By Mason Pitluk

On a night when the Spurs got off to a fast start, things turned awfully bad really quick. After jumping out to an early 7-0 lead, San Antonio quickly found themselves down 25-35 entering the second quarter, a quarter which would see starting shooting guard Manu Ginobili fracture the fifth metacarpal in his left hand. This injury is devastating for both the Spurs and their star lefty who, as Tony Parker pointed out post-game, “was playing at an All Star level.” There will be plenty of time to discuss Ginobili’s injury in depth (as I plan to do soon in my next article), so let’s focus on last night’s contest alone, and what, beyond the loss of Ginobili, is worth noting.

Road Woes

A very brief look at the Spurs’ five games this season will reveal a pretty black and white blueprint for Silver & Black success; stay in San Antonio. In three home games this year the Spurs have blowout victories over their two toughest opponents thus far, the Grizzlies and Clippers, as well as the Utah Jazz, while their two road games have both ended in blowout losses to the Rockets and now the Timberwolves. Needless to say, if the Spurs can’t find a way to start picking up victories away from home they could be in danger of being out of playoff contention by the time Manu returns.

DeJuan Blair’s Defense

Throughout his time in San Antonio the biggest hole in DeJuan Blair’s game has been his defense. So far this season Blair has looked improved on both ends, especially offense, but last night he got torched. Kevin Love absolutely abused Blair on pick and pop three pointers, particularly in the first quarter, time and again receiving ample space to shoot from Blair, even after knocking down three after three. Blair’s help defense was also noticeably off last night. Much like taking a bad pursuit angle in football, Blair kept trying to meet driving guards around the free throw line, rather than lower in the paint, and more often than not was blown by as Ridnour, Rubio, or some other Minnesota guard finished easily at the rim. Obviously, listed very generously at 6’7’’, no one expects him to be a shot blocking force, but Blair has to position himself better to at least be able to contest shots as they go up. Overall, DeJuan had a really rough game, going 2 of 9 from the field for just 6 points to go along with only 3 rebounds in 28 minutes. For the Spurs to be successful Blair must continue to improve defensively, return to rebounding the ball at the high rate he had in his first two seasons, and continue along the offensive pace he set in this season’s first few games.

The Timberwolves Shooting

aka “Dr. K. Love (Or: How We Learn That Some Nights Teams Are Just On Fire and Win the Game)”

Minnesota ended the night shooting an amazing 58% from the field and 57% from three, but those numbers are misleading; the T-Wolves actually shot the ball way better. With about half the third quarter gone, the Timberwolves were still above 70% shooting from the field. Entering the fourth quarter Minnesota had hit 11 of 14 three pointers, a whopping 79%. No, these aren’t typos. Wesley Johnson, for example, had been averaging just over 5 points per game on 31% shooting. Last night he went 6 of 6 for 14 points. Overall as a team, the Spurs weren’t playing defense that terribly*. The younger Wolves, who were noticeably more energetic despite beating Dallas the night before, simply shared the ball to perfection. Playing the exact sort of balanced, pass-first, efficient and effective offensive that new coach Rick Adelman is known for, the home squad bombarded the visiting Spurs with bucket after bucket. When a team is playing that lights out, chances are they’re going to win, and unlike last year when Minnesota twice surrendered big leads to San Antonio, the Timberwolves never really let the Spurs back in it as they coasted to a 106-96 win.

Don’t look now but the Spurs just won four games in a row – the last three against the alleged contenders of the Western Conference. Granted the Mavs were without Dirk, it’s still satisfying to watch S.A. smash thru the early conference favorites one after the other.

After beating the Lakers 97-82 last Tuesday, the Spurs went on to beat the Mavs in Dallas on Thursday 99-93. That was an interesting game since the Mavericks were without Dirk Nowitzki but the Mavericks still gave the Spurs all they could handle behind Caron Butler’s season-high 30 points and yet another triple-double from Jason Kidd. Unfortunately for the Mavericks, Tim Duncan had a bounce back game with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Gary Neal came off the bench to bombard Dallas with 21 points of his own. I kind of had to laugh at the Mavs starting Brian Cardinal. Did they think he could pass for Nowitzki and draw double-teams or something? Anyway, the poor Mavs – who I actually am more worried about than the Lakers right now – suffered another setback when Caron Butler hurt is knee in their next game, a loss in Milwaukee. finally, the Spurs completely dismantled the Thunder 101-74 on Saturday night. They held Kevin Durant to 16 points and the Thunder to 33% shooting from the field. Only Serge Ibaka came to play with 14 points, 13 boards, four blocks, and a steal – although he shot only 5-of-13 from the floor himself. Tim Duncan led all scorers with 21 points while Tony Parker had 14 points and 10 dimes.

So there the Spurs sit atop the West – the league in fact – with a 29-4 record. Nearly halfway thru the season I have to say that I think they’re only contending with three teams this year: The Mavericks (25-8), the Celtics (25-7), and maybe Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Friends (26-9). Orlando has an outside shot with their revamped roster, and Lakers can’t be counted out just yet, but if I had to call it now then I’d say get ready for a Spurs-Celtics finals. I just don’t see anyone in the West with the depth or the championship pedigree of the Spurs. Dallas is deep but are not proven winners. The Lakers are winners, but their depth is non-existent – and WTF happened to Ron Artest? Can someone chuck a beer at this clown and get his blood pumping again? As for the East, the Celtics are the clear front-runner so long as they can remain healthy during the playoffs. It seems that they are getting their injuries out of the way early this season (Rondo, Pierce, Garnett, Shaq) so maybe that won’t be an issue. Miami is kind of a question mark. They are figuring out how to win, but can they do it in a 7-game series against a quality team? I say no. And they have to remain healthy too. Losing Haslem hurt them a lot and their interior defense was weak to begin with. Can LeBron and Wade win them four games in a series on their own? Probably not.

Next up to bat are the New York Knicks, who are actually one of my favorite teams. Yes, I grew up loving the Knicks – partially cuz I was a kid who was happy to sport some Ewing sneakers, I hated Michael Jordan and all of his zombie-like worshippers, and gravitated to the scrappiness of players like Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley, and John Starks. Chris Childs punching Kobe also helped. Having said all that, the Knicks stand no chance. The Spurs are just better in every way, and the Knicks will be without Danilo Gallinari who is expected to miss the next 2-3 weeks with a sprained knee. So with that, I expect the Spurs to notch their 5th win in row tomorrow night.

 I know we’ve all been anxious to see Tiago Splitter play for the Spurs, but it looks it will have to wait a little bit longer. Popovich has already named DeJuan Blair the starting center for the opener, and Splitter’s foot injury will likely keep him from suiting up at all right away. It makes sense to not rush him into action, but it is definitely frustrating to wait a few years for a draft pick to finally make his way to the league only to be sidelined almost immediately. This is good news for fantasy drafts though, since most people will not want to take a flier on a Euro-league import who hasn’t made any noise in pre-season due to injury. That will leave him available for late round draft picks for the more savvy among us.

To get a good idea of how likely it is that Splitter will play in the opener, here is what Popovich had to say: “Sure, it’s definitely in the realm of possibility,” he said. “It’s also possible I might play.”

I don’t take that as much of an endorsement that we should count on seeing either of them in a jersey until maybe a few games into the season, and then only Splitter. Although, Pop probably couldn’t shoot any worse than Roger Mason did last season.

McDyess did have some nice words to get fans excited about Splitter’s eventual court time.

“Today was the first day I saw him get out there and shoot the ball,” forward Antonio McDyess said. “He’s got a nice little touch to him. He picks up on the plays very easy and very quick. That’s very impressive, for a guy to come in and learn this system.

“I’m just as eager as the fans are, just to see what he has. He looks like a guy who can really play. It’s going to be exciting for him to get on the court, and I can’t wait for it to happen.”

I guess we’ll have to live with that for now, but I am sure the Spurs can handle the Pacers in their first game of the season. I just hope Tony Parker doesn’t roll his ankle in the first quarter.

Oh yeah, I also got the NBA preview magazine from Sports Illustrated (finally). They have the Spurs ranked 3rd in the West behind the Lakers (1) and Thunder (2). That means, of course, that the Spurs are ranked #1 in the division. I’ve seen a few writers who rank the Mavs higher, and I’ll at least concede that that”s debatable based on talent. What I don’t get is how a writer or two have Houston ranked higher than the Spurs. If you see this anywhere, immediately write that person’s opinion off. They know not of what they speak. There is no way Houston outperforms San Antonio this season. Yao won’t play but 20-something minutes a game, Ariza – their best perimeter defender who they signed when they let go of Artest – is long gone, and Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin can score, but can’t guard me. Yeah, I said it.

But aaaanyway… go Spurs.. and Texas Rangers.

Tiago Splitter has a strained plantar muscle in his foot and will miss a week or so. Well that sucks, and hopefully this isn’t the beginnings of the dreaded plantar fasciitis. Stay tuned, but I think he will be back in time for a couple of pre-season games.

Meanwhile, Tim Duncan is apparently in great shape and ready to ride “until the wheels fall off“. The only real question has been exactly when are the wheels going to fall off? Well, not this season it seems. Once Tiago’s foot stops aching, he will be able to provide more support for the Spurs frontcourt along with the veteran McDyess and the emerging talents of DeJuan Blair.

After a summer that included conditioning drills designed to minimize stress on his knees, Duncan is prepared for a truncated ration of regular-season playing time. He hopes for a better start to the Spurs season that won’t scuttle coach Gregg Popovich’s plan to lessen his workload, which is to include an occasional night off in the second game of back-to-back sets.

Some of you may recall that the plan last year was to rest Duncan in the second of back-to-back games, but that didn’t quite pan out while the Spurs were fighting for a playoff spot.

George Hill returned last night from his ankle injury and made the start at point guard. He played 17 minutes and finished with six points on 2-of-4 shooting including a three pointer and 1-of-2 from the line. He also had three assists, one rebound, and a block. He says that the ankle “held up pretty good” and he expects to be ready to go against the Mavs on Wednesday. Understandably, he’d “rather shake off the rust in these last couple of games than in the playoffs.” That’s fine as long as he doesn’t hurt himself and rust on the bench during the first round. I think he’ll be alright and Coach Popovich will probably limit his minutes anyway.

There’s a good chance that Garrett Temple will be on the playoff roster even though Hill and Parker are both back from their injuries. He showed that he can run the team and play pretty mistake-free basketball. He still has plenty of work to do, but is already a decent defender and shooter which is part of why Keith Bogans has been (finally) removed from the starting unit altogether. It wouldn’t surprise me if Temple were to stick around after this season given his ability to rise to the occassion during this past week. He seems to have made a pretty good impression on the coaching staff anyway.

It is Temple’s skill and courage at the offensive end that has taken the Spurs’ coaches somewhat by surprise. After the rookie made 3 of 4 on 3-point shots and scored 11 points in Saturday’s win at the Nuggets, head coach Gregg Popovich pointed to Temple’s line on the box score and said, “We may have found one.”

And to think that the Spurs only had to nix a couple of older, little-used vets like Michael Finley and Theo Ratliff in order to make room for some new and improved players who can contribute right away. It’s been a long and arduous season, no doubt, but there is still plenty to be optimistic about in San Antonio.

The Good News: The Spurs have won four straight games, are 36-24 (12 games over .500), and are in 7th place in the West still – 5.5 games ahead of Houston (9th) and Memphis (10th).
The Bad News: Tony Parker is out for the next six weeks with a broken hand.

That’s the short and sweet version of events, but I feel compelled to elaborate. Let’s start with the wins.

San Antonio vs New Orleans
The Spurs swept the season series against the New Orleans Hornets with their 102-91 win  Friday night. The Spurs out-rebounded the Hornets 38-32, and out-assisted them 26-14. Although San Antonio committed 12 turnovers to only 10 for New Orleans, the Spurs still out-shot them 53.5% to 49.4% from the field. The Spurs also made 12-of-20 three-pointers. Mason and McDyess were DNP-CDs, but seven Spurs players scored in double figures.

Spurs Notable Stat Lines:
Tim Duncan: 12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block. Not a stellar game, and I think he played too long at 32 minutes in a game that wasn’t really that close.
Tony Parker: 20 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds. He had 3 turnovers, but other than that he was solid and shot 8-of-12 from the field and made all four of his free throw attempts.
Manu Ginobili: 16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal. He shot 6-of-11 from the field and had a nice all-around game.
DeJuan Blair: 10 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block. The Spurs only double-double – actually the only double-double of the game for either team.
Matt Bonner: 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. Bonner continues to take advantage of the extra playing time in McDyess’s absence.
George Hill: 14 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals. He didn’t shut down Collison like before, but he held his own.
Keith Bogans: 15 points, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks. Bogans didn’t suck in this game. He shot 5-of-7 from the field including 4-of-6 from downtown. It’s about time… let’s see if he can do it against a better team.

Notable Hornets Stat Lines:
Darren Collison: 32 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turnovers. Not a great game outside of the scoring. Chris Paul even had to pull him aside and talk to him about his horrendous defense. Still, DC has tons of upside.
David West: 22 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, 2 blocks. West brought his ‘A’ game, but it wasn’t enough to overcome ‘F’ games from almost everyone else.
Marcus Thornton: 18 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 block. Just like Collison, Thornton really came up big in the scoring department and brought next to nothing elsewhere.

San Antonio vs Memphis
The Spurs beat Memphis Saturday night 102-92, overcoming the loss of Tony Parker and the suckiness of Bogans and McDyess to win their 4th straight game. The Spurs got out-rebounded 44-34, but had only 12 turnovers to Memphis’s 14, and out-assisted them 23-13. How does an entire team only manage 13 assists? Well, Memphis shot 43.4% from the floor so maybe that explains some of it. The Spurs shot 48.8% and hit 9-of-21 three-pointers. McDyess was back and made the start at center. He was generally useless with three rebounds, two steals, two fouls, and an 0-of-3 shooting performance in 15 minutes. Keith Bogans also went back to his crappy ways and managed to block one shot, commit one foul and miss a three-pointer in his 15 minutes. Thankfully, we have other players who can play slightly better than those two.

Notable Spurs Stat Lines:
Tim Duncan: 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks. Not a stellar game, especially not in the rebounds department, but it’ll do.
Manu Ginobili: 17 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists, 1 steal. Good looking out on the assists – someone needed to be the playmaker when Tony went out.
Richard Jefferson: 18 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 rebound, 1 steal. RJ was practically a no-show Friday night, but he made up for it here when we needed him.
Matt Bonner: 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks. Good game, and thank goodness too since McDyess was awful.
DeJuan Blair: 10 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 block. How does a guy have the only double-double in the previous game and lose the starting spot to a has-been coming off an injury in the very next game? Popovich is annoying sometimes.
George Hill: 11 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. A decent game from Hill.

Notable Grizzlies Stat Lines:
Zach Randolph: 15 points, 7 rebounds. Not a hug night, but he held his own against Duncan.
OJ Mayo: 23 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal. A game high 23 points, but not much else.
Marc Gasol: 17 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals. The only double-double of the night.
Rudy Gay: 13 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal. Not a terrible game, but nothing to brag about.

Tony Parker’s Injury Woes Continue
Tony Parker has suffered all season long. He has rolled his ankle twice, battled through plantar fasciitis, had food poisoning, suffered a hip injury, and now he has a broken bone in his hand. The fact that this happened during the middle of the fourth game in a four-game winning streak when it seemed the Spurs were finally “turning the corner” just makes it all the more devastating. The injury will basically cause Parker to miss the rest of the regular season. Now the question is simple – can the Spurs rally to keep winning without their star point guard? Can Mason step up now that Finley and Parker are out? Making the playoffs will just be the first half of the battle, but how will the Spurs adjust come playoff time after a month and a half of playing without Tony? This is all kinds of bad, but all is not lost. George Hill has been great, and Ginobili is healthy, so we’ve got some breathing room.

Ginobili’s 2010 Off-Season
Speaking of Ginobili, has there been a better time this season to go ahead and offer him a contract extension? Parker is shattering before out eyes, and Ginobili has almost single-handedly won a few games for us this season swatting everything from Durant dunks to renegade bats. It seems that we could be regretting not locking him down for the future when several teams could potentially pursue him. As of now, the most likely suitors include the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, Miami Heat, LA Clippers, Chicago Bulls, and Oklahoma City Thunder. I am certain that Manu has at least three quality years left, so I say stop BS-ing and offer the man an extension.

Well, the trade deadline was disappointing for Spurs fans. We managed to get slightly worse defensively by trading Theo Ratliff, an under-used shot blocker, for next to nothing. Technically we traded him for a conditional second-round pick in 2016. I guess it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things, Ratliff was not going to make or break the Spurs season. As Garrett Tucker pointed out, “They had missing pieces that were possibly there. Instead, they stayed where they were. Not a good move if the Spurs want to make yet another NBA championship run.” Exactly. Instead of doing something useful at the trade deadline, the Spurs just watched other contenders (Boston, Cleveland, Dallas) and younger, up-and-coming teams (Sacramento, New York) get better around them. Roger Mason is still stuck in SA hoping (as am I) that he can find more playing time. Worst of all, we are still forced to endure the Richard Jefferson and Keith Bogans experiments. Good times. Also, we still have to contend with the Amare Stoudemire Suns since he wasn’t traded to the East, and a better Houston Rockets team who managed to finally unload McGrady. The only real good news is that we still have our Big Three of Tony, Manu and Tim intact.

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In other news, or according to the San Antonio Express News, Tony Parker is a game-time decision tonight @ Philly. Apparently he has a “strained left hip flexor”, plantar fasciitis, busted ankles, and can’t-stay-healthy-for-crap-itis.

Well, so much for the Dwayne Jones era in San Antonio. The Spurs waived him yesterday and are now down to 17 players on the roster. I expect Marcus Haislip to be the next on the chopping block. After that it’s a toss-up between Malik Hairston and Curtis Jerrells. They’ll probably carry Theo Ratliff, Marcus Williams, and the Jerrells/Hairston survivor on the inactive roster.

I like Jerrells, but he didn’t look spectacular against the Clippers tonight shooting 1-of-5 from the field with two turnovers in 18 minutes. Hairston started and played 23 minutes putting up nine points, five assists, and two steals with no turnovers. Haislip had  four points and two turnovers in 15 minutes.

On the bright side, George Hill was decent with 13 points, while Richard Jefferson scored 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, with two rebounds, one assist and no turnovers. He also hit his one and only three-point attempt. And, of course, you know it’s coming – DeJuan Blair went 5-of-9 from the field and scored 11 points to go along with 12 rebounds and a steal. Nice.

For the Clippers, Blake Griffin had a great outing with 23 points, seven rebounds, one steal and one assist. Al Thornton went 8-of-11 from the field for 18 points and four rebounds. DeAndre Jordan had 15 points and eight rebounds, but also had six turnovers. Griffin and Thornton should be solid options in Fantasy Basketball this season. Griffin may be as good as a second round pick – the only scary thing is he plays for the Clips… well that and he has had knee “issues” in the past.

On a final note, the Kings warned everyone in earshot about the dangers of inflatible exercise balls after Francisco Garcia fractured his arm in a bizarre workout accident. Needless to say, Fantasy Basketball players will probably not want to draft Garcia so high this year since it will be at least a month before he recovers from this injury.