This time, Hill prepared to answer call
Mike Finger
George Hill already knew about Gregg Popovich's temper. He wasn't even in the NBA yet, but he was about to be, and that's how the most exciting night of his young life also turned out to be one of the scariest.
It was draft night last June, and the Spurs were about to make Hill their first-round pick. Trouble was, when Popovich called to give him the good news, his cell phone was turned off.
So Popovich kept trying, and when Hill finally answered, the Spurs coach congratulated him on being drafted. Then Popovich scolded him for not picking up, and in his best disciplinarian voice, told him he'd just been issued his first strike.
It was almost certainly a joke, but Hill was shaken nonetheless. So when he made his NBA regular-season debut Tuesday night and immediately misfired on a jumper?
His first thought was about Popovich's reaction.
“It ricocheted off the rim so hard,” Hill said, “I knew he was going to say something.”
As it turned out, Popovich did bark at a point guard Tuesday, but it wasn't his rookie. On a night when the older Spurs were apparently plagued by election fever, leading the major networks to project the Dallas Mavericks the decisive winner of a blowout by halftime, change was in the air in the AT&T Center, too.
The source?
“Young, fresh legs,” Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr. said. “That's new here.”
Some voters are understandably unconvinced. The Spurs are now 0-3 for the first time since they started playing with monochromatic basketballs — their only other start this slow came during the red, white and blue ABA days of 1973 — and Popovich and Tim Duncan already are employing their midseason-slump vocabulary. When Popovich wasn't using a euphemism for getting his tail kicked, Duncan was using another for being ticked off.
Hill wasn't sure what to make of the postgame scene, but that was the first time he'd looked out of place all night. After sitting out the first two games of the season with a sprained left thumb, he finally made his entrance late in the third quarter, with the Spurs down by 19.
He clanged his first jumper, but when Popovich didn't rip his head off, he settled down and sparked the Spurs' only lively run of the game. One of the reasons Popovich was so high on Hill from the beginning was his defense, and Hill showed why as he hounded Jason Terry and ran at Jason Kidd. He made a steal that led to two free throws, hit a jumper off a screen, and attacked DeSagana Diop by going to the same left hand that was wrapped in athletic tape.
Early in the fourth quarter, with the Spurs closing the gap and the shot clock down to its last three ticks, Hill dribbled on the right wing, apparently oblivious to the time crunch. The Spurs assistants all yelled frantically from the other end of floor, but Hill was just lulling his defender to sleep. He spun into the lane and hit a floater just as the shot-clock expired.
“He's got great composure,” Popovich said of Hill, who finished with 11 points. “That's the great thing about him.”
Judging by how the Spurs have struggled this first week, they'll need more than just composure. Their three losses have come to playoff teams, sure, but none that are expected to finish in the top half of the Western Conference playoff bracket. Won't the Lakers, Jazz and Hornets make the Spurs look even older?
Hill represents one remedy for that, but he said he doesn't feel the pressure of living up to such expectations. He didn't worry about proving himself when he arrived in San Antonio, because he figured the Spurs knew what they were doing when they drafted him. Wasn't this the organization that found Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili?
“Nobody knew who they were, either,” Hill said. “The way I see it, with this team, I can't go wrong,”
Parker might have an interesting reply to that, considering he had one for his coach when Popovich snapped at him in the fourth quarter and pulled him off the floor. Before then, the Spurs were running with a unit featuring Parker, Hill and Mason, and that group figures to get more intriguing as the season goes on.
“It's a quick look,” Mason said.
Hill likes the idea, too, and if Popovich ever wants to discuss it, he's available.
He now carries two cell phones, just in case.
Hill was pretty good I thought for his first game. I like his confidence. His first shot was off, but it didn't bother him and he kept taking his shots which I liked. I don't care if you miss as long as you don't pass up shots and shoot with confidence.
Unless you are named Bonner and you consistently miss open shots.
LOL I forgot about Bonner. yes he is the exception to my rule. It's not that I don't want him shooting the ball it's more that I don't want him out there on the court at all.
I just don't like the 3 wide open 3's he missed that would've kept us close the first half.
Hill must be the backup PG for the rest of the season.
He plays good D and that's our biggest need now
Hill needs to get more mins and Fin is playing to many right now. Fin is best at 22-24mpg, after that his legs go and so does his shots.
Going small looks like a good idea.
I don't even like seeing Finley playing 20 mins..10 minutes would be fine with me..
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote