The Phoenix Suns had the conference's best record when they gambled on Shaquille O'Neal. Who knows? They might be the best again, even if the record doesn't show it, and what Shaq has done against the San Antonio Spur's Tim Duncan suggests that.
Duncan has gone 15 for 40 in their two meetings this year, both Spurs losses. But has Shaq found a way to control Duncan? Or did these games say more about what Duncan has become in the regular season?
Duncan has come to see the regular season for what it is — simply prologue for what comes later. He can get pumped up for rivalry games, but he mostly endures the first 82 games with an emotional inability to reach the gear he wants.
Little wonder the Spurs struggled at times this season. Teams often didn't double Duncan, which led to fewer open looks for the other Spurs. And over the past month, even against power teams in the conference, Duncan's body language has screamed without much ambiguity:
"Could we please get to the playoffs?"
Wednesday was about that. The Spurs understood they needed to put everything together, no matter how that impacted seeding. They needed to get Manu Ginobili back, and for Brent Barry to make a shot, and for Tony Parker to return to last June.
They needed, too, for Duncan to zone in and treat the Jazz as he did in the playoffs a year ago. He did, scoring the first basket of the game, before following with an assortment of blocks and rebounds.
"Tim Duncan was running the floor," said Jerry Sloan, reacting to the sight. "He set the stage for everyone."
That's what he's done for his career. And now comes Shaq, and a rival, and a series where something has to give.
The San Antonio Spurs are trying to hand the New Orleans Hornets their second consecutive loss and extend a seven-game winning streak against the Hornets in New Orleans tonight. New Orleans matched last season's start for the best in franchise history with four straight wins before falling 93-90 to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. The Spurs, meanwhile, bounced back from their first loss with an 88-78 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
Peter Finney, a writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune paid great tribute to the Spurs today. What a good sport.
Finney wrote, "Let's all stand and applaud. How about a Big Easy welcome to the Invisible Dynasty that goes by the name of the San Antonio Spurs? The Spurs win by making plays that don't show up on "SportsCenter." They win with defense, by getting the ball to the open man, by wearing you down with basic fundamentals. Whatever happens tonight, win or lose, the Hornets will learn from the experience."
What a great article from the oposition's press? WOW! Do you think maybe, just maybe, Katrina changed the paradigm on how things are viewed in the Crescent City?
Imagine, remembering that sports are for fun. What a display of sportsmanship that is far to lacking these days. Thanks Peter.
The Hornets have one of the Western Conference's most potent backcourts. Third-year point guard Chris Paul dropped 21 assists on the Los Angeles Lakers in New Orleans' Tuesday night victory. Shooting guard Morris Peterson, signed as a free agent this summer, is finding his comfort zone. Backups Bobby Jackson and Rasual Butler are solid and consistent.
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.''
Bonzi Wells had 15 rebounds on Tuesday night to help the Houston Rockets over the San Antonio Spurs 89-81. Afterward, Wells reiterated that rebounding was his thing.Yao Ming added 13 rebounds. Tracy McGrady had nine rebounds. Houston controlled Tim Duncan and outrebounded the sluggish Spurs 55-28.
"It was a huge advantage that we gave up. It's pretty hard to win like that."
- Manu Ginobilion the Rockets 55-28 rebound advantage.
The Rockets had 25 offensive rebounds, part of the reason they outscored the Spurs 21-3 on second chances. The Rockets finished the first half with a 34-15 rebounding advantage.
"I think we all understand how good we can be," McGrady said. "If we can do this on a consistent basis, then we would be tough to beat."
San Antonio's Tim Duncancalled it a "very, very, very bad rebounding night" for his club — yes, he used three "verys" — and still probably understated the case.
"If they get 20-some-odd second shots," Duncan said, "it starts and ends right there."
"That was one of the keys tonight to win the game," Yao said. "If you look at field-goal percentage (40.7 percent), we were not shooting that well. But we had ... almost 20 (more) shots with offensive rebounds — Chuck (Hayes, who had four offensive rebounds), Bonzi (who had seven) and me (eight) — some on my shots that I missed and (were) put back in. That's about how hungry we were to win the game."
With the victory, the Rockets (4-1) ruined the Spurs' perfect start. The Spurs (3-1) are trying to rebound — in every sense of the word — tonight against the Miami Heat at the A####mp;T Center.
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.
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