Considering he had just pulled down 14 rebounds in the San Antonio Spurs' 88-78 victory over the Miami Heat at the American Telephone and Telegraph Center on Wednesday, it seemed fair to ask Francisco Elson if Heat center Shaquille O'Neal, all 7-foot-1 and 325-plus-plus-plus pounds of him, had been less of a challenge than the Houston Rockets 7-6, 310-pound Yao Ming.
"Shoot," Elson said, with a note of derision and a glance of astonishment. "That's a big job right there."
Not only did Elson defend O'Neal, he actually outplayed him. Elson finished with an 11-rebound advantage on O'Neal and did solid defensive work on the former MVP, as well.
"I thought Francisco did a good job all the way around," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He worked very hard on Shaq. That's a tough job to give to anybody. So I thought doing that and still concentrating on the boards was really great on his part."
"We know Miami is a very good rebounding team, especially with Shaq on their team," said Elson, who played the entire fourth quarter while Tim Duncan rested on the bench. So we boxed out very well and everybody got down and rebounded."
Elson also rediscovered his shooting stroke, making 6 of 11 shots and scoring a season-high 12 points.
Miami played its fourth-straight game without Dwyane Wade, their leading scorer last season. He is recovering from offseason surgeries on his knee and shoulder.
It should come as no surprise that the Heat haven't been very good without him. At 0-4 this season and 0-7 in the preseason, Miami hasn't won a game — postseason, exhibition or otherwise — since beating Indiana on April 13. Unofficially, the Heat are on a 17-game losing streak. Wade has been medically cleared to return to the court, but the date for his debut remains tentative.
"Hopefully, things get better when Wade comes back," O'Neal said. "He's a great player, and he's going to make everyone else better."
In the meantime?
"We need everyone else to step up their game and play harder," O'Neal said.
Ricky Davis (14 points) and Udonis Haslem (10) answered O'Neal's plea to an extent, but it wasn't enough to help Miami avoid its 20th loss in 21 trips to San Antonio. With the top scoring option in Miami's offense floundering, the Heat remained flummoxed. The 78 points they scored Wednesday brought down their league-worst scoring average to 82.8.
"Unfortunately, our second option is on the bench," Miami coach Pat Riley said, in reference to Wade.
The last time the Heat beat the Spurs on the road, Miami's rookie guard Daequan Cook was in the fourth grade, Jason Williams had yet to transfer to the University of Florida and Penny Hardaway was on the way to his third All-NBA team. In other words, it has been a while.
''You don't have to tell me,'' Riley said before Wednesday night's game. ``It's been tough for us here the past 20 games. But you never know in this league -- with the expected and unexpected.''
''It's frustrating and nobody likes to lose,'' said Haslem, who also had nine rebounds while helping to limit Duncan to 12 points. ``It's not a good feeling. It's not where we want to be or hoped to be. But you have to look at the big picture. We still have a lot more basketball to play. No sense whining and holding your head down.''
Things won't get any easier for the Heat, which returns home Friday to play the Suns and then plays 11 of the next 16 on the road. Those aren't exactly ideal conditions to cure lingering defensive problems and scoring droughts that have plagued the Heat. Miami hasn't been able to generate offense late in the shot clock or stop others from doing so.
''We're just not playing a whole 48 minutes,'' said Davis. ``But it's always discouraging when you're losing games. It doesn't matter if it's one, five or 10. We just have to keep talking, keep working on it.'
'''What was good enough to win tonight became flat and soft,'' Riley said ``The bottom line is we need to play defense for four quarters.''
Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady have helped their teams to quick starts. The division rivals meet for the first time this season on Tuesday in Houston, as McGrady and the Houston Rockets get a chance to see how their new offense matches up against the veteran San Antonio Spurs. McGrady, named the Western Conference's player of the week on Monday, is averaging a league-high 33.3 points per game during Houston's 3-1 start. San Antonio is picking up where it left off last season thanks to the consistent play of Duncan and Tony Parker, who are averaging 18.7 and 17.0 points per game, respectively.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says he's holding off judgment on how much different the Houston Rockets look under new coach Rick Adelman until later in the season.
“They're playing very well right now, very confidently,” Popovich said. “I think they're reacting well to a new situation.”
In previous coaching stops in Portland and Sacramento, Adelman preferred a fast-paced brand of basketball diametrically opposed to the slow-it-down system employed by Jeff Van Gundy, his predecessor in Houston.
"We want to push the ball, but it's not so much pushing the ball as flowing into an offense in transition,” Adelman said. “We're just trying to get by without making a lot of calls. We don't want to walk it up, if we can help it. We want to push it up.”
Adelman's offense so far, however, has featured only McGrady and Yao Ming doing most of the scoring. Yao had 21 points and 11 rebounds to join McGrady as the only Rocket in double figures on Monday.
"We have to learn how to beat a good team and get more people involved," Adelman said.
As a result of the San Antonio Spurs' deep bench, shooting guard Michael Finley has barely had to play. Finley, the Spurs' second-oldest starter at age 34, has only logged 20 minutes per game so far. That should go a ways toward keeping him fresh for later in the year.
So far this season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been able to successfully limit the minutes of Finley. As he often does this time of year, Popovich has been utilizing an expanded rotation, playing with various pieces as he attempts to evaluate who can do what. As a result, Finley has been averaging 8.3 fewer minutes per game, than his backup, Manu Ginobili, if you concede that Ginobili actually backs up Finley, and one fewer than Matt Bonner. Effectively massaging Finley's minutes has been a pastime of Popovich's since the guard joined the Spurs two seasons ago. Finley averaged just 22 minutes per game last year, not much more time than he is receiving now.
"It's good for all the guys who are a little bit older to make sure we don't overplay them," Popovich said.
The Spurs, whose last action was a victory against the Sacramento Kings on Friday, don't face the Houston Rockets until tommorrow night. After taking Saturday off, they commenced preparations with a 21/2—hour workout Sunday morning.
The San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings 96-80 Friday night to remain unbeaten. The Spurs are 3-0 for the first time since the 2000-01 season, when they finished with the best record in the league. The Kings have yet to win a game this season. The Kings never led, and most of the Spurs' starters sat out the entire fourth quarter.
Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich had this to say about the game. “It was great to play a lot of guys and a lot of people off of the bench got to get some time tonight, especially new guys like Darius Washington, Ime Udoka and Ian Mahinmi. They got a chance to take a look at the system.” It’s good to see that the guys kept their focus and played well. The starters really supported the guys off of the bench and did a fine job.”
Spurs guard Bruce Bowen likes the way the team has started the season. “We have had a really good start to the season but in a game like tonight it’s the mental edge that plays a major factor. We need to focus on keeping the ball moving and stay healthy as a team.”
Udoka Popovich
Beno Udrih, who was traded on Monday from San Antonio to Minnesota, then signed with Sacramento after the Timberwolves waived him, did not dress while still recovering from a broken left index finger he got last month during Spurs training camp. Udrih won two rings with the Spurs, including last season, when he lost his spot as backup point guard to Tony Parker after Jacque Vaughn took over. Popovich gave Udrih his championship ring before tip-off Friday.
Sir Charles Barkley screams his name in admiration mocking arena announcers. Manu has game.
Manu Ginobili scored the final nine points including seven straight free throws willing the San Antonio Spurs past a young but fast and talented Memphis Grizzly team 104 - 101 in Memphis, Tennessee on Wednesday night.
Down the stretch, the San Antonio Spurs showed why they are the NBA champions, and the Memphis Grizzlies are a team with some growing to do. When his tired team needed a lift on the second night of a back-to-back, Ginobili had the legs to provide it, scoring 30 points to help the Spurs fend of####rizzlies team looking to fend off a bit of its own bad history.
Manu saved his best for when the Spurs needed him most. His driving, twirling, twisting layup over Darko Milicic, spun with the English of a pool shark, broke a 95-95 tie with 32.4 seconds remaining. Ginobili charged into a thicket of opposing players, slid his body between two of them, and — while nearly directly under the backboard — flipped the ball backward and rimward. It rolled around the iron before dropping through, giving the Spurs the last lead they would need. Ginobili could rest on the plane ride home.
"The difference in the game was that Manu Ginobili willed it," Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said. "He just willed it. He saved the day for us."
Ginobili made five of the Spurs' 12 3-pointers, hit 13 of 14 free throws and had seven assists. Ginobili added drawing a late charge from Grizzlies forward Rudy #### to preserve the Spurs' lead.
In Miami last week, Ginobili checked in about halfway through the first quarter. Before long you could hear oohs and aahs coming from the Heat fans, as Ginobili basically took over the game. His aggressive drives to the basket resulted in seven free throws....he hit every one. Before departing the game for good early in the fourth quarter, the lefty from Bahia Blanca scored 22 points in under 19 minutes of play. Ginobili joked with reporters that he doesn't have any bruises on his body just yet, so he may not exactly be in mid season form.
After putting an extra dash of wear and tear on Ginobili's battered body last season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had two offseason orders for his human bruise of an off-guard. Take it easy. And call me in September.
For Ginobili, who scored 16 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, his offseason conditioning program where he did little during August and started training in September is providing early dividends.
"I feel great right now. It seems to be paying off,'' Ginobili said. "I don't know what that means a few months from now, but right now I feel really fresh.''
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Udoka 
