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Another error. This guy can't get anything right.
NBA: Spurs work to iron out details
Popovich, team insist second-ranked defense must improve.
Web Posted: 11/19/2007 10:32 PM CST
Jeff McDonald
Express-News Staff Writer
ATLANTA — Ten games into the regular season, the Spurs are 8-2, matching their best start to a season after winning an NBA le.
They are hardly satisfied to rest on those laurels.
In the three days between Friday's victory over Houston and tonight's game at Atlanta, talk around the Spurs' locker room has been more about where they are heading and less about where they have been.
The buzzword has been "improvement."
Ask Manu Ginobili what the Spurs are toiling to shore up, and he gives a one-word answer.
"Details," he said.
Coach Gregg Popovich could also answer that question in one word.
Everything.
"There is no perfect team," Popovich said. "All aspects of the game are candidates for improvement. We're working on everything."
Among the prime candidates for improvement: Surprisingly, defense.
The Spurs rank second in the league in scoring defense, allowing just 89.9 points per game. That's just five-tenths of a point behind league-leading Boston.
A team of perfectionists, the Spurs still sense room to grow on the defensive end.
"I don't think defensively we're anywhere near where we need to be," guard Brent Barry said. "I don't the focus has been there for 48 minutes yet."
Parker for 3: If Tony Parker never develops into an ace 3-point shooter, it won't be for lack of trying.
Parker, the Spurs' starting point guard, has been working tirelessly over the past few seasons to add that element to his game.
He's already tried 15 3-point shots this season, making five of them. This after attempting no more than 38 3-pointers in either of the past two seasons.
"Shooting, it comes and goes, comes and goes," Parker said. "You just have to keep working on it."
Old place, new faces: Tonight, Spurs guard Jacque Vaughn returns to Atlanta, where he spent two of the more productive seasons of his career. There won't be enough familiar faces at Phillips Arena to truly call it a homecoming.
Though the Hawks still boast some of the same front office personnel from Vaughn's stints there in 2001-02 and 2003-04, not a single player remains.
Atlanta has begun to rebuild around youth. This season's Hawks team is the youngest in the league, with an average age of 23.65.
"They're talented, gifted, athletic guys," Vaughn said. "I think the future is bright for them."
Block party invite: Hawks' forward Josh Smith is leading the NBA in blocked shots at 3.6 per game. At least one Spurs player is not surprised.
Matt Bonner recalls being victimized by the long-armed Smith two seasons ago, when Bonner was in Toronto and Smith was an NBA sop re.
"He came out of nowhere and swatted it off the backboard all the way back to half court," Bonner said. "It was pretty embarrassing."
In Bonner's New England dialect, the block wasn't just bad. It was "wicked bad," he said.
"I wanted the court to swallow me up," Bonner said.
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LINK: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...n.284aada.html
Another error. This guy can't get anything right.
I think that's because it's posted in tomorrow's edition of the newspaper. So he's correct from that perspective.Another error. This guy can't get anything right.
I'm thinking that was the web update time, but that it was written for Tommorrow's E-N. The verbage will be correct for the morning paper readers.Another error. This guy can't get anything right.
most people will read it tomorrow. Writers often do that sort of thing.Another error. This guy can't get anything right.
rebounding should be there main concern imo
The Spurs do need to work on their defense. They got torn up by the Mavs.
One thing I loved about the last Houston game...Bonzi was not a factor.
I expect them to be working out details. I expect them to work on everything from here to the RRT. Then I expect them to buckle down their defense and get their minds on the playoffs.
It's a work in progress, the season always is.
By SPAM we start to see the results more clearly.
By April we're playing our best ball.
The half-empty version of that is if he was, the Spurs would have lost.
It means we need two Bruces: one to guard Bonzi and one to guard T-mac. I really, really hope Udoka will be comfortable enough in our system by the end of the year such that we can see Bruce and Ime on the floor at the same time.
Is there anyone in San Antonio that doesn't know this?
Yup. Bonzi was on Bowen's menu that game with T-Mac not around.
Wicked Bad!!!
They better be working on the "details." They are no where close to playoff shape, which is fine.
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