Tag: San Antonio Spurs

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Dallas Mavericks

Around the Rim: Now Mark Cuban has something to dance about


1. 4-1 in their last five against SA; too bad it’s not a playoff series
The Spurs came into Dallas as a sizzling hot team, but it didn’t take long for the Mavericks to toss a bucket of ice water all over San Antonio’s flames. Behind runs of 17-1 and 11-0, the Mavs hit the court running and never bothered to check their rearview mirrors, toasting the Spurs, 105-92. Tim Duncan (24 pts) and Manu Ginobili (25 pts, 9 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl) showed up to play for SA, but they were about the only ones. Mr. Longoria was 1-of-11 for seven points and Michael Finely went 0-of-6. Outside of four rebounds, Finely put up zeros across the stat sheet in 25 minutes against his former club. Meanwhile, Dallas was scoring at will with four players finishing the game with at least 17 points. Josh Howard had a team-high 23 and Dirk Nowitzki was solid with 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

2. Bulls get bullied, again

Chicago did what they could, but that wasn’t good enough to knock off the Suns. Grant Hill had a game-high tying 24 points to pace Phoenix as six of the eight Suns to record minutes finished with double-digits in the 112-102 win. What’s amazing about this team is that they continue to roll with just a seven man rotation. The only question surrounding Phoenix at the moment is if they have enough depth for when the playoffs roll around. But there’s plenty of time for that to develop, it’s Chicago that is running out of time. The Bulls are 1-6 now after having four full days to prepare for this game. They’ve got the Clippers, Lakers and Nuggets coming up on the schedule, so, like the old Flintstones Vitamins commercials, the Pistons division lead is at 4 ½ games…and growing.

3. Houston can exhale now
Good news for Rockets fans. After taking a shot to the right elbow, Tracy McGrady couldn’t even shoot a pair of free throws with the arm during Houston’s loss to the Lakers. Turns out that that there’s no damage to the elbow and it’s just a sprain. He’ll probably miss a week or so and then he’ll be putting up 40 on fools like nothing ever happened. Bad news for Rockets fans. Houston heads to San Antonio tonight for their second contest of the season against the Spurs. But it is not the end of the world. Back on the 6th, the Rockets survived a 4-for-14 shooting performance by T-Mac to beat their instate rivals 89-81. In fact, the Rockets might get through this without too much damage. Considering the Spurs got roughed up by Dirk & Co. last night, with a big effort, they might steal one on the road. They have to turn right around and host the Suns on Saturday, but after that they’re off until next Wednesday. Meaning McGrady could be ready to go just in time for a huge game against the Mavs.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Manu Ginobili @ Dallas 31 min, 25 pts (FG: 7-15, 3FG: 1-4, FT: 10-13), 9 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl

Friday’s Game to Watch: Miami (1-7) @ Boston (7-0)
It’s not too often that you’ll see a team as bad as the Heat make our Game to Watch, but today’s a little different. Pat Riley is on the edge of insanity after enduring the most embarrassing start of his career. Following getting drummed by the Sonics, he threatened to make “a massive shakeup” in his lineup. Well, “massive” really only describes one man on the Heat. So, don’t be surprised when Shaquille O’Neal isn’t jumping for the opening tip against the Celtics. And if Riley follows through, don’t expect Shaq’s absence to be the only new wrinkle in the starting five. So, will his tinkering pay off? Eh, probably not. We all know that Boston is on top of their game and the NBA at the moment. Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are about as nasty a trio as the league has ever seen. All we know is that if this trick doesn’t smack some life into the Heat then Riley is probably going to be curled up in the corner of the visitors’ showers, mumbling and sucking his thumb after the game.

Buzzer Beater: Leave it to ESP-freakin’-N to go totally overboard with the Celtics quick start out of the gate. Now, we know that Boston has looked pretty darn good over their first seven games, but are we really doing this already?

NBA Best Teams Ever Comparison

2007-08 Celtics vs. 1995-96 Bulls

Twelve years ago, the Chicago Bulls set a standard of success that many think will never be matched: 72-10 in the regular season. Almost a perfect season.

Well, now we have another fast-starting team, and so far they are running with the Bulls. The Boston Celtics are on pace to surpass the Bulls’ 72 wins and become the second team to win 70 in a season.

Imagine that, they’re on pace to “become the second team to win 70 in a season.” Actually, right now, they’re on pace to win 82 games this season. This is so stupid; can’t we at least wait 10, 20, 30, dare we say, 40 games before we start clearing the pedestal for the new greatest team ever. These guys aren’t even the best Celtic team ever!

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Boston Celtics

Around the Rim: From worst to first


1. How ya like us now?
They did it again. The Cs are now 6-0, the lone unbeaten, after putting a hurtin’ on the Pacers, 101-86. Just so you know, they didn’t have six wins last season until there were already 13 ticks in the loss column. For a little while, it looked like this could actually be a game, but things fell apart for Indiana when Paul Pierce transformed into the Truth, scoring 31 points in the game with 13 coming a second-quarter, three-minute explosion. And yes, at one point, you did see Pierce doing push-ups in-between free throws. Apparently, the men in green are so bored with their competition that they’re working in a lil’ extra cardio training during the actual game. Frankly, we can’t blame `em. The big three are just toying with teams now, they combined for 66 points and 25 boards against the Pacers.

2. Two outta three ain’t bad

There is no NBA state feared more than Texas. All three of the Lone Star teams were in action on Tuesday and the Spurs and Mavericks both escaped their opponents, the Lakers and Sixers respectively, but the Rockets weren’t so lucky. They got downed by the lowly Grizz 105-99. It’s a shame too because Tracy McGrady had a terrific game for Houston. T-Mac was 16-of-28 and finished the contest with 41 points, four rebounds, four assists and a pair of pokes. But to the Rockets defense, they weren’t using their home state advantage last night as the game was held in Memphis. The trio of teams is a combined 11-0 at home on the year, but something is going to have to give here soon. On Thursday, the Spurs heads to Dallas; on Friday, Houston plays in San Antonio and next Wednesday, the Mavericks will be wearing their road unis against the Rockets.

3. He’s got that Magic touch
Rashard Lewis has to be loving life after putting up a game-high 22 points on his old club. Oh, and the fact that the Sonics fell to 0-8 while he’s raking in $14.9 million this year in sunny Florida probably didn’t hurt any either. Lewis led the way offensively during the 103-76 beatdown, but, as usual, it was the man-child who did all the dirty work. Dwight Howard finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in the game. If this guy isn’t the closest thing to Tim Duncan since Tim Duncan then we don’t know who is. Of course, we can’t mention the Sonics without mentioning Kevin Durant. It was another tough night for the rookie as he went 4-of-13 for 10 points to go along with a single rebound and zero assists. Rashard Lewis has to be loving life.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Dirk Nowitzki vs. Philadelphia 37 min, 21 pts (FG: 7-14, 3FG: 1-3, FT: 6-9), 12 reb, 8 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Orlando (6-2) @ Cleveland (4-4)
Cleveland’s been on the road for a majority of the season so far, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be welcomed home. The Magic are undefeated on the road (4-0) and they’ve ripped off a streak of four wins in their last five games to rise to the top of the Southeast standings. The trio of Rashard Lewis, Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson is clicking on all cylinders as Orlando enjoys the early season ride. Cleveland, on the other hand, has no such trio to speak of and they’ve given up 35 more points than they’ve scored. However, the end result is they are only 1 ½ games behind Detroit in their division. Not too bad for a team that is riding one horse; it’s not too good, but it’s not too bad either.

Buzzer Beater: So, how bad are things for the 1-6 Miami Heat? Well, according to Pat Riley, they’re PRETTY BAD, pretty bad.

Me? Play. I guarantee you I should suit up. I’d play better than some of them right now,” Riley said Tuesday night. “I guarantee it. I swear to God. With an old hip and 62 years old and I can’t see, I’ll play better than some of my guys tonight. Come on, they were pretty bad.

C’mon coach, aren’t you being a little hard on your guys? Oh, wait; they lost by 15 to the Bobcats? Are you serious?! Okay, you’re right; lace `em up.

Categories
New Orleans Hornets

Around the Rim: Changing of the guards?


1. Jason Kidd. Meet Jason Kidd 2.0
It’s hard to say that a guy who misses a triple-double by one rebound is playing second fiddle to a youngster in the point guard department, but last night it was true. Jason Kidd finished with nine rebounds, 10 assists and 14 points, but, like they say, he scores last scores best. At least, that’s the motto Chris Paul is living by after his lay-up with less than three seconds in the game gave the Hornets an 84-82 victory over New Jersey. CP3 has been playing out of his mind over the opening act of the season and last night was just one more chapter in the book. Paul paced his boys with a team-high 29 points to go with six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

2. The Chosen `One’

The Nuggets proved the old adage of “two is always better than one” again last night as Denver’s dynamic duo combined for 59 points during their team’s 122-100 victory over Cleveland. LeBron James wasn’t the only Cav on the court, but he was doing all the heavy lifting and it didn’t work out to well for the defending Eastern Conference champs. Behind LeBron’s 27 points, Ira Newble was the second leading scorer with 17 and it took him 15 shots to get that. In all, Cleveland shot the ball pretty well, 36-86 for 41.9 percent, but the Nuggets were rolling. Keyword being Nuggets, accent on the s. Anthony finished with 22 points and Iverson racked up a game-high 37. And if three is a crowd then Denver has a fetish for hordes because J.R. Smith came off the bench to chip in 29 more.

3. Those aren’t “Booos,” they’re “Boooz”
Carlos Boozer must be getting coached up by Mike Gundy on the side because there’s no doubt he’s a man! The Booze went off for 32 points and 10 rebounds, giving him his seventh double-double in eight games. Perhaps the most important number of all is the team’s six wins in those eight contests. Last night, Boozer led the Jazz as they savaged the poor Kings 117-93. As if having a 6-foot, 9-inch, 266-pound of man meat at your disposal isn’t enough, try throwing in a side of coach-hating Russians to the mix. The previously disgruntled Andrei Kirilenko almost got himself a triple-dip with 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Monday’s Player of the Day: Allen Iverson vs. Cleveland 35 min, 37 pts (FG: 14-20, 3FG: 2-4, FT: 7-8), 3 reb, 8 ast, 2 stl

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Los Angeles Lakers (3-2) @ San Antonio (6-1)
It’s been a while since the LA/SA rivalry was really heated, but make no mistake about it, these two teams still can’t stand one another. Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich might not come out and say it, but they’re still fuming over Phil Jackson’s “asterisk” comment in regards to their 1999 championship which was won in a shortened season. But when you tune into this game, the real animosity to concern yourself with is between Kobe Bryant and Bruce Bowen. Bryant is a point-hungry scoring machine and he’s been known to throw a few cheap shots in order to get his fix. Unfortunately, nobody keeps perimeter scorers jonzing more than Bowen and his tenacious D. These two have exchanged plenty of heated words in the past and both take this match-up as a personal challenge. Bring your cups with you, because this could get testy.

Buzzer Beater: We can kind of understand why Bulls fans would start chanting Kobe Bryant’s name when the Mamba comes to town. After all, it’s not too hard to want a guy who you’re watching him put on a clinic first hand. But what’s up with Chicago fans chanting his name during a game against the … Raptors?

The United Center sellout crowd of 22,467 lost its patience midway through the third quarter. With each turnover and each missed shot, the chorus of boos grew louder. Ditto for the chants of ”KO-BEE … KO-BEE … KO-BEE …” Then in the fourth quarter, the remaining fans passed the time by doing the wave.

Really, there was no other way to react to the Bulls’ embarrassing, humiliating — pick an adjective, any adjective for bad — 101-71 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night.

Oh, yea; 1-5 record. Right.

Categories
Houston Rockets

Around the Rim: Rocket powered rejection


1. Spurs get Pop’d in the mouth
In a Southwest showdown, the Rockets bounced back from a road loss to the Mavericks and defeated the Spurs 89-81 in Houston. The loss knocked San Antonio from the ranks of the unbeatens and left them to ponder bigger problems than the eight point differential in offense. Led by Bonzi Wells and Yao Ming, the Rockets outrebounded the Spurs by 27 (55-28), including a 25-4 advantage on the offensive glass. Then again, in order to get a bunch of offensive rebounds you have to miss a lot of shots and that seemed pretty easy for the Rockets in the early going as they missed 25 of their first 37 shots. But the second chance points added up and sharing the ball paid off as the Rockets dished out a season-high 25 assists. Making the win even more impressive was the fact that Houston survived while Tracy Mcrady was going 4-of-14 for 12 points.

2. N’awlins goes nuts

Peja Stojakovic and Chris Paul went absolutely berserk against the Lakers. En route to a 118-104 Charlotte victory, Stojakovic scored 36 points with a team record breaking performance in which he nailed 10-of-13 from behind the arc. Most of his shots were the products of Paul passes and by the end of the game, Paul had a franchise-record of his own to cherish: 21 assists! Paul was just one point away from tallying a 20-20 performance which isn’t easy to do with points and rebounds, let alone points and assists. Throw in his three rebounds and three steals and you have another blooming performance from the point guard of the future. Oh, Kobe Bryant was there too and he turned in a pretty solid performance in a losing effort with 28 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

3. SC’s Neat-o Stat of the Day
Actually, we’re going to give SI.com all the credit for the crunching of numbers, but did you know that the average price for a ticket to see Kobe Bryant play a home game is $89.24? Ouch. Now, here comes the fun stuff. According to The Fan Cost Index, the average price across the league to take a family of four out to a game is $281.90. That includes “four average-price tickets, two small draft beers, four small soft drinks, four regular-size hot dogs, parking for one car, two game programs and two least-expensive, adult-size adjustable caps.” Well, if you want to see Bryant ignore his teammates and jack up 40 shots in front of Jack then it’s gonna cost you $453.95! For that much money, that package better include Demi Moore sitting on our laps for the entire game!

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: LeBron James @ Golden State 42 min, 24 pts (FG: 9-16, 3FG: 1-2, FT: 5-7), 14 reb, 9 ast, 3 blk

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Denver (2-2) @ Boston (2-0)
So, do you like freakishly large collections of freakishly skilled players? Well, then you’ve come to the right place because the TD Banknorth (we can’t believe we said it either) Garden is gonna be popping at the seams. Everyone knows about the big trio in green and white and the visitors aren’t all that shabby either. A couple of guys named Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony will join the defensive player of the year, Marcus Camby, and a pair of bad boys in J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin. This is a poor man’s all-star game and has all the makings of a barn burner. So, enjoy it because these two aren’t hooking up again until late February.

Buzzer Beater: If you were hoping to tune into Tuesday night’s game between the Knicks and Nuggets and see round two between the teams then you were probably pretty disappointed with your evening. There were no flagrant fouls called, no techs, no Carmelo Anthony hit and runs, and only two players (Nene Hilario and Marcus Camby) fouled out. Lame. We expected more with Zach Randolph in the lineup.

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San Antonio Spurs

Around the Rim: The boys (and babes) are back in town!


1. Life is good in San Antonio
Sure, the Spurs got a new banner for the AT&T Center and, yes, they received some shiny new rings from the commish, but those weren’t even close to being the highlight of San Antonio’s day. That’s because Tim Duncan agreed in principle to sign the dotted line of a two-year, $40 million contract extension that will keep him sporting silver and black through the 2011-12 season. The Big Fundamental immediately paid dividends with team-highs in points (24) and rebounds (13) as San Antonio defeated Portland 106-97. All in all, that’s a pretty big day for the best power forward on the face of the planet, and his team.

2. You sure you want to get rid of this guy?

Remember all that talk about how Kobe Bryant just isn’t trying hard enough for the team? Well, you can nix that idea after one game because in the Lakers’ season opener, Bryant went off for 45 points against the Rockets in a 95-93 defeat. In fact, the Lakers could have possibly won the game if it hadn’t been for Shane Battier’s 3-pointer with under three seconds remaining. We know that the tension is reaching new heights between Kobe and Phil Jackson and between Kobe and the Lakers, but Los Angeles should probably do everything they can to keep their superstar at this point. First off, there is no way they can ever get equal value for someone that talented and secondly, he led the Lakers in every major statistical category last night. If this is how Kobe plays when he’s pouting, just wait until he has something to smile about…if he has something to smile about.

3. The Warriors pick up right where they left off
The Warriors are probably pretty sick of seeing the Utah Jazz at this point. After putting an end to Golden State’s playoff party last year, the Jazz opened this season with a 117-96 win over Don Nelson’s club. The dynamic duo of Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams paid off again for the Jazz as they combined 56 points, 19 rebounds and nine assists. Heck, even the disgruntled Andrei Kirilenko produced for the club as he just missed out on a triple-double with nine points, nine rebounds and eight assists. The Warriors made it interesting in the final quarter, but without Stephen Jackson in the lineup (suspended, of course), Golden State just didn’t have enough firepower to hang.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Kobe Bryant vs. Houston 43 min, 45 pts (FG: 13-32, 3FG: 1-3, FT: 18-27), 8 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl, 1 blk

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: Dallas (0-0) @ Cleveland (0-0)

It would be awfully tough to find any teams with worse tastes in their mouths than either the Mavericks or the Cavaliers. Both teams had great regular seasons last year and then both of them got absolutely humiliated in the postseason. In case you’ve already forgotten, the Cavs managed to win the East but went cold against San Antonio in the Finals. On the other side of the map, Dallas virtually coasted to 67 wins before having their hopes smashed by Don Nelson’s small ball. Now, we can’t predict what’s going to happen after the regular season concludes, but we can pretty much guarantee these two are going to be major players in their conferences. Both teams will probably be a little rusty to start the year, but LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki on the same court are must watch television any day of the year.

Buzzer Beater: The dream of dueling rookies was cut short after Greg Oden needed microfracture surgery before the season, but when the rookies are this good then having just one really isn’t all that bad. Kevin Durant sprained his left knee and his status for the season opener was up in the air until he had a good practice on Monday. Now it’s starting to look like the Nuggets should be more concerned about Durant’s health than the Sonics. Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo basically said it’s the kid’s call; if he feels good, he’ll be starting the game. And should that happen, all the other rooks out there can basically kiss that ROY trophy goodbye.

Categories
San Antonio Spurs

Brent Barry is really, really excited about getting his second ring


We know that it is hard to look forward to the NBA season when the pigskin is still flying, but the drama of professional hoops gets underway on Tuesday whether you watch it or not. However, before the refs can toss up the opening jump ball, there’s one small piece of business that has to be taken care of first. David Stern has some hardware to hand out.

But Stern might want to be careful whenever it comes time to give Brent `Bones’ Barry his ring. After all, when the Spurs got their 2005 rings from the commish, it was Barry that planted a big ol’ smooch on Stern.

Last time I got in a little bit of trouble for kissing him. I said something like him tasting flakey. It was like kissing my grandma. I don’t know if he took too kindly to that, but we had some fun,” Barry told SpursZONE.com. “You only get that moment if you’re lucky – I mean you only get that moment once. Since I have it twice – I don’t know. Maybe I’ll look for some tongue.

If a French kiss is what happens after two rings, we’d hate to be Stern should San Antonio go for a repeat. Hmmm, maybe his refs can help him prevent that situation from occurring. Ah, never mind; that would imply the NBA is crooked and we all know better than that.

Links:

[WOAI.com]: Will Brent Barry Kiss the NBA Commissioner?

Categories
San Antonio Spurs

Tony Parker is having one busy summer

Now that Tony Parker and Eva Longoria are officially married, you might think that Tony is going to take a break from his rapping career, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, the Finals MVP is still chasing the bling-bling dream of a glitzy hip-hop vocation and we have his new video to prove it. Here is Mr. Longoria’s latest single, Premier Love. Enjoy.

Personally, we think that Parker should stick to penetrating the lane, but he seems to have a pretty good life built up for himself right now with the championship rings, trophies and some premiere eye candy on his arm. Yup, the rapping might stink, but we can’t argue with the fact that Tony Parker is currently sitting on top of the world.

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San Antonio Spurs

Someone should tell the Spurs trainer to start reading the expiration dates

This year marked the first time in Tim Duncan’s stellar career that he didn’t win the NBA Finals MVP after guiding the Spurs to a championship; instead, it was Tony Parker who stole the show and the trophy. Now, we thought something stunk about the lil’ Frenchman snatching up the award and now we have the video evidence to back up what we suspected all along: Parker was poisoning Duncan’s Gatorade in order to become the best player on the floor!

Sacre bleu!!

Categories
NBA General

Nobody watched the NBA Finals


I felt a little guilty because even though I’m a huge sports fan and I blog about sports, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the NBA Finals. It wasn’t like forgot the games were on, I even checked the scores now and then between checking on baseball scores — I just couldn’t even reach over two feet to get the remote. Instead of watching the television equivalent of Ambien, there were just so many other things to do, like watching the cars go by or defragmenting my PC again.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one who had better things to do. The 2007 NBA Finals were the lowest rated finals in history. The four-game sweep finished with a 6.2 rating and an 11 share, which means only about 7 million people watched the games. Now, this isn’t nearly as abysmal as the paltry 1.6 rating for the NHL Finals but do you really want to compare yourself to the NHL to feel better?

I’m not really sure what the NBA can do to fix this problem. First, the Spurs are just a boring team to watch with absolutely no one with a personality. Even trying to make a villain out of Bruce Bowen didn’t help. I expect that next year, the refs will be “guided” to let more play go so that a running fun team like the Suns or the Warriors will get into the Finals from the West. As for the East, they are completely screwed. The Cavaliers were about the only watchable team in the East and they screwed the pooch in their Finals appearance. Perhaps next year, it’s the Bulls turn as the young guns and perhaps they’ll be able to represent the JV conference a little better.

Links:

[AP]: NBA finals suffer record-low TV ratings

Categories
San Antonio Spurs

Around the Rim: The Spurs Dynasty


They’re considered dull by many and boring by most but it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about their style because the San Antonio Spurs have now joined the Celtics, Lakers and Bulls as the only franchises in league history to grab four championships. But the Spurs have something those teams don’t: the all-time best winning percentage in the finals. In their four trips to the game’s greatest stage in the past nine years, San Antonio has amassed an impressive 16-6 record (.727).

And while Tim Duncan will get all the coverage as possibly being the best player since Michael Jordan suited up, Tony Parker scooped up the MVP honors after he averaged 24.5 points per game in the series and put in 24 in the trophy clinching Game 4. But, as always, it was a complete team effort by SA that derailed the Cavaliers’ hopes of digging out of a 0-3 hole.

Duncan struggled from the field (4-15 FGs) and from the line (4-10 FT), but he still managed to finish with a typical Big Fundamental stat line of 12 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks. Manu Ginobili came up big in the fourth quarter where he scored 13 of his game-high 27 points. And while his offensive output is normally nonexistent, Bruce Bowen has got to be allowed a few extra days with the Larry O’Brien Trophy because his smothering of James on almost every possession was key to the sweep. Sure, LeBron got his numbers anyway (24 points, 10 assists, six rebounds), but his shots were constantly contested as he finished the series shooting just 32-of-90 from the field.

So, does this officially qualify the Spurs as a “dynasty”? While four titles in nine years is awfully impressive, San Antonio needs to snatch up a ring in an even numbered year to join the truly elite. Specifically, they’ll have to win it all in 2008 to get labeled with the D-word. Should they manage to pull it off, the Spurs would have back-to-back championships and a streak of five titles in ten years; ensuring a decade of domination.