Spurs of the Moment

Here’s an interesting article about why the Spurs are better off with RJ than their original goal of Vince Carter. From retaining the draft rights to Tiago Splitter, the salaries, and Vince’s epic choke at the free throw line this past week, it looks like the Spurs got the better deal with Jefferson. Honestly, that’s not saying a lot about RJ so much as it’s an indictment of Vince Carter’s overall uselessness.

In other news, it appears that Spurs assistant coach, Mike Budenholzer, is one of the candidates on the Cavaliers wish-list to fill their recent head coach vacancy. Mike Brown was fired earlier this week after being thoroughly out-coached by Doc Rivers. Actually, I think Brown out-coached himself more than anything with silly lineups that failed to address their matchup issues with Boston. Either way, Budenholzer is a worthy candidate, and while I don’t like to see competent people leave the Spurs, I don’t want to see them get held back either. I think it comes down to how much the Spurs want to keep him for when Popovich decides to step down.

Tonight Boston will have the chance to close out their series against the Magic in Orlando. I think the Magic threw their best punch and it was barely enough. They can’t be riding too high after that victory and the Celtics will most likely finish them off. Phoenix also won last night and evened their series with the Lakers. They’ll head back to LA for game five and hopefully be able to keep that zone defense working.

First off, here are the Spurs.com top 10 highlights of the season. Some good stuff for any NBA fan, not to mention Spurs fans.

Also, Coach Popovich’s mailbag has a few interesting bits of information in it. He chimes in a little on the Tony Parker trade rumors, DeJuan Blair’s shooting, and Tiago Splitter.

Now as for the Conference Finals, well I say it’s about time these games weren’t grossly one-sided. Orlando finally showed a pulse last night winning in OT…  in Boston no less. I wouldn’t be surprised if they can pull out one more and send this series back to Boston again. Of course, I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Celtics went to Orlando and smashed the Magic by 30 points. It’s kind of a weird place we’re in with expectations right now.

Phoenix also showed a little heart against LA. The difference here is that the Suns haven’t lost any home games and didn’t take four games to show up. I still hold out hope for Phoenix even though I know they are out-matched. Andrew Bynum’s knee issues certainly don’t hurt Phoenix’s cause right now.

In other news, LeBron is still being expected to go to pretty much any team in the NBA. It seems like everyone has a case for why he would go to one team or another. I personally think it comes down to Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and Miami – in that order. Dallas and the Clippers will try and keep hope alive but I just don’t see it.

Congratulations to Manu Ginobili and his wife who gave birth to their twins yesterday.

Ginobili, on his Twitter page, announced Sunday’s births of Dante and Nicola.
Ginobili says mother and boys are doing great, and he later added “I just changed my 1st diaper!”

Also, Happy 28th Birthday to Tony Parker today!

Try to ignore the fact that Yahoo Sports is continuing to feed the rumors that Parker might be headed to New York. I’ve already addressed this nonsense here, and don’t have any reason at this point to change my previous opinions on the matter.

Bill Simmons recently handed out some of his “playoff awards” for Round 2 and saved the best for last:

THE WHATEVER-THE-HELL-U2′S-LAST-ALBUM-WAS-CALLED AWARD FOR “MOST ABRUPT END TO A PHENOMENAL RUN”

To the Duncan-era Spurs: Four titles, 13 straight 50-win seasons (I’m including the stupid lockout season) and a boatload of fantastic memories. OK, not really. But we got to watch Duncan (the best power forward ever), Ginobili (the best international guard ever if you’re not counting Nash, and you shouldn’t, since Canada isn’t really “international”), Parker (who perfected the celebrity relationship), Popovich (the best coach of the past 15 years), and two really fun rivalries (Spurs-Suns, Spurs-Mavs). Look, you can’t stay on top for more than a decade without getting a top-three lottery pick or having Chris Wallace trade you a top-three lottery pick. That’s just the way this league works. So hold your head up high, Spurs. Fantastic run. When players are bawling in their locker room because they finally beat you (like Nash did after Game 4), you know you accomplished something great. And you did.

Now I won’t concede that the run is over, or the window is closed, or anything like that, but I certainly appreciate the sentiment.

You know that saying, “Don’t let your mouth write a check your body can’t cash”? I’m sure we’ve all heard at least one variation of that saying anyway. Well, it appears that Jason Terry is out of the loop there because he is starting to run his mouth after the Mavs staved off elimination in Game 5. According to Jason Terry, “No question. We’re coming back,” he said. “We have to. It’s our mission. Our job is to go down there and get this win and come on back.”

Has Terry learned nothing from Charlie Villanueva’s “Twitter Fail” during the regular season? Villanueva guaranteed his Pistons would earn a victory over the Raptors only to watch his team lose 111-97. If you were watching the Knicks back in the 90s then you are undoubtedly familiar with Patrick Ewing’s endless “guarantees”. Incidently, he has no championship rings to speak of. There are countless examples of desperate fools “guaranteeing” victories that they can’t deliver. In two days we may be adding Terry to that list.

It’s great to be confident and get your team fired up, but it’s also stupid to give your opponent any extra fire of their own, especially when that opponent has four championships to your none, has owned you as of late, is going to be at home, and could use your idiocy to rally around after a loss.

Aaron Brooks wins Most Improved Player, George Hill and Kevin Durant finish tied for second.

Brooks earned 403 of a possible 615 points, including 62 first-place votes, from a panel of 123 sports writers and broadcasters. Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City and George Hill of San Antonio tied for second with 101 total points.

So for those of you who still don’t know who this George Hill guy is, well you should know after Game 4. Still, he was creating a stir around the league before now and this is just further evidence that the Spurs know how to draft talent and will not fade into obscurity as the Big Three get older.

Spurs’ edge over Mavs: Fear not

Blair celebrated his 21st birthday just three days earlier. Hill will turn 24 in another week. The Spurs don’t usually win with players so young and with their stars contributing so little. Still, all of their championship teams owned the same trait: From Mario Elie to Stephen Jackson, from Steve Kerr to Bruce Bowen, from Malik Rose to Fabricio Oberto, the Spurs’ supporting casts were cut from the same sturdy fiber that Hill and Blair now share. There’s a reason why Jaren Jackson left the Spurs with a championship ring and Hedo Turkoglu didn’t. To survive in San Antonio, one must not only withstand the heat of the playoffs, but also Popovich’s personal fire.

More props given to Hill and Blair. It seems that finally more people are noticing that the Spurs have not just stood around and waited for their stars to get old while adding on a vet here and there (McDyess, Jefferson). In fact, the Spurs have been developing other talented players too like Malik Hairston and maybe even Ian Mahinmi, not to mention other players they picked up during the season such as point guard Garrett Temple.

Spurs’ Blair keeps his head in game

Knowing that the slightest hint of bravado might have given referees an excuse to call a double technical — the better to clean up some of the chippiness that characterized the second half of the Spurs’ 92-89 victory — Blair beat a hasty retreat toward the Spurs’ bench.

One more reason we have come to like Blair so much. Not only is he a maniac on the glass, prone to ripping off the arms of future-draft busts, and a beacon of hope to ACL-less people the world over, but he has a rare trait known as “common sense” that keeps him from getting into trouble with the refs during big games.

Dallas Morning News columnist: Spurs know how to win, Mavs don’t

This isn’t about effort or desire or any other intangible. This is about the Spurs, a franchise with championship pedigree, finding ways to win, while the Mavs, a franchise with a history of choking in the playoffs, finds ways to lose.

Uh oh, don’t look now but it sounds like trouble in paradise. The home team is getting berated by their own newspaper, but it’s not like they don’t deserve it. You can only rip out a city’s heart with uninspired play for so long before they show up with pitchforks and torches.

Ginobili will sit out World Championships

“My body kind of needs it, and I want to play the (2012) Olympics, so I decided to pass on this one.

“Besides, there’s another little factor here: My wife is going to have twins in a month. Those are the times you don’t want to miss. Both, one next to the other, makes me take this tough decision.”

 Thank goodness. I figured his better sense would prevail over his competitive side this summer. Plus it looks like the Spurs have a chance of going deep in the playoffs this year so he will need the rest.

It’s Friday (finally!) and the Spurs have a game against the Warriors, plus the March Madness continues (Go Kentucky!). There’s a nice article at hoopsworld.com on the maturation of Spurs youngsters DeJuan Blair and George Hill. Both have had to start a significant number of games this year and are clearly going to be integral pieces of the Spurs’ future.

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No Spurs game today, but here’s a look at the implications of road records in the playoffs, including San Antonio who has a 15-15 road record this season.

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The Spurs play the T-Wolves tonight and then the Clippers tomorrow in what Ginobili refers to as must-win games.

“Both are teams that don’t have a shot at making the playoffs, so they don’t have much to lose, and we do. It’s very important to keep our focus, play hard for 48 minutes”

Good point since after the Wolves and Clips our boys will be facing only two teams the rest of the month that are under .500 (Golden State and New Jersey), and the other eight teams they face later this month include the Magic, Lakers, Cavaliers, and Celtics – all elite teams in their conferences, not to mention division leaders.

Spurs’ Hill can’t think in terms of replacing Parker:

Hill expects the final 20 games to be educational. The lesson he learned on Wednesday, when the Knicks applied occasional double-team pressure: Be prepared for anything.

“They caught me off-guard,” he said. “I just wasn’t all there, but I know now what to do in that case. I’ll beat my man next time.”

There is also a nice feature piece on George Hill on NBA.com. As Ginobili points out:

“A year ago, you could tell that he was a rookie, maybe wasn’t up to the situation,” said Manu Ginobili. “But not now. Not anymore. He’s earned a lot of confidence from everybody. He’s guarding the best opponent, taking responsibility at the point when Tony’s not on the court.”

Speaking of Manu Ginobili, he says he is looking forward to playing in the World Championships. I hope that doesn’t mean we can look forward to him breaking down again next season.

I want one of these “Los Spurs” jerseys that the Spurs wore against the Knicks on “Latino Night”…

There are no more Spurs games until Friday, so for those of us in need of a Spurs fix, I give you another installment of “Odds and Ends”… enjoy.

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