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I'm going to this game!!!! My first Spurs game!
San Antonio (30-21) at Indiana (18-34)
Game info: 7:00 pm EST Wed Feb 17, 2010
TV: FSSW, FSIN
By Matt Beardmore
The San Antonio Spurs have faltered over the last few weeks and are in the middle of the pack in the Western Conference. All-Star forward Tim Duncan, though, doesn’t expect the team to make any moves prior to the trade deadline.
Duncan and the Spurs open the second half of their season Wednesday night at Conseco Fieldhouse, where they’ll go for their sixth straight victory over the Indiana Pacers.
Since a 15-4 stretch from Dec. 9-Jan. 13, San Antonio (30-21) has lost eight of 14, alternating wins and losses in its last seven games. The Spurs, however, closed the first half strongly by winning 111-92 at Northwest Division-leading Denver on Thursday.
“I thought we played better than we have played,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “It was one of three or four games that we played really well defensively in the first half of the season.”
With San Antonio well within reach of Southwest Division-leading Dallas, Duncan is not anticipating management to pull the trigger on a trade before Thursday’s deadline.
“I think we’re going to go to the second half with the group that we have,” Duncan said. “If something happens, then something happens, but through our history we haven’t done anything in the middle of the season. So, we’re going to continue to work with the pieces that we have and hopefully we can get it to turn.”
Indiana (18-34) would like for its fortunes to change, but the Pacers find themselves in a much different position - well out of the playoff race.
“You can’t worry about the playoffs,” forward Mike Dunleavy told the Pacers’ official Web site. “…You’ve got to worry about winning every game as it comes, take one game at a time. If we get ahead of ourselves and think we need to win a few in a row or something like that, we’re just not there yet.”
Third-year coach Jim O’Brien will apparently be the one that will try to lead Indiana in the right direction.
“The one thing Jimmy bought into when he came here was that we were going to rebuild, and we were going to struggle at times,” Pacers president Larry Bird said. “I always say the losses are on me because I want him to work these guys hard, develop the young guys we have and keep moving forward with what we have.”
With center Jeff Foster out for the season and rookie Tyler Hansbrough sidelined the last month with an inner-ear infection, Bird is happy with the progress of second-year center Roy Hibbert, who is averaging 11.1 points and 5.9 rebounds.
Hibbert had 20 points, seven rebounds and a career-high six blocked shots in a 100-99 loss at San Antonio on Dec. 19. He blocked Duncan’s shot on the Spurs’ final possession, but Duncan followed with the game-winning dunk over Hibbert.
Pacers leading scorer Danny Granger, who missed that game with a heel injury, had 35 points in San Antonio’s last visit to Indianapolis - a 126-121 victory for the Spurs on April 3.
Tony Parker led San Antonio with 31 points and 10 assists in that matchup. He could miss his second straight game Wednesday due to a left hip flexor strain.
*********************
Team Stat Leaders
Points
Tim Duncan SA 19.4
Danny Granger Ind 22.4
Rebounds
Tim Duncan SA 10.7
Troy Murphy Ind 9.9
Assists
Tony Parker SA 6.0
Earl Watson Ind 4.6
I'm going to this game!!!! My first Spurs game!
Hope you have a blast. I saw them live for the first time last year. It's a wonderful experience.
Nice. Have fun, and
If the Spurs are going to be making deals you would think they would try to get them done before tomorrow afternoon so they can know what the roster is going to look like against the Pacers.
Wednesday: Pacers (18-34) at Spurs (30-21)
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: FSNSW
Radio: WOAI-AM 1200, KCOR-AM 1350
STARTING LINEUPS
POS - SPURS - PACERS
PG - 9 Tony Parker (6-2, 9th yr) - 2 Earl Watson (6-1, 9th yr)
Parker expected back after missing win over Denver with sore hip.
SG - 3 George Hill (6-2, 2nd yr) - 25 Brandon Rush (6-6, 2nd yr)
Hill slated to earn his first start in Indy since college days at IUPUI.
SF - 24 Richard Jefferson (6-7, 9th yr) - 33 Danny Granger (6-8, 5th yr)
Granger's scoring average has slipped to 22.4 ppg; shooting 40.6 percent.
PF - 21 Tim Duncan (6-11, 13th yr) - 3 Troy Murphy (6-11, 9th yr)
Duncan only player in top 20 in ppg, rebounds, blocks and FG percentage.
C - 34 Antonio McDyess (6-10, 15th yr) - 55 Roy Hibbert (7-2, 2nd yr)
Hibbert ranks 14th in blocks (1.65), but numbers dropped before break.
SPURS RESERVES
10 Keith Bogans, G, 6-5, 7th yr
15 Matt Bonner, C/F, 6-10, 6th yr
45 DeJuan Blair, C/F, 6-7, 1st yr
4 Michael Finley, G/F, 6-7, 15th yr
20 Manu Ginobili, G, 6-6, 8th yr
8 Roger Mason Jr., G, 6-5, 6th yr
42 Theo Ratliff, C, 6-10, 15th yr
PACERS RESERVES
17 Mike Dunleavy, F/G, 6-9, 8th yr
5 T.J. Ford, G, 6-0, 6th yr
13 Luther Head, G, 6-3, 5th yr
1 Dahntay Jones, G, 6-6, 7th yr
44 Solomon Jones, F, 6-10, 4th yr
32 Josh McRoberts, F, 6-10, 3rd yr
22 A.J. Price, G, 6-2, 1st yr
COACHES
Spurs: Gregg Popovich
Pacers: Jim O'Brien
INJURIES
Spurs: None.
Pacers: Jeff Foster (lower back surgery) and Tyler Hansbrough (inner ear infection) are out. Price (concussion) is day-to-day.
PROJECTED INACTIVE PLAYERS
Spurs: Ian Mahinmi, Malik Hairston.
Pacers: Travis Diener, Foster, Hansbrough.
NOTABLE
Spurs begin three-game eastern portion of road swing against a Pacers team they've beaten eight times in a row. ... Spurs needed a Duncan dunk with 4.6 seconds remaining to beat Indy 100-99 at AT&T Center in December, giving Popovich his 700th career win. ... Pacers topped 100 points in four of final five games before All-Star break.
- Jeff McDonald
ain't no excuse to lose
A win here puts us half a game behind Dallas. Looks like the division le is gonna turn out to be important this year to guarantee at least a 4th seed. Let's finish this road trip 6-2 guys!!!!
Referee Assignments
Wed. Feb 17
San Antonio @ Indiana: Scott Foster; Brian Forte; David Jones
I dont know why? Pop dosent start RMJ instead of HIll? Why is Pop so stuborn?
That line intrigued me.
It's in Duncan's interview after the All-Star game.
http://www.nba.com/spurs/multimedia/100214_duncan.html
I hope he is right. Lets roll the dice with what we have. Chemistry is not going to improve with a trade, and it is the #1 problem for this team.
Win the next 3 games and get on a roll, I say.
easy win
San Antonio Spurs (30-21) at Indiana Pacers (18-34)
After producing inconsistent results over the past month, the San Antonio Spurs will attempt to get on a roll when the defending Southwest Division champions return to action tonight against an Indiana Pacers team they've enjoyed plenty of success against over the past few years.
San Antonio enters Conseco Fieldhouse having won its last five encounters with the Pacers, as well as eight of the past nine matchups in the series. The clubs did engage in a tight battle in the Alamo City back in December, however, with the Spurs coming through with a 100-99 decision on Tim Duncan's slam with 4.6 seconds left to play.
The Spurs presently trail Dallas by just one game for first place in the Southwest after the Mavericks lost at Oklahoma City last night, but went just 6-8 over their final 14 outings prior to this past weekend's All-Star break. The team did close out that stretch on a very positive note, however, after besting Northwest Division leader Denver on the road this past Thursday.
San Antonio shot a strong 53.2 percent from the floor and had seven players score in double figures in the 111-92 victory. DeJuan Blair and George Hill led the balanced attack with 17 points each, while Duncan and Manu Ginobili tallied 16 and 15 points, respectively, on the evening.
"We just wanted to get a great win before the break," Hill said. "We know this road trip is important. We need as many wins as possible."
The Spurs have gone 3-2 thus far on this eight-game trek which wraps around last Sunday's All-Star Game. They will face sub-.500 opponents the rest of the way on the swing, visiting both Philadelphia and Detroit following tonight's clash with the Pacers.
San Antonio also hopes to have Tony Parker back in the lineup this evening after the standout point guard sat out last Thursday's win with a left hip flexor strain. The three-time All-Star is considered questionable to play tonight.
Indiana sits at the bottom of the Central Division standings with an 18-34 record and lost its final two tests prior to the breather. The club's most recent setback occurred at home to rival Chicago, which used a big fourth quarter to deliver a 109-101 win on February 9.
The Pacers held an 86-81 lead after three periods before being outscored by a 28-15 margin in the fourth. Indiana made a poor 33 percent of its field goal attempts during the final 12 minutes.
Danny Granger finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds in the loss, the fifth in seven games for Indiana. Troy Murphy also recorded a double-double for the game, scoring 18 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
The Pacers are a lackluster 12-14 at Conseco Fieldhouse this season, but have prevailed in two of their last three tilts as the host.
we need this win badly
anyone have the stream for this game... please pm me... thx/
Game Preview: Spurs @ Pacers
by Jesse Blanchard
48 Minutes of
Lost amid all the trade speculation heading into the deadline is the fact that the Spurs have an important game tonight.
For all the talk of their struggles and demise–and there has been reason for it–the Spurs could move within a half game of the Dallas Mavericks with a win tonight.
More promising is the last time we saw the Spurs in action may have been the first time we’ve truly seen the Spurs all season. Or it may have been an aberration. It will be interesting to see if the Spurs can sustain the execution they showed on the defensive end they showed in Denver.
For a second game in a row, Richard Jefferson faces off against high scoring small forward. And while that might be the matchup of the night most nights, I suspect there will be more eyes on any odd fluctuations in minutes (provided you can make sense of any of the Spurs rotation this season) looking for any hints of a pending trade.
Keep reading →
Maybe because HIll > Mason?
Crazy to start the better player I know....
Is George Hill really a natural shooting guard though? He just seems so small, is he even any bigger than Parker? Everybody says he's not a point guard, but it just seems at his size he couldn't be anything else.
He's a natural shooting guard with regards to the position he played in college. So, he naturally feels more comfortable playing this position. As far as height, yeah, he's undersized, but he's got two things going for him: wing-span and athleticism.
maybe rj comes out on a mission and goes off ehh maybe
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