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CIA Pop
So Pop has now changed his tune:
“I did a little early, but anymore now I don’t pay attention,” Popovich said before the game. “You just have to take care of business, and wherever you land, you land.”
CIA Pop
Spurs take care of Wolves as playoff seeding heats up
By Tim Price, for NBA.com
While the Spurs have racked up some impressive wins in the final two months of the regular season, there also has been a clunker of a game that has almost shadowed the progress.
After beating Cleveland and Boston in consecutive games last month, the Spurs lost to league-worst New Jersey. And not long after going on the road to beat the Lakers by 19 a little more than a week ago, the Spurs lost at home to Memphis.
But just a couple of nights after another 19-point road win to one of the West's top seeds -- this time Denver -- the Spurs took a firm step over one of the league's banana peels. Tim Duncan missed only one of his seven shots and scored 16 points in 19 minutes, and the Spurs hit eight of their first 10 tries from 3-point land in a 133-111 victory over Minnesota on Monday night at AT&T Center.
The Spurs (50-31) cemented their 11th consecutive 50-win season, which puts them one season short of the Lakers' 50-win run from 1979-80 to 1990-91 as best in the history of the league.
"This is a game where we needed to come in, execute, take care of business. We did that," said Roger Mason Jr., who hit 3-of-6 3-pointers and was one of eight Spurs players in double figures. "We know we lost a disappointing one last home game [against Memphis]. We didn't want to come in here lackadaisical."
The Spurs kept their late-season momentum and might have added to it. They are healthy again.
George Hill, who had missed the last four games with a tendon strain in his right ankle, was in the starting lineup Monday.
Tony Parker, who has come off the bench in each of the games Hill has missed recently, played 23 minutes in another reserve role and had 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting along with seven assists.
"As much as people said we had a bad season, I think we're ready to battle anybody in the West," Hill said. "I think we'll be happy to be wherever [in the playoffs seeding]. I think our whole team is pretty confident we can go against anybody and give our best punch and take their best punch."
Hill only scored six points on 2-for-4 shooting in almost 17 minutes. But if there was any doubt whether Hill was an able body, it was clear when he rushed back on help defense and got a hand on a shot attempt by Kevin Love, resulting in a jump ball close to the two-minute mark of the second quarter.
That was part of a 29-8 run the Spurs used to take a one-point game four minutes into the second quarter and make it a 69-47 advantage at halftime.
"I don't think anyone in the Western Conference wants to see them in the first round," Minnesota coach Kurt Rambis said.
The Timberwolves (15-66) trailed by as much as 30 points and spent all but 45 seconds of the second half trailing by more than 20.
They allowed the Spurs to shoot 58 percent from the floor and 14-of-26 from 3-point territory (54 percent). Keith Bogans accounted for 5-for-7 from the 3-point line, and he led the Spurs with a season-high 17 points.
"I don't think this team doesn't care," Minnesota forward Al Jefferson said. "We go out every night and try to win as many games as possible. We go out every night and try to do our job. Games like tonight just happen."
Minnesota, led by Sasha Pavlovic's 6-for-7 from the floor and 16 points, needs to win Wednesday night at home against Detroit so to not equal the 1991-92 team for the worst record in franchise history.
The Spurs usually play a meaningless game in the regular-season finale -- and Wednesday night opponent Dallas has wrapped up the Southwest Division le. But there is seeding on the line for San Antonio. Though Popovich won't name a team he prefers to play, it sounds like he doesn't enjoy the idea of hooking up with the Lakers.
The Spurs, tied with Oklahoma City and Portland going into Monday night, may not have to go to LA in the first round. San Antonio has the tiebreaker on Oklahoma City, which lost Sunday to Golden State. The Thunder played at Portland late Monday.
It looked like the Spurs had their mind on the seedings early Monday. The Timberwolves hit 8-for-9 to open the game and led 20-13 though the first 5 ½ minutes.
But that's about all the offense the Timberwolves were able to generate the rest of the quarter because they hit just 1 of 11 shots and fell behind 33-26 heading into the second.
"I saw the same things I always see -- inconsistency," Rambis said. "I see sparks of light coming on, and that they're young and make mistakes."
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