Bryant. You're not going to hold him to 10 points, but you've got to make him work all game long, and Ime did that. He worked him very hard, and the team defense behind him was very good.
“Some things you've got to give up, and I thought Ime was very good.”
Ime going to earn more time on the elite wings come playoffs? He brings a bit more offense and rebounding than Bruce, but I don't think he's quite as good a defender as Bowen.
And what's with Ime grabbing and putting in TP airballs on consecutive nights? Does he have some kind of good sense for those or was he just lucky?
^I think tonight it was Manu's airball tonight
give him some time
Right. My bad. But what's with that? Udoka got a nose for airballs? Right place right time?
He does seem to work hard on the offensive glass and I like that.
It's the spurs version of alley oop. Yep, it was a pass.
Good article.
I thought they were going to start chanting MVP for tony
Ime's defense was that of a human pylon. He literally has less perimeter mobility than Bonner ... and maybe Thomas.“Ime was great,” Popovich said. “You're not going to stop Joe. It's like guarding a Kobe Bryant. You're not going to hold him to 10 points, but you've got to make him work all game long, and Ime did that. He worked him very hard, and the team defense behind him was very good.
“Some things you've got to give up, and I thought Ime was very good.”
So what's this Ime love from Pop? Sometimes I just don't get him...
Pop's love usually precedes a long stay in the doghouse when it comes to bench players, Pop really is a fickle bas like that. I mean that with all due respect of course, but it's driving me crazy. I wouldn't want him coaching any other team.
and only 6 FTA..............If Kobe takes 25 shots he is getting at least 15 fta.
you stern.
Damn...
Tony had a couple of moves that just were amazing. At one point he had two defenders running into themselves on the wing, blew by them and attacked two more Hawks at the rim. Score.
I notice Udoka's usually the only Spur getting to the glass for offensive rebounds usually. When he's out of the play , he tends to float towards the basket.
wicked move.
Am I crazy for thinking that Bowen is a better offensive player than Udoka?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the airballs were 3 pointer attempts that tony missed and tony is not a 3 point shooter so I think Ime was already expecting it to go airball.
I can't decide if that was simply bad defense or just a flat-out, sick, offensive move or a combination of both.
I can't decide if that was simply bad defense or just a flat-out, sick, offensive move or a combination of both.
Not to take anything away from what Tony did there but,
If it was on anyone except Bibby or Nash, I'd say the former. Unfortunately, Bibby would get me some MVP votes too.....
I didnt like Udoka on JJ the minute I saw it. He really didnt defend him that well, he's too short for him, JJ was just rising up over him to shoot. I would've liked to see Bowen on him more.
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