will Horry's absence affect the game?

Strain Keeps Horry Out; Friday in Doubt
Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer

Robert Horry missed Tuesday's game with a slight lower abdominal strain.


Horry has been bothered by the strain off and on before the Spurs decided he would be better off sitting out a game. He is considered questionable to play Friday in Miami.

The Spurs had only 11 players in uniform Tuesday because Sean Marks' sprained left ankle hasn't improved enough to allow him to play.

Tuesday was the first game Horry has missed because of injury this season. Coach Gregg Popovich held him out Dec. 9 against Boston.

Looking for offense: The Spurs began the game shooting a league-high 47.5 percent but were ranked just 21st in scoring with 94.9 points per game.


Popovich is more concerned with the latter stat than the former. He calls the team's shooting "fool's gold."

"That's got more to do with Tony Parker making layups than it does about shooting well," he said. "We've got more than one person not shooting that well, and we're not scoring at a level you might expect. And we've been pretty poor on the offensive boards."

Foot pains: Tim Duncan isn't the only player learning about plantar fasciitis this season.

Milwaukee guard Mo Williams also has coped with the foot injury, which can make it painful to run or jump.

"It's something that is sort of common in the league," Bucks coach Terry Stotts said. "It's a tough thing, but players play through it. We contemplated doing a (cortisone) injection, but went with another sort of treatment — some sort of shock treatment."

Though Duncan received one injection last month, the Spurs think giving him another will be more harmful than helpful.

Ford has fond S.A. memory: With the Spurs celebrating "UT night" in his honor, Bucks guard T.J. Ford had plenty of well-wishers in the AT&T Center crowd Wednesday night.

But even though he appreciated the support, Ford said it was nothing like the atmosphere he remembers from his favorite trip to San Antonio. In 2003, Ford led the Longhorns to a Final Four appearance with two NCAA South Regional victories at the Alamodome.

Ford said those two games featured the best home-court edge he's ever experienced.

"By far," Ford said. "Man, we had an advantage."

Ford gave away 12 tickets — including a pair for his parents — for Wednesday's game.

He might also have an extra trip to Texas coming up. Because he missed all of last season — his second in the league — with a spinal injury, Ford is eligible to play in the rookie-sop re game during All-Star weekend in Houston.

Youth served: Former Spurs guard Avery Johnson, now coaching the Dallas Mavericks, credits Ford for helping him understand it was time to move to the bench.

"He's one of the guys, along with Devin (Harris), who put me in retirement," Johnson said. "I went and tried to play against him a couple of summers back. He was the first guy to show me that I was too old to play."

Ford recalled embarrassing Johnson in pickup games at Houston's Westside Tennis Club in the summer of 2003, shortly after the Bucks made him their first-round draft pick.

"He helped me out, gave me a lot of advice," Ford said. "I looked up to him a lot because he was a guy nobody expected to get as far as he got in his career. Nobody expected him to have the ability to shoot the ball. I'm pretty much in that same category stepping into the NBA, also."



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Staff writers Mike Finger and Mike Monroe contributed to this report.