Will Popovich's Choice Bite The Spurs In The...?

[Silky Smooth]

The San Antonio Spurs have never been afraid to pace themselves throughout the regular season in an effort to make sure they are completely healthy and energized heading into the postseason. However, a choice the team made on February 3rd in Denver could come back to bite them.

On that Tuesday in February Popovich made a shocking move on the second night of a back-to-back opting to shut down Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Michael Finley without giving any official reason. Manu Ginobili sat out the game with a legitimately sore hip.

Prior to that game Popovich started his pre-game powwow with the media by saying in a facetious tone: "Parker makes the All-Star team and becomes hard to deal with, so we're going to sit him and teach him a lesson. Duncan says he wants to renegotiate his contract, so I said, 'Sit, I'm not talking to you.' "

Honestly, everyone in attendance initially believed Popovich was joking. Turns out he wasn't. Even after the game members of the Spurs weren't brought up to speed on why the core of the team was relegated to watching on the bench in street clothes.

"They never really did tell us," said Roger Mason Jr. "When we usually walk into the locker room, coach usually has the match ups on the board and the match ups weren't up and nothing else was said."

At the time some surmised Popovich was playing mind games with the Denver Nuggets, a team playing quite well. The result, though, was a loss in the standings and the loss of a tiebreaker in the event the Nuggets and Spurs end up with the same record.

The bigger problem for the Spurs right now is just how much significance one loss can have in the Western Conference playoff picture. Going into play tonight the Spurs are in the second slot just one game ahead of the Houston Rockets and a game and a half ahead of the Nuggets. Moreover, both the Nuggets and the Rockets own the tiebreaker over the Spurs making the race even closer than it might appear on paper.

Yes, it's easy to say a team like San Antonio doesn't care about what seed they have or even if they secure homecourt advantage in the postseason. Given the team's track record, we should probably give them the benefit of the doubt, too.

However, if the Spurs descend in the standings in the final couple of weeks of the regular season and end up with a tougher first round match-up and/or not having homecourt advantage in the second round of the playoffs and beyond, San Antonio could quietly regret that day in February when Popovich decided to wave the NBA equivalent of the white flag in Denver.

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I find it shocking that there is/was some heat between Duncan and Pop, Parker and Pop.

 

[The Oi]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

I swear to God the media never leaves room for a coach to be a coach.

 

[myriadwhims]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

Good for Pop.

I love how the media completely forgets that if Pop doesn't keep his team playing well through all 82 games, the Spurs might not even be close to the 2 seed.

 

[MoFlo]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

I swear to God the media never leaves room for a coach to be a coach.

Agree completely..

Every little move like this has to have a plausible explanation or the media has a f*ckin field day!

Why does it have to come out in the open?

Why can't Pop discipline somebody without it coming all out & everybody getting on him? If it's warranted, every coach should follow suit.. It's bad enough all these players have egos, but when they get out of control, the coach needs to make sure their heads out of the sky & back onto the court where it belongs

Good for Pop to forget about the wins & losses for 1 game & discipline his guys!

 

[Zog]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

I'm pretty sure he wasn't actually mad at Duncan or Parker, those were just his "excuses" for resting them and he was joking around.

 

[David]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG WE SHULD TTLY SIGN TIM DUNKIN! :chuckles:

(Sarcasm)

 

[TAS]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

Spurs can win with or without home court. I think he trying to get his team healthy before the playoffs.

 

[MoFlo]

Re: Will Popavich's Choice Bit The Spurs In The...?

I'm pretty sure he wasn't actually mad at Duncan or Parker, those were just his "excuses" for resting them and he was joking around.

Honestly, everyone in attendance initially believed Popovich was joking. Turns out he wasn't. Even after the game members of the Spurs weren't brought up to speed on why the core of the team was relegated to watching on the bench in street clothes.

"They never really did tell us," said Roger Mason Jr. "When we usually walk into the locker room, coach usually has the match ups on the board and the match ups weren't up and nothing else was said."