San Antonio Spurs Blog – Page 66 – NBA Blog

Heat destroy NBA-best Spurs by 30

The AP reports:

For the Miami Heat, there was symmetry in the turnabout.

Lose by 30 in San Antonio, win by 30 in Miami.

Chris Bosh scored 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Dwyane Wade scored 29 and the Miami Heat avenged their worst loss of the season by rolling past the NBA-leading Spurs 110-80 on Monday night…

LeBron James finished with 21 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Heat, who have won three straight and moved within two games of Eastern Conference front-runners Boston and Chicago.

Tony Parker scored 18 points and Tim Duncan added 14 for the Spurs, who had won 15 of their last 18 against Miami. Before Monday, San Antonio’s worst loss of the season had been a 96-72 defeat in New Orleans.

Rick Adelman says Gregg Popovich should win coach of year

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports:

Rockets coach Rick Adelman does not get to cast a ballot, but he has seen enough to know he would vote for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for Coach of the Year if he could.

“I think Pop’s just done a great job this year,” Adelman said. “To me, the record they have, he’s the Coach of the Year, the way he’s put these guys together and the type of season they’ve had.

“Right now, they’re still the best team in the league. They’re so efficient. They played together so long, especially (Tony) Parker and (Manu) Ginobili.

“They’ve got two playmakers. That’s really hard to guard. That’s like (Steve) Nash the other night. He had nine points, but he set the whole thing in motion for them. That’s what those two guys do.

“Pop has those guys playing well. He has his role players playing well off the bench. They shoot the 3s well. They just take advantage of what you give them.”

DeJuan Blair moves to bench for Spurs

Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News reports:

Veteran Antonio McDyess started for the Spurs for a second consecutive game, with second-year power forward DeJuan Blair again coming off the bench.

For Blair, it is a familiar role, since he came off the bench in 59 of the 82 games he played in his rookie season.

“I just bring energy off the bench now,” he said after scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds in 22:23. “That’s the only thing. Just come in here and be the same person. I’m just not starting no more.”

Blair didn’t need any words of encouragement from his veteran teammates to accept the change.

“I did it enough last year to know what it is,” he said. “Hopefully, I can be that spark that they need off the bench.”

Rashad McCants rejoins Texas Legends of D-League

The Texas Legends announced today that guard Rashad McCants has reported back to the team and is expected to be active for tonight’s game, as the Legends host the Sioux Falls Skyforce at 7:00 PM at HP Court inside Dr Pepper Arena.

McCants, 26, was assigned to the Legends from the Dallas Mavericks training camp and played in three games with Texas, before exploring options overseas. He becomes one of four Legends players to have been drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft.

In his three games with the Legends earlier this season, McCants averaged 12.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists, including a season-high 20 points in his first game with the team against Austin.

Despite leaving the storied college program of the University of North Carolina after just three years, McCants ranks 14th all-time in scoring at the school and is tied for second with 221 career three-point field goals. He also helped lead the Tar Heels to the 2005 National Championship.

He was drafted in the first round (14th overall) in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. McCants played in parts of four seasons with the T-Wolves and later the Sacramento Kings. In 249 career NBA games, the guard has averaged 10.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.

Chris Roberts, a 22-year-old guard out of Bradley University, was also acquired via the available player pool. He played in one game at the start of the season with the Idaho Stampede, in which he scored four points and grabbed two rebounds. Roberts has appeared on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 Plays five times, including his 75-foot buzzer beater to defeat Oakland in the 2009 Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament Quarterfinal. Roberts will also be active for tonight’s contest.

Eric Dampier fined for foul on Tony Parker

Eric Dampier of the Miami Heat has been fined $10,000 for his Flagrant Foul, Penalty Two against Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

The incident occurred with 2:13 remaining in the third quarter of the Heat’s 125-95 loss to the Spurs at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX on March 4.

Spurs sign Othyus Jeffers to 10-day contract

The San Antonio Spurs today announced they have signed guard/forward Othyus Jeffers (pronounced oh-THEE-us) from the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League to a 10-day contract. Jeffers is the 11th call-up of the 2010-11 D-League season.

Jeffers, a 6-5 guard/forward, has appeared in 37 games with the Energy this season, averaging 21.2 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.95 steals in 38.4 minutes while shooting .480 (276-575) from the field, .295 (13-44) from three-point range and .741 (22-293) from the foul line. He’s led the Energy to a D-League best 30-10 record, reaching double figures in scoring in all 37 games he’s appeared in. Jeffers has registered 17 double-doubles on the season, including a 32 point, 18 rebound performance at Tulsa on Nov. 26.

Last season Jeffers started the year off with Iowa before getting called up by the Utah Jazz. He spent the remainder of the season with Utah appearing in 14 games, averaging 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds in 5.1 minutes per game. He also appeared in six playoff games for the Jazz seeing 14 minutes of action. Prior to his call-up, Jeffers averaged 14.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.77 steals in 29.2 minutes while shooting .510 (124-243) from the field.

A native of Chicago, Jeffers was originally selected by the Iowa Energy in the third round (47th overall) of the 2008 D-League Draft. In his first year with Iowa (2008-09), he led the Energy to the playoffs and was named the 2009 D-League Rookie of the Year, in addition to being a D-League All-Star selection. Jeffers was also chosen to play for the D-League Select Team in the 2009 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where he averaged 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds.

Jeffers concluded his collegiate career at Robert Morris University in Chicago (24.0 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game) earning The Sporting News NAIA Player of the Year and Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors. He preceded his one season at RMU with two seasons at Illinois-Chicago (13.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game) and one season at Los Angeles Southwest College (22.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game).

Jeffers will wear No. 12 for the Silver and Black and will be available for tonight’s game vs. Miami.

Spurs sign Steve Novak for rest of season

The San Antonio Spurs today announced they have signed forward Steve Novak for the remainder of the season. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Novak originally joined the Silver and Black on February 8 signing a 10-day contract becoming the eighth call-up of the 2010-11 NBA Development League season.

Novak, a 6-10 forward, has appeared in eight games for the Spurs, averaging 2.5 points in 6.1 minutes per game, while shooting .462 (6-13) from the field and .444 (4-9) from three-point territory.

Prior to joining the Spurs, Novak appeared in two games with the Reno Bighorns, averaging 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in 29.5 minutes, while shooting .684 (13-19) from the field and .643 (9-14) from three-point range. Earlier this season, Novak averaged 1.6 points in 2.6 minutes in seven games with the Dallas Mavericks. Overall, he has appeared in 210 career games with Houston, the L.A. Clippers, Dallas and San Antonio with averages of 3.9 points in 9.7 minutes per game. For his career, he is shooting .436 (295-677) from the field and .406 (195-480) from three-point land.

Grizzlies beat Spurs 109-93

The AP reports:

Darrell Arthur and Zach Randolph scored 21 points each and the Memphis Grizzlies took advantage of poor ball handling by San Antonio to defeat the Spurs 109-93 on Tuesday night.

Tony Allen added 20 points, missing only one of his nine shots, and Mike Conley had 18 points and nine assists as Memphis won its season-best fifth straight home game.

Gary Neal was the only Spur to finish in double figures with 14 points. Starters Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and DeJuan Blair had nine points apiece, as they sat out the fourth quarter.

The Spurs (49-11) were playing their first game without starting point guard Tony Parker, who is expected to miss two to four weeks after suffering a strained left calf when the Spurs beat Memphis 95-88 on Saturday night.

San Antonio committed 22 turnovers in the game, one short of its season high.

Tony Parker out 2-4 weeks

The San Antonio Spurs today announced that guard Tony Parker has been diagnosed with a strained left soleus after undergoing a MRI earlier today. He is expected to miss two to four weeks. He will not accompany the team on this week’s road trip to Memphis and Cleveland in order to begin his rehabilitation program in San Antonio.

Parker, in his 10th season with the Spurs, is averaging 17.1 points, 6.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.24 steals per game while shooting .518 from the field. Parker is one of two players in the NBA to average at least 15.0 points, 5.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds and shoot at least .500 from the field.

Gregg Popovich surprised by all the trades

Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News reports:

There was so much trade activity last week, even Gregg Popovich was surprised and impressed.

“Yes, I was,” said the Spurs coach. “Usually it’s much ado about nothing. This time all those rumors and situations that were talked about in the papers and on TV and on those fancy machines everybody carries around, most of them came about, and even some surprises that nobody had talked about. So there was a great deal of activity that surprised me.”

What should we make of all that surprising activity?

Don’t ask Popovich, now the longest-tenured coach in the league.

“I have no control over what any of those players might do with any of their (new) teams,” he said. “but when we play each of them, I’ll concentrate on what’s going on with that team. But ahead of that, I’ll spend no time contemplating what it means for everyone.”