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Originally Posted by Jon Barry
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Originally Posted by Jon Barry
And the excuses begin...
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Ginobili sees doctors about stiff ankle
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News
CLEVELAND — Spurs guard Manu Ginobili left Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday afternoon displaying nary a trace of a limp.
He was on his way to meet with the Spurs' medical staff to determine whether the stiffness he felt in his right ankle during the team's 101-81 loss to Cleveland was anything to be alarmed about.
“I was a little sore,” Ginobili said. “I played a lot of minutes (Friday) in Indiana, with not much rest in between. I really don't know the reason it was sore. I'll talk to the doctors, and we'll see. I want to see if it's normal or not.”
Ginobili had four points in 22 minutes and 36 seconds against the Cavs and missed all six of his 3-point shots. He did not play in the fourth quarter.
It was Ginobili's sixth game back after missing 19 games with a stress reaction in the ankle. He said the ankle began getting stiff Sunday after he went to the bench early in the game.
Daily day-to-day: Tim Duncan, meanwhile, is still playing through sore knees, though it was difficult to tell what role that played in his six-point performance against the Cavs.
Before the game, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he was hopeful that he might have Duncan at full strength by the time the playoffs come around.
“His health is kind of going to be a day-to-day thing,” Popovich said. “There's no meter. He doesn't jump on a scale. If he was feeling bad, he's not likely to tell you. He just plays.”
http://msn.foxsports.com/id/8214724_36_7.jpg
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9...ite-directionsQuote:
Why the Spurs can not be champs
- This team lives or dies on the basis of its outside shooting. Too bad the combined jump-shooting of Parker, Manu Ginobili, TD, and Roger Mason added up to an inept 4-18.
- After playing so many minutes when Ginobili was injured, Mason looks to be just about worn out.
- After spending so much time on the injured list, Ginobili is totally out of synch.
- At age 36, Finley can no longer play adequate defense and has been reduced to being a spot-shooter.
- Ditto for the almost 38-year-old Bruce Bowen.
- Kurt Thomas is 36 and can still bang and hit open 15-footers. But his lateral quickness is history, and his rapidly vanishing north-south speed was exposed when Ilguaskas beat him downcourt on a slow-motion fast break.
- Duncan tallied only six points on 2-7 shooting, and missed all three of his jumpers. TD's knees are undoubtedly aching, and his quadriceps tendonitis is still bothersome — which is why he only played 26 rather passive minutes. However, it's also quite evident that Duncan is finally paying the price for playing 893 regular-season and 155 playoff games thus far in his 12 years in the NBA. Given his lack of bulging musculature, the pounding he takes (and gives) in his pivotal battles, and his 32 birthdays, it's undeniable that Duncan isn't the game-in-game-out force that he once was.
- Parker is still a jet-footed force who can get to the hole against almost any defender and almost any defense. But his jumper — 3-7 — is still unreliable.
In sum, the Spurs are too slow afoot to play the kind of smothering defense that was the trademark of their most recent championships. Moreover, their erratic outside shooting enables opponents to jam the paint and make life miserable for Duncan.
For sure, TD, TP and MG could conceivably rouse themselves and cause trouble in the second season.
But, while the Cavs are on the upswing, the Spurs' mini-dynasty is over.
Ginobili's out for the season. The Spurs are DONE, at least for this season.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news...nion_rss_dailyQuote:
SAN ANTONIO—Having returned Tuesday after missing 19 games with an ankle injury, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili expressed frustration with his level of play, saying that his ability to draw offensive fouls by flopping to the floor with little or no provocation was still only at "about 85 percent." "The ankle is healthy, but my flailing and splaying still aren't where they need to be," said Ginobili, who has begun to practice windmilling his arms and falling backward during shoot-arounds. "I'm used to throwing myself 10, sometimes 12 feet down court. At this point, I'm lucky if I'm getting 8 on a good flop. My wailing is good, but I need to be hitting the floor a lot harder than the guy hit me, if I was hit. I can't catch myself with my hands like I did in the second quarter tonight. That was bush league." Ginobili then flung himself out of the locker room, slid backward onto a bus, and tumbled wildly into his suburban home.
That's rich.
That was fantastic.
Pure awesomeness.
If only I could sum it all up in a single four-letter word, in all caps, with a period at the end.
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Spurs limping into the playoffs
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
Apr 8, 4:57 pm EDT
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has a saying for these moments: We will or we won’t. So Pop threw up his hands again this week and shrugged his shoulders. The Spurs know there’s no replacing Manu Ginobili. They’ll pledge to play hard and smart, and they’ll try to control whatever else they can control. In the end, they’ll win or they won’t. No matter what happens, they’ll come back next season and try to do it again.
But deep down, the Spurs know something else: At some point, there won’t be a next season. Not for Tim Duncan. If the past few months have proven anything, it’s that the clock has finally begun to tick for the Spurs and their greatest player.
For all the concern about Ginobili’s ankles, the Spurs’ success in these playoffs was always hinged to Duncan’s health. For weeks, Duncan has told friends how much his knees have bothered him, and that’s telling for one reason: He never complains about his injuries.
Duncan’s production picked up over the past week, but Wednesday brought further evidence of how much he’s labored. Though the Spurs had stopped using Duncan in both games of back-to-backs, Popovich relented after Duncan played well Tuesday in Oklahoma City. The move was a mistake. Duncan offered little, scoring just four points as the Spurs wasted a 19-point lead and lost to Portland.
“I don’t want a hero,” Popovich told Duncan after he finally pulled him off the court. “We need you healthy.”
The Spurs think they can still be a tough out in the playoffs without Ginobili – but only if Duncan is effective.
“That,” one Spurs official cautioned, “is the big question.”
The Spurs have always understood the fragility of success. To win championships, you need to be good, but you also need to be healthy and lucky. Too often this season, they haven’t been all three. Even with Ginobili and Duncan at full speed, the Spurs’ hopes of beating the Los Angeles Lakers were fleeting. The Lakers are that good and they figure to get better after Andrew Bynum returns.
Trailing by a point after the first quarter of Sunday’s game in Cleveland, Popovich was asked by an ABC sideline reporter what the Spurs needed to do next.
“We have to be as good as the Lakers,” he said, “and we’re not.”
But with Duncan and Ginobili both healthy? With Tony Parker enjoying the best season of his career? The Spurs would have entered their series against the Lakers with a chance, a small chance, but still the best one the West could offer against the conference’s reigning champs. A year ago, Ginobili entered the West finals on a bad left ankle, and the Spurs pointed to his ineffectiveness as one reason why the Lakers overwhelmed them so easily.
Now? A stress fracture in Ginobili’s right ankle is expected to sideline him through the end of the playoffs. Though Ginobili complained of stiffness during Sunday’s loss to the Cavs, he told the medical staff he was feeling fine the following morning when he went in for tests. The results dazed him and his teammates.
The Spurs know they can’t replace Ginobili’s fire. Unlike any player in the franchise’s history, he thrives on pressure. On Wednesday, the Spurs signed Marcus Williams for help. They needed Reggie Miller.
Most frustrating for the Spurs: Ginobili’s injury likely eliminates another opportunity for Duncan to win his fifth championship. As much as the Spurs would prefer to not look into the future, Duncan won’t be around forever.
Popovich has said he’ll retire 30 seconds after Duncan, and there’s probably as much truth in that as humor. Parker has jokingly asked Duncan to give him enough advance warning of his retirement, so he, too, can clear out. Even some of the team’s longtime business employees plan to leave when Duncan does.
When Duncan considered signing with the Orlando Magic nine years ago, former Spurs forward Sean Elliott pointed to one of his teammate’s SUVs to explain what awaited the franchise should Duncan not stay.
“See that Suburban over there,” Elliott said. “Drive it to the Mexico border and leave it there for three days. Then go back and see how much has been stripped.
“That’s what this team will look like if Tim Duncan leaves. There might be a window switch left.”
Duncan now will leave behind at least four championships, along with the window switch. He recently told legendary Boston Celtics center Bill Russell he wants a fifth title before retiring; he’ll have three years left on his contract after this season to chase one. But with Duncan, the Spurs are forever in win-now mode. That’s one reason they considered taking on Vince Carter’s burdensome contract at the trade deadline and why they also tried to make a three-for-one deal for Marcus Camby. If Duncan needs help, the Spurs will try to get it for him, future be damned.
The Spurs built their championship rosters by plugging in experienced role players around their three stars. Duncan, however, is the one who makes it all work. So when he struggles as he did the past two months, it doesn’t matter whether Ginobili is in the lineup, the Spurs are also going to struggle.
This fall, Duncan looked as fresh as he has in years. He spent the summer throwing truck tires and boxing, and reported to training camp lean and hungry. Popovich encouraged him to show more confidence in his jump shot to also reduce the pounding he would take in the post. Few big men played better during the season’s first half.
Eventually, however, the aching in Duncan’s knees slowed him. This is what comes from the wear and tear of 12 NBA seasons, from enduring all those postseason battles. Already, Duncan has played in 155 playoff games, essentially adding another two full seasons to his career.
Larry Bird recently told the Boston Herald that Kevin Garnett’s injury troubles this season were inevitable for someone who had played so hard for so long. The same holds true for Duncan.
“It’s gonna catch up with you sooner or later,” Bird said.
The Spurs don’t have time to worry about that. The playoffs start next week and they won’t have Ginobili. They’ll need to lean on Duncan as they always have, and they’ll hope he feels as good in April as he did in November. As Popovich likes to say: They’ll win or they won’t.
And if they don’t?
For now, there’s always next season.
15,279 views LMAO
It wasn't like GD said there wasn't a God here folks. Just that he thought the Spurs were done.
^GD apologist
It cracks me up. The "Are the Pistons done" prolly got half those views.
I don't know why I loled so hard when I glanced at the view total.
Well, at first we were trying to figure out what exactly he was saying (which took some time since he didn't want to nail it down), then we took some time calling out how lame his stance was, then you have to figure in all the time Gl'enn comes back to re-read his own posts because he loves himself so much.
I'm actually surprised he was able to keep it below 20,000.
^looks like that "homer" comment made in another thread stung a lil' bit
Just trying to keep the elderly informed. They tend to forget stuff.
Also, you used to have a sense of humor. Now you seem really paranoid all the time.
I find the Spurs being DONE. to be extremely funny, so the sense of humor lives!
See what I did there?
Yeah, it has evolved hasn't it? I'm going to go read the entire thread again as soon as I finish more important things like rearranging my sock drawer and counting my pubie hairs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fool
Slow roasting over an open fire....
"Tim Duncan Hams It Up For Crowd By Arching Left Eyebrow Slightly"
http://www.theonion.com/content/news...nion_rss_dailyQuote:
SAN ANTONIO—Spurs forward Tim Duncan engaged in a rare display of showmanship during Tuesday's win over the Thunder, punctuating a 10-foot jumper with a nearly imperceptible upward motion of his left eyebrow. "I saw him do it, and I was like, 'What! What was that?'" said teammate Michael Finley, who compared the display to a 2006 game in which Duncan gave the crowd an unexpected and nearly flamboyant thumbs-up. "We were playing pretty flat, but Timmy flickered his eyebrow like that and it energized the whole team. Everyone thinks he's so stoic, but he knows how to have a good time. Once, in the locker room, he almost winked. Wild." When asked about this display, Tim Duncan denied any intent to show anyone up and personally called every member of the Thunder organization to apologize.
Greg Pompusassvich decided to "rest" Duncan yesterday because they were playing the Kings, whom, by some accounts, have quit on their coach and have pissed off their ownership.
The gimmick almost backfired on Mr. Genius when the Spurs needed a three pointer at the buzzer to beat the Kings.
I would have loved to have seen them drop a spot or two in the seedings because of that, but no luck.
Fuck the Spurs.
Any team that is blessed with David Robinson and then Tim Duncan deserves a decade of hell.
And apparently that winning three shouldn't have even counted due to a shot clock violation.
Who do Jou think is in worse shape Gl'enn, Pistons or Spurs?
Tough call.
I'd have to say that the Pistons are probably in better shape going forward because of the flexibility.
Yeah, I forgot about Joe being King.
Being in the East helps, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/sp...r=1&ref=sportsQuote:
San Antonio will not have cap space until 2010 (when Ginobili’s contract expires), but there will be plenty of talented free agents who may accept the mid-level exception this summer. Expect the Spurs to make a run at Rasheed Wallace, the longtime starting power forward for the Pistons.
One franchise’s implosion could help delay another’s.
^Nice article that even touches on the Pistons vs. Spurs in DONEdom.
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The Spurs have become too old in spots (Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto), and their young additions (Roger Mason, George Hill) have fallen flat. They have no great assets to trade, outside of their three All-Stars.
So all those players listed, besides Oberto, are SF's. What are they going to do there? They'll need someone that can check Kobe to get anywhere. I understand signing Sheed, but then what do they do at SF?
They owe their pick to OKC for Kurt Thomas. The best pick they have is #37 so that is their best chance to get a SF.
kudos
I'll hold off on the actual celebration until the "Big 3" are split.
There's no shame in losing if you're a star short, especially if your other stars put the kind of effort in that Tim & Tony did.
Nice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gl'enn
Fixed:
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Originally Posted by Gl'enn
The shame is in not having enough help, which was one of the tenets of the DONE. proclamation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Mxy
This is from yesterday afternoon (before the Spurs were eliminated).
More Spurs/Pistons comparisons.
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Out with the old, in with a new definition of 'dynasty'
By Vincent Thomas, for NBA.com
Posted Apr 28 2009 2:42PM
For more than half of this decade, whenever you would get with your crew in mid-April and forecast some possible Finals matchups, I bet there was a consensus on the hook-up you didn't want to see. "Man, I'll really take any Finals other than Spurs-Pistons." Don't front. That happened every spring, ever since the young, insurgent, hungry, swashbuckling Pistons took the squabbling, entitled Lakers' supposed birthright in the 2004 Finals. From that point on, the Spurs and Pistons arguably have been the two most viable contenders in the league. They were consistently excellent powerhouses.
Those days are done. The Cavs swept the Pistons over the weekend. The Spurs are down 3-1 to a Dallas team that could be described, at best, as dangerous. The two squads that dominated the last half of the decade are no longer relevant. Their eras have ended.
The Spurs Era effectively ended when coach Gregg Popovich sat Tim Duncan and Tony Parker for most of the 88-67 gaffling they took in Game 3. That was a white flag. Then Pop joked about it in the postgame press conference. The Spurs are an old, thin squad playing on fumes, bringing what looks like a musket to fights with squads like the younger, deeper, big-gun Lakers, Blazers and Nuggets.
The Pistons Era was done as soon as Chauncey Billups left Motown. I'm sure Joe Dumars thought he could still take a crack at contending with Iverson, but then he watched Iverson try to play for a real team and said, "Yeah. 2010 it is." (That Dumars could have drafted one of those 2010 commodities in 2003, is beside the point ... I guess.)
So here we are, at the close of the decade, with this question: Can we consider the '03-'08 Spurs and/or the '03-'08 Pistons a dynasty? Before you answer, know that during that six-year span, the Spurs averaged 59 wins, won three 'ships and when they were ousted, it was always by the eventual Western Conference champ. Detroit, during that same span, averaged 56 wins, won a title and advanced to the conference finals each year. That, folks, is dogged success ... so long as you don't define success strictly in the sense of winning the whole thing.
Dynasties are tough to gauge. Is a squad that wins back-to-back titles a dynasty, as opposed to a squad that wins three in six years? Do you even have to win multiple titles to be a dynasty? Or can it be a dynasty if a team gets to "the brink" a bunch of times and dominates for an extended period? Can dynasties overlap?
Some dynasties need no discussion. The '70s Steelers, '80s 49ers, '90s Cowboys, '00s Patriots. Dynasties. But what about the '70s Cowboys? They went to the Super Bowl six times and won twice. What about my Buffalo Bills that went to four straight Super Bowls in the early '90s but lost each one? (Damn you, Scott Norwood). The Bills were the AFC's quintessential power for four straight years. That's not a dynasty?
We know the Jeter-Torre Yankees were a dynasty, but what about the '77-'81 Mr. October Yanks? They went to three Series and won back-to-back titles in '77 and '78. What about the '90s Atlanta Braves? The Braves went to five Series in 10 years (not to mention three more NLCSs) and won the whole thing in '95. That's tenured power, right there. Are the '03-'08 Red Sox a dynasty? Two Series wins in five years.
The '60s Celtics and '80s Lakers and '90s Bulls were dynasties. But what about the '80-'88 Celtics? They didn't win back-to-back championships, but they won three 'ships in nine seasons while they averaged 61 wins. They also trotted out the best single-season team of the decade, the '86 champs that went 67-15 and lost only one game at the Garden the whole season. Were the '80s Lakers really a dynasty when the Celtics of that era -- and 76ers, really -- submitted truly dominant and powerful resumes, too? (Uh, yeah, they were.)
You see how precarious this is? So, I'm giving us an out. We can now refer to teams two ways. Some squads are dynasties, other squads are "dynastic." Dynasties are the real thing, dynastic squads are the teams that fall a little short, but exhibit many of the characteristics that identify dynasties. Here are the criteria: A dynasty is a team that wins, at least, three titles with a cast that features, at least, three recurring principal characters (three players or two players and a coach). And if the three titles are spread out, the team has to remain a "power" during the non-title years.
That weeds out the impostors, like the mid-'90s Houston Rockets, who won back-to-back trophies but finished with fewer than 50 wins two seasons. But it also shafts the '87-'91 Zeke-Dumars-Daly Pistons that produced two titles and a five-year Playoff-run where they yanked Eastern dominance from the Celtics, then League preeminence from the Lakers and subdued the upstart Bulls. To reiterate -- the Bad Boys vanquished, at one time or another, the three greatest franchises of the modern era and grabbed back-to-back trophies and -- while they were at it -- changed the way the game was played for a good 15 years. But guess what? Dynastic.
I love my Bills, but they weren't a dynasty. My Bills were dynastic. Reggie Jackon's Yankees? Dynastic. The new millennium Red Sox? Dynastic. '90s Braves? Dynastic. The Young-Rice 49ers? Dynastic. The Doc-Malone-Cunningham 76ers? Dynastic.
But the '80s Celtics? Ahhh. Dynasty. The Staubach-Landry Cowboys? Dynasty.
The Billups-Sheed-Rip Pistons, for all their prolonged excellence were not a dynasty. They let D-Wade and the Heat sully their 64-win '06 season and a terribly unqualified Cavs squad deebo'd them in '07. But, the Spurs, no matter if they won back-to-back 'ships or not, were a dynasty. That back-to-back rule is arbitrary. If a team wins three championships in five years, that team is a dynasty. Period.
Next spring, in the first postseason of a new decade, the Spurs Dynasty and the Dynastic Pistons will be history and I'll finally be able breath a sigh of relief, assured that the two squads won't slow-ball me to death in June. And that, actually, is probably the greatest testament to just how good they were the decade before. One dynastic, the other a sho 'nuff dynasty. They'll be missed ... just not too much.
Vincent Thomas writes "The Commish" column for SLAM Magazine and is a contributing commentator for ESPN. His "From The Floor" column appears weekly on NBA.com. Vince invites you to email him at vincethomas79@gmail.com or follow him on twitter at twitter.com/VinceCAThomas.
In poking around a bit on Spurs fansites, it's oddly amusing to see them cling to Sheed as their hope and salvation for the future.
Is he that much better than Horry was for them?
I don't see how they are going to get past Kobe with no viable SF on the roster.
I kind of like Udoka, and they could bring him back, I suppose.Quote:
Originally Posted by WTFchris
They've got Bowen signed for $4m for next year, but they hid him for most of the year and he's probably about done. The $4m is not fully guaranteed, so he could just be let go.
Finley can play a little at SF, but at this point in his career, he's best as a specialist/role player at SG. And he can opt out of his $2.5m if he wants to, which actually might help them some if he did.