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hmm i expect a close win.
McDyess downplays return to his old stomping grounds
Jeff McDonald
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Returning to old haunts hasn't always been easy for Spurs center/forward Antonio McDyess.
In 1998, he was in the first season of his second tour in Denver, returning to Phoenix, where he had spent the campaign before. McDyess felt like he was entering the Twilight Zone.
“It was time for the national anthem, so I went to stand on the bench with my team,” McDyess said. “Then Rex Chapman said, ‘Hey, this isn't your bench.'”
Chapman, at the time, still played for the Suns, explaining everyone's confusion.
Compared to that, McDyess figures today's return to The Palace of Auburn Hills should be a piece of cake. The Spurs, McDyess' new team, face the Pistons in the final game of their annual rodeo road trip.
For McDyess, who spent the previous five seasons in Detroit before signing with the Spurs in July, it will mark the first time he has dressed in the visiting locker room of the Pistons' home arena since Feb. 6, 2001, when he played for Denver.
Not that he's feeling all that nostalgic about it.
McDyess, who has been openly critical of the decision by Detroit management to break up the Pistons' longtime core by trading Chauncey Billups two Novembers ago, swears his return won't be overly emotional.
“There aren't a whole lot of guys left that I was close to,” McDyess said.
Parker practices: Hobbling point guard Tony Parker participated in the Spurs' light practice Saturday before the team departed Philadelphia for Detroit. He is listed as a game-time decision tonight.
Hampered by a strained left hip flexor, Parker scored two points on 1-of-9 shooting in Friday's loss to the 76ers. It was the first time in five years he'd scored so few points in a game in which he'd played at least five minutes.
A move for ‘D': Coach Gregg Popovich said his decision to replace Richard Jefferson with Keith Bogans as starting small forward was a matter of choosing defense over offense.
Popovich has opted to go with Bogans, “just because I wanted to have a defensive presence, and set a tone defensively, similar to what we did with Bruce Bowen,” the coach said. “He fits that role pretty well.”
Though Jefferson prefers to remain a starter, he has found a silver lining in his benching.
“You're going against more second-teamers, or first-team guys who have been in there a little bit longer and might have a foul or two,” Jefferson said. “There are advantages to it.”
hmm i expect a close win.
I cringe every time I read 'Bowen, Bogans and defense' in the same sentence...
Oh, almost forgot!!! From the Philly game... I'm sitting with my wife all dressed up in Spurs gear, and I have this old man sitting right in front of us...
Right in the middle of the 1st quarter, after Bogans clanks another shot, he turns around and he tells me: "That's what you guys are missing the most... Bowen.... he stopped everybody and he would always make that 3 pointer in the corner... He had that spot where he wouldn't miss..."
I told him that yeah... we just never found a replacement for him... I thought it was pretty interesting that a fan from other teams would bring that up...
That confirms it. Pop's finally developed a drinking problem.
bogans and bonner both suck. i hope tony just sits out.. dude is worthless right now.
The only alternative is that his comment is actually a jab at Bruce
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