Parker's big night ends foul as Spurs drop heartbreaker
Jeff McDonald
For the better part of four quarters, Tony Parker had carved up the Boston Celtics and their Saran-wrap defense. He had sliced them. He had diced them. He had turned the game into his own personal layup drill.
When it came time to save the Spurs on Friday night at the AT&T Center, Parker — surprisingly — found something he could not do.
Namely, make a free throw.
Parker missed four foul shots in the final 49.8 seconds, any two of which could have tied the game, as the Celtics held on for an 80-77 victory.
“I was shooting normal free throws, like I did all year long,” said Parker, an 80 percent foul shooter this season. “It's just one of those games.”
That could have been the mantra for the Spurs from the third quarter on. One of those nights.
If one bounce, one rimmed-out 3-pointer or another couple of free throws had gone the Spurs' way, they might have been celebrating a season sweep of the defending NBA champions.
Instead, the Spurs (45-23) swallowed their second bitter defeat in three games and watched as Houston inched within half a game of them for second place in the Western Conference, in advance of the teams' showdown Sunday.
After the second set of Parker misses, with the Spurs trailing 76-74, Glen “Big Baby” Davis buried a baseline jumper with 5.7 seconds to go to essentially seal the win for the Celtics.
“We're better than the way we played and executed at the end,” guard Roger Mason Jr. said. “It's a tough loss, and we're in a tight, tight situation right now. Sunday is going to be big for us.”
It is difficult — if near impossible — to blame Parker for the one that got away Friday.
Up until his 0-for-4 finish at the foul line, Parker had zipped his way to 25 points, amazingly scoring all 12 of his field goals on layups. He toyed with a triple-double, adding eight assists and seven rebounds.
And he wasn't the only Spurs shooter to clank crucial foul shots. Michael Finley — another 80-percent free-throw man — missed two in a tie game at the 2:32 mark.
“I'll take those guys on the free-throw line any day of the week, for a championship,” Mason said. “And I mean that.”
After making 9 of their first 11 free throws, the Spurs finished the game by missing six in a row.
“That's what the game is made up of,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They made mistakes; we made mistakes. Big Baby knocked down a jumper from the corner, and we missed six free throws in a row. It was a tough loss, but life goes on.”
Ray Allen, returning from a one-game absence nursing a hyperextended right elbow, led Boston (52-18) with 19 points, while Rajon Rondo had 16 points and 12 assists.
Kevin Garnett made his first appearance since Feb. 19, played a Doc Rivers-prescribed 14 minutes and scored 10 points.
Then, there was Kendrick Perkins. He scored 10 points as well, but was more active — and vocal — on defense.
He blocked five shots — three off them off the hands of Tim Duncan — and made sure Duncan heard about each of them. After one swat, Perkins wheeled to his bench and made a demonstrative “X” symbol with his arms.
“That's how he plays,” Duncan said. “That's what he brings to the floor, what he brings to his team. He had a great game, so credit to him.”
Duncan had reason to be magnanimous.
Coming off a one-game injury hiatus of his own, he finished with 15 points, the only Spurs player besides Parker in double figures. However, Duncan missed nine of his 15 field-goal attempts and was scoreless in the fourth quarter.
Afterward, Duncan blamed himself for the defeat, more than anybody else's missed freebies.
“I didn't play well, didn't do enough to put us over the top,” Duncan said.
Still, the Spurs were in position to perhaps force overtime in the waning moments. But Parker, who had delivered for them so often in the paint throughout the night, could not deliver again from the foul line.
“It's just one of those games,” Parker said again. “You can't think about it. There are so many games in the NBA. You just have to go on to the next one.”
I don't know what to think of this. Is Tony going to be alright with those misses or is he really blowing cause he really doesn't want to think about it.
TD again taking the blame. I hope TD can get better.
ING Ducks bashing Tim in the game thread cause I got on him about TP. Where is TP stepping up to take the blame?
Duncan always shoulders the blame. He's the captain, it's his team and his responsibility. And he's always the first to step up and take it.
I really didn't need that explanation, but thanks anyway.
I just don't see why other guys can't step up and say it too if they have a bad game.
Darn!! It's typical Spurs this season....win one, lose one they should win, inconsistency....it makes you wonder if this team will ever get its collective head together in time for the playoffs...if not, it's going to be a short offseason.
Darn !! It's typical Spurs fans this season again.... , and again.
i think it will be something like the 12th straight season with at least 50 wins for the Spurs. where do you see inconsistency there ?
we're the more consistent team of this last decade, and this year, with most of the time one or more of our best players out, will be the same.
We played damn good defense and we were in the game until the end. happens. It will be very difficult for ANY team to beat us in a 7 game series, especially with Manu back. Don't lose heart Spurs fans, we had this win, the damn FT's just didn't go in. The guys played great D against the reigning champs. We can beat them-no question about it. Last night, the Spurs beat themselves with the missed FT's. But to bash them as if they are a lottery team is disgusting.
That's why TD is so great. He knows he's injured he see guys missing FTs, opens 3s and at the end of the game he put the loss on him. Since he's back from injury that's the 3rd time he does that (Mavs and Thunder).
TD is a warrior
Parker "If this is the worst thing that ever happens to me ... then I'll have lived a pretty good life."
sounds familiar?
duncan has not been himself in 3 weeks
oh he is suppose to be the franchise
he is to take the blame
“I'll take those guys on the free-throw line any day of the week, for a championship,” Mason said. “And I mean that.”
mason has more faith in the spur players
then most posters here
and mason sees them shot free throws all the time in practice
We go after him, because he's a man! He's forty!
The Spurs better win tomorrow. I'll be going to that one too.
Right, so Duncan with a bad knee should take responsibility for the great Tony Parker choking down the stretch.
You're funny.
Maybe this game will show Ducks, "Mr. We Don't Need Manu To Win A le" why Manu is so ing important. Pop even says so himself, the team goes to him late in games because they know he'll make free throws when they count.
No matter what anyone says about Ginobili, they can't deny that the guy is money at the stripe. No way he would've gone 0-4 down the stretch. Never ever ever.
Shaq shoots 'em really well in practice too Ducks. Big deal. Practice is practice, games are games. Just admit it. Your boy blew the game. Parker's been amazing the past two months, definitely our best, most consistent player, but he DID blow the game.
Why must it always end in Tony v. Manu importance threads?
Tony Parker gets the blame for this loss because he couldn't knock down the big free throws. I couldn't believe my eyes. He could have made at least 2, don't know what was up with it? Was it pressure? or was it because he was tired?
But jeez it's easy to see the fans who love the fact that he choked and seem to be glad we lost since it was TP who lost it for us.
Tough loss but it should mobilize the Spurs to close out the season well even more.
I am much more comforted after reading the write up of the game (I didn't watch it or hear about it till now).
Celtics clearly don't have an answer to Parker and we still didn't have Manu. *IF* we meet them in the Finals they'll go down easy.
Unfortunately (and I mean that, as I'm in Boston and Boston is my 2nd favorite team) I don't think Boston can beat Cleveland this year, and that's who I think we'll meet in the Finals.
Tony carried the team all game, and as pissed off as I was when he missed four straight it just seemed and looked to me like he was just dead tired. Fin also missed two in a row so he deserves some blame as well...
I'm not glad at all. I really wanted TP to make those free throws. I couldn't believe that he missed all 4. the thing is I didn't have much confidence when he went to the line. I thought he might miss, but I didn't think he'd miss all 4.
He rushes them and takes no time between free throws. He needs to take a few seconds after a miss. His free throw form if you ask me is actually quite poor on his misses.
Parker really needs to take the blame for this one and not let TD take it even though TP played his ass off and played a great game. That's what great players do. They take it on themselves even if they did play great. Parker needs to do stuff like that if he wants to be the leader of the team and be elite.
I'm gonna have to agree with The Church on this one. Manu never would have bricked like that.
Tony Parker FT shooting in last 11 games.
TP was 22/23 in the 5 games between March 1 and March 8.
TP was 24/35 in the next 5 games between March 10 and March 17.
TP was 1/5 yesterday vs Boston. 25/40 in last 6 games.
Tony is in a little bit of a slump at the free throw line.
62.5%
Wow. I guess I would have rather had TD shoot those free throws. I don't understand how Tony could get that bad at the free throw line in his last 6 games.
You might be able to rule out there tired theory then that a lot of people have been saying last night. He's just choking it up at the line lately.
Last edited by Ice009; 03-21-2009 at 09:45 PM.
How do we he did not take the blame and say it in privacy to his teammates. Or does he have to announce it to the media? I bet TP knows this loss was on him.
I thought about that, but I don't recall him ever saying it in the media. Do you?
I'm probably making a big deal about nothing here. Parker might be looking to make up for it with his play on the court. We'll see how he comes out against Houston.
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