DALLAS – Beaten and embarrassed, their season at a crossroads, the San Antonio Spurs gathered in the visitors’ locker room to await their fate. Gregg Popovich walked through the doorway, chided them for their poor play then announced the punishment.
Dinner was on him.
Popovich had sat his starters most of the night. Now he was going to feed them, too. So the Spurs bused out of the American Airlines Center late Thursday and headed to the Capital Grill. Once they were seated, their coach delivered another message.
You might as well talk to each other because you certainly didn’t communicate much during the game.
Popovich has a saying for such moments. “Participating in your own resurrection,” he calls it, and now the Spurs must rise from the dead again.
The official time of death came at the 7:42 mark of the third quarter of the Spurs’ 88-67 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Jason Kidd threw in a 3-pointer to push the Mavs’ lead to 26 and Popovich responded by pulling Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Matt Bonner and Roger Mason from the floor. San Antonio’s fifth starter, Michael Finley, was already cooling his heels on the bench.
Popovich kept the group on the sideline for the remainder of the game. With the Spurs now down 2-1 in the best-of-seven series and Game 4 awaiting Saturday afternoon, he didn’t see much reason in having his starters perspire any more, provided they worked up a sweat in the first place.
“We’ll move on,” Popovich said, “and try to get our edge back.”
This is the way Popovich works. He’s always planning for the next day.
The problem?
Deep down, even Popovich can’t be sure what comes next for these Spurs. As one team official said Thursday evening: “This is a weird time for us.”
More telling: The team official said that before watching the Spurs score their fewest points ever in a playoff game.
Weird, for the Spurs, began last summer. After the Los Angeles Lakers whisked them out of the Western finals in five games, the Spurs looked at how much the gap had grown between them and their longtime rivals. They couldn’t stop Kobe Bryant, but, even worse, they labored to score, too.
So the Spurs brought in Roger Mason, made Matt Bonner a starter, benched Bruce Bowen, pushed Fabricio Oberto out of the rotation. Age played a role in the decisions, but boiled down, the Spurs traded defense for offense. They still prioritize defense, they just don’t play it as well, using junk schemes for which they previously had no need.
The Spurs survived well enough during the regular season, but they also planned on having Manu Ginobili for the playoffs. For all of his clutch moments in postseasons past, Ginobili could make plays on both ends of the floor. Mason? He spent most of Thursday looking at the back of J.J. Barea’s jersey.
In truth, not even Ginobili could have changed Thursday’s outcome. By the end of the third quarter, the Spurs were stuck on 42 points.
“They kicked our ass every which way but loose,” Popovich said. Asked what he told the team at halftime after it trudged into the locker room down by 16, he laughed.
“Probably something like, ‘If it’s not too much trouble, it might be a good idea if we made a few baskets and stopped a few.”
The Spurs did too little of either. They depend on Parker like never before, and while he delivered 38 points in their Game 2 victory, he’s not built to dominate a series from start to finish.
The book on the Spurs’ point guard: Get him out of his rhythm early. If his first few jump shots don’t fall, he tends to lose some of his aggressiveness. That happened Thursday. Parker’s first shot missed from 18 feet. The next time down the floor, he threw the ball into Duncan. After Parker then failed to finish a drive, he went back to Duncan.
Feeding Duncan sounded good two years ago. Or maybe even as recently as November, when he appeared to still have two good knees. But the Spurs haven’t been playing off him for a while now. For all the talk about Duncan’s improvement the past two weeks, he still doesn’t look right. Asked if Duncan had begun to regain his All-Star form, one scout offered this opinion: “Not really.”
Popovich likely sees the same. So when the Mavs rushed past the Spurs, he measured the short turnaround between games and called Duncan and the rest of the starters back to the bench. Considering the Spurs had two full days off before Games 1 and 3 and played poorly in both, the extra rest might not help as much as the chance to simmer on the sideline.
“The kind of performance we put out there is all the fuel we need,” Duncan vowed. “We’re not going to play like that again, we’re not going to give that kind of effort, and we’re not going to make those kinds of mistakes again.”
Maybe he’s right. At the least, the Spurs can say they’ve been here before, even as recently as last season. They lost the first two games of their second-round series against the New Orleans Hornets by 19 and 18 points, came back to win the next two, lost Game 5 by 22 points then closed out the series with wins in Games 6 and 7.
So Popovich will tell the Spurs what he’s told them before. They’ll promise to help each other, they’ll try to pull themselves out of the grave. Participate in their own resurrection.
And if they don’t? If Saturday looks a lot like Thursday?
This time, dinner won’t be waiting.
I guess Ludden didn't get the 2007 NBA Finals where Parker dominated the Cavs from start to finish.
Now I remember my problem with Ludden...he always seemed to have a thing against Tony Parker. Even when Parker had amazing games, Ludden always managed to throw in a slice at him.
For whatever reason we always manage to lay an egg like this in a series. I just hope we can win Saturday. This team hasn't convinced me this season that it can win 3 straight against the Wizards let alone Dallas.
that was different... outside of lebron the cavs were totally overmatched and they had scrubs at the point.
very few guards are built to dominate a series start to finish... its not just a matter of skill but also stamina, durability, dependence on getting calls home and away... even manu in 05 never really dominated an entire series, because of these same factors.
i feel bad saying it, because tony has had a great season and his constant improvement doesnt deserve nitpicking.. but last night, to the point where i could stomach watching, i was thinking tony needs to become a good FT shooter to cement his role as go-to guy. as long as he is shaky from the line teams will just foul, gambling on the ref calling it and tony making it. right now its not a bad bet.
The good news is the Mavs are nothing special as a team, so coming back from 2-1 down is not insurmountable.
The bad news is that the Spurs are nothing special as a team either.
This is the worst team we have fielded in years. Without Manu and with Tim Duncan at 65 %, we don't have the fire power to be very compe ive much less win games. I'm really surprised we won 54 games.
Mason has been a good pick up but beyond that, we are a hodge podge of role players that need everything to go right to win. We have decent outside shooters but if they are all off, we are dead.
Tony has been our lone super star this year. He has done his best to get us this far but you can't depend on a point guard to lead your team in scoring. That just doesn't work.
Mason must be a of a practice pg because he is nothing but a turnover machine when he plays that spot in games. I'd rather see Vaughn running the point and freeing up Mason to do what he does best. SHOOTING THE BALL.
Both the Spurs and Mavs suck only we have an excuse. The Mavs are a gutless, whimsical team that will be blown out in the next round if they advance. In fact, neither team will advance against the Nuggets. For all their problems, they are healthy and coming together at the right time.
Their bigs would salivate against Tim at this point and really beat him up.
Sad days indeed. I just hope we do something to fix these issues in the offseason. It starts by getting healthy and younger and better defensively.
With all the Spurs' problems... I feel our bench failed to step up to the challenge of forcing the Mavs to keep their starters in the game. Something which would have helped ameliorate the 'short-turnaround' between Games 3 & 4.
If Hill, Gooden or Udoka had risen to the challenge and cut the lead to 10, Carlisle would have been left with no other choice but to leave his starters in the game. It speaks volumes about their mentality.
Oh well...
Anyways, the Spurs aren't dead... remember the two monster beatdowns suffered at the Palace of Auburn Hills at the hands of the Pistons in the 2005 NBA Finals??? The Spurs (specifically Horry) pulled us out of that nightmare to retake home court.... Hopefully someone can spark the current edition of the Spurs to a victory...
The key is stopping Barea's and Terry's contributions. Let Dirk get his....
Kobe Bryant 5/24 FG vs Utah.
I guess the 2008 MVP can't dominate a series from start to finish either.
This team is built for 3 healthy superstars and role players.
The Mavs have 4 healthy stars, the Spurs have 1.5 ! Enough said.
Kobe Bryant 5/24 FG vs Utah.
I guess the 2008 MVP can't dominate a series from start to finish either.Exactly...someone who gets it.
JJ Barea????????????? come on...... he's a ing scrub.
Ludden nailed it, as usual. The Spurs are in the nadir of an iden y crisis which they have been mired in all season. And now, in the playoffs, a team's strengths and weaknesses are magnified. The defense, though relatively good, is not and hasn't been anything like it was in years past. Remember at the begining of the season when Pop wanted to run boston's defense? Remember what happened?
The offense that was supposedly purchased at the cost of traditional "Spurs Defense" just isn't there most nights. (I realize now that RMJr. is exactly lke a young Finley, with 1/2 the athleticsm.)
For the Spurs to win it this year -- it's STILL all about the defense. The players and coaches all talk the line but anyone can just tell that it's different. The Spurs can't just "go back" or "flip the switch" to get back to "Spurs Basketball." The increased offense was supposed to offset the philosophy change but it just hasn't. The increased O has come from Mace and Bonner for the whole year. That's all that needs to be said. The only bright spot of this whole paradigm shift has been the acquisition of Drew Gooden, and that holds true only if he isn't a rental.
His play is contagious... it motivates the Mavs to play out of their minds...
He singlehandedly wreaked havoc throughout the first quarter.... rapidly crushing the Spurs' morale...
The Spurs didn't hit anything all night. There is no way to win a game like that. Give the Mavs credit, but the Spurs were off. Who knows why? I said this from the beginning. The Spurs were gonna have their hands full in this series. The Mavs always give the Spurs trouble. Even when they had Manu. So I don't know why people thought this series would go to the Spurs in five or six. I predicted the Spurs would win in seven because of Dallas' younger and more athletic players.
But come on….. howcome Tony (the almighty raising leader of the team) Parker can guard this scrub?????? I’m disappointed.
The Spurs won 54 games because Manu played 44 games and Tim Duncan was playing like a MVP before his injury !
So Tony wasn't alone, for at least 44 games the Spurs had 3 superstars !
I think the record for those 44 games was 32-12.
It means 72.7 % wins... on pace to 59 wins for the season.
Without Manu, the Spurs were 22-16.
It means 57.8 % wins... on pace to 47 wins for the season.
Add to that an injured Duncan, and the Spurs are... what we are seeing now.
And it's not pretty.
Pop should've have put in Bowen, Gooden, and Udoka in the game a lot sooner to try to slow down the Mavs. I give Carlise credit for inserting Barea into the starting lineup. Pop could have went with Hill early in the game to guard Barea. I don't get why he's so stubborn. Pop that is. Mason could not guard Barea for crap. He was getting past him anytime he wanted to seemed like.
The Spurs were off on offense so why not insert some defense to get stops. Like Ludden said, Pop has opted for more offense this season. Pop always said their offense fed off of their defense. That is not so this season. I know Bowen is older, but guys like Udoka and Hill can help I believe.
Big truth.PG scoring is not the right way to win championships.You could win if you have a good team but if you are short then it's near to be imposible.
We did in 2007 but TD was the clearly the leading scoring of the team in the playoffs and Cleveland was the worst team we played in the NBA finals.In the series against Phoenix,Denver or Utah TD was the man.
It's a lot of work for TP if he has to run the team,make the plays and end them too.It's not easy take the ball in your own basket to finish in the other end.
But you know that.I guess Pop too.With no Manu and no TD it's the only thing we can do.Even if TP could be as good as Iverson in his prime it would be difficult for us.Of course TP is not as great as Iverson was and he can't score 35+ every night to lead his team.
We have to fight these series and these playoffs depending on Parker.We can talk about it next season but right now it's Parker or never.
When Parker goes in the paint, there is help defense with blocks of Dampier and Howard.
When Barea goes in the paint, there is Bonner !
You can't stay in front of a guy so short, you need to stop him with help defense in the paint. And Barea is a good shooter, maybe some spurs fans could respect the players of the other teams. And Parker was not the only one to defend him, i think Mason was on him too.
Anyway every Spurs played like in that game, so...
But leave it to Ludden to offer more insight in his national, albeit infrequent, coverage of the Spurs than what we get from the Spurs' local beat writers... ''misinformed musings'' by McDonald and Harvey....
I mean really??? Who gave him all those quotes from the team dinner? Did he join them? Did he pay a player to wear a wire?
Because Tony failed,…… good thing we have the ultimate scapegoat in Bonner.
Seriously, did you watch that game ?
Parker was assigned to guard Jason Kidd, not Barea...
Jason was 1-6 from the field...
Mason on the other hand (and if you had actually watched the game) was assigned to check Barea... and failed miserably. Much like you did in trying to pin the loss on Parker's shoulders...
Did you watch game-1
That about sums it up. Even team officials are acknowledging that deep down they have reservations about the team in it's current incarnation.
Not exactly a vote of confidence.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
