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I wouldn't be satisfied either if I was Pop but as a fan, a win is a win and I'll welcome any.
Headline changed.
Spurs notebook: Surging team has work to do
Back-to-back victories don’t satisfy Popovich
Jeff McDonald
The Spurs returned from their post-Christmas road trip early Monday morning feeling much better about themselves than when they left.
Back-to-back victories over Milwaukee and New York helped them forget a dispiriting loss to a severely shorthanded Portland team at the AT&T Center on Dec. 23. The two-game sweep moved the Spurs to their best record of the season, 17-11, just in time for tonight’s visit from Minnesota, the worst team in the Western Conference.
What the Spurs did not do on their way back from the Big Apple was waste too much time patting themselves on the back. They are still 2-10 against teams with winning records, a fact they won’t be able to rectify against the 7-24 Timberwolves.
“I’m glad the playoffs don’t start next week,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We wouldn’t fare very well.”
Specifically, Popovich has been harping on team defense — the Spurs rank 11th in the league in scoring defense, giving up an average of 96.6 points, and 13th in field-goal percentage defense (45.2 percent).
Traditionally, the Spurs have been a second-half team, built to peak after the All-Star break. Popovich is aware of that history but said his team can’t bank its fortunes on repeating that this season.
“At this point, I don’t see as much recognition of the system as I’d like, and we’ve had some slow starts from some returning players,” Popovich said. “We’ve got a few things that need to come together.
“It’s a week-to-week, month-to-month sort of thing. We have a long way to go, and we’re working at it.”
Mac the sub: A move to the bench seems to have done Antonio McDyess good. After struggling for most of his first 23 games with the Spurs, McDyess has played well in four games since rookie DeJuan Blair replaced him at center in the starting lineup.
McDyess, the key free-agent signee last summer, is averaging 8.5 points in that span, shooting 17 of 22. A starter for 16 games, McDyess moved back to the bench after Matt Bonner fractured his hand Dec. 19 against Indiana.
“That’s my comfort zone, coming off the bench,” said McDyess, who started 30 games for Detroit last season. “With Matty going out, Coach needed someone coming off the bench who could shoot the ball. I think playing that role, anything I can do to help the team, is good.”
Last edited by duncan228; 12-29-2009 at 06:14 PM.
I wouldn't be satisfied either if I was Pop but as a fan, a win is a win and I'll welcome any.
Since when is Dice's comfort zone coming off the bench? Was he a bench player in Detroit?
dice not starting
he is not trying to hard
he also knows he is not taking shots away from duncan
I won't be satisfied til we win back to back les.
I will be satisfied if Duncan will get more rings than Bryant.
never satisfied untill we win 1 more ring and call it quits
+1000
Tim would go out in style he deserves for being the model of an NBA super star for 14 years.
Spurs, McDyess Finding Their Groove
Bill Ingram
Roster moves are exciting, often firing up the fan base with dreams of better days ahead. They usually also cause setbacks, at least at first, as teams and players try to get a feel for each other. That's been the case for most of the NBA teams that made major offseason moves, and none more so than the San Antonio Spurs. From the splashy acquisition of Richard Jefferson to the solid addition of Antonio McDyess, the Spurs were picked by many to challenge the Lakers for Western Conference supremacy. Instead, they started the season just 3-6 and played .500 ball for most of the season's first month. Now, two months into the season, they've won eight of their last ten and seem to be ready to live up to that preseason expectation.
A big part of that turnaround has been a lineup change made by head coach Gregg Popovich, who inserted rookie DeJuan Blair into the starting rotation and moved Antonio McDyess to the bench. In 16 starts, McDyess averaged 4.7 points and shot 42% from the field. In 11 games as a sub, He's averaging 7.4 points and shooting 63% from the field. It may seem to defy logic, but at this stage of his career McDyess is more comfortable coming off the bench.
"That's my comfort zone, coming off the bench," McDyess tells the San Antonio Express-News. "With Matty (Bonner) going out, Coach needed someone coming off the bench who could shoot the ball. I think playing that role, anything I can do to help the team, is good."
Meanwhile, Blair is providing solid play at the five, despite being undersized at just 6'7". In six starts the rookie is averaging 6.7 points and 6.2 rebounds while shooting 59% from the field.
Despite their early struggles, the Spurs are now 17-11 on the season and one game behind Denver for the third seed in the West. Offseason changes may take a while to pan out, but their impact will eventually be felt. For the Spurs, it seems that time is now.
Duncan is responsible for all of the Spurs' 4 les, and has three Finals MVPs.
Bryant coattailed Shaquille on the first three, so Bryant is only "responsible" for one ring, not four.
Derek Fisher also has four rings - the same four rings Bryant has. Would Derek Fisher have those first three rings without Shaquille? No, he wouldn't. And neither would Bryant.
Pop shouldn't be satisfied.
Pleased? Yes. Satisfied? No.
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