San Antonio Spurs

[tackielarla]

^ Thanks meng. Happy days are here again.
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Haislip happy to be back in NBA
Jeff McDonald

Spurs forward Marcus Haislip made a lifetime's worth of memories playing the past four seasons in Europe.

Not all of them were good.

There was the time in Turkey when some disorderly fans shot off flares in the middle of a game. He has been spat upon and pelted with coins from varying nations.

“One time, I saw a pocketknife fly on the floor,” Haislip recalled, shaking his head. “The fans over there are crazy.”

Through four preseason games back on U.S. soil, Haislip — a former first-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Bucks — has been reminded of one perk of playing in the NBA.

“They've actually got security here,” he said. “So that's great.”

Haislip's European escapade did more than simply prepare him for a perverse game of dodge-the-debris. To hear him tell it, it has prepared him for new life in the NBA.

After four seasons overseas — two in Turkey and two in Spain — Haislip has resurfaced with the Spurs, eager to pick up where he left off before being forced across the Atlantic.

The fighting spirit instilled in him in Europe will serve Haislip well in San Antonio, where his contract is guaranteed but playing time is not.

Perhaps the Spurs' best all-around athlete, the 6-foot-10 Haislip has averaged 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 18.3 minutes throughout the team's preseason slate, which resumes tonight with a visit from LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers.

“For him, it's just a matter of learning the program a bit more, getting over some anxiety and feeling comfortable in the NBA,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “We've got a pretty deep team this year, and minutes are going to be hard to come by for some people. At this point, he's just trying to find his place.”

Indeed, the Spurs' frontcourt is logjammed, with veterans Antonio McDyess, Theo Ratliff and Matt Bonner and rookie DeJuan Blair clamoring for minutes behind and alongside Tim Duncan.

Even without an established spot in Popovich's rotation, Haislip, 28, is happy his search for a basketball home has returned him to this side of the globe.

The 13th overall pick in the 2002 draft, Haislip flamed out of the NBA after two seasons in Milwaukee and one in Indiana. By the end of his Pacers tenure, he was fastened to the end of the bench, discouraged, bored and labeled a bust.

“Just sitting back, watching and waiting — that's tough to do,” Haislip said. “I was ready to show the world I can still play.”

To do that, Haislip had to take his game to the world. He was a Turkish League All-Star in 2005-06 and 2006-07. By the time he completed his European adventure with Unicaja Málaga of the Spanish League, he had established himself as one of the top American players abroad.

In signing a free-agent deal with the Spurs in July, Haislip followed the path — from the NBA to Europe and back again — forged by scores of other pros, including Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr.

“I was able to play a lot and work on some things over there,” Haislip said. “I just got better. After that, I felt like I was ready to come back.”

Once primarily a dunk-first, ask-questions-later YouTube phenom, Haislip worked diligently overseas to add range to his jump shot. He also developed into a solid defender, the likes of which might come in handy against rangy power forwards such as Dirk Nowitzki.

“He seems to have learned the game a little more from the time he got drafted,” McDyess said.

Whether that will be enough to get Haislip on the floor remains to be seen.

Heading into his first NBA season in four years, Haislip is not concerned with the hows and the whys. He is just thankful his life of dodging spittle and coins is over.

“It's good to be back on U.S. soil,” Haislip said. “I'm just going to have to take advantage of this opportunity, and see what happens.”

Marcus Haislip

Position: Forward

Size: 6-foot-10, 230 pounds

College: Tennessee

NBA: Bucks made him 13th overall pick in 2002 ... Played 79 games with Bucks and Pacers before going to Europe in 2005 ... Signed with Spurs in July ... Averaging 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in preseason.

Europe: Played in Turkey with Ulker Istanbul and Efes Pilsen and with Spain’s Unicaja Málaga. Last year with Unicaja, he averaged 14.5 points and five rebounds while making 75 of 208 (36.1 percent) of his 3-point attempts and 82.4 percent of his free throws in 47 games.

[owNinZ]

Spurs' last three preseason games all about preparation

By Mike Monroe


After using the first four preseason games to evaluate the Spurs' newcomers, coach Gregg Popovich will turn his focus on getting the team ready for the regular season, beginning tonight with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After tonight at the AT&T Center, the Spurs have two more preseason games: Tuesday, against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Austin; and Oct. 24, against the Indiana Pacers, at Indiana University's Assembly Hall.

“In the beginning, it goes from evaluation, of both talent and conditioning, towards execution by the end of the preseason,” Popovich said.

“By then, the evaluation is done, and you know who's going to be in your rotation, for the most part. You've got to get people ready to play the first game, conditioningwise.”

Popovich has used his veterans sparingly so far. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Michael Finley have been held out of two games. Manu Ginobili, Matt Bonner, Antonio McDyess and Theo Ratliff have sat out one apiece.

Ginobili, coming off a stress fracture in his right leg, is eager to play more in the final three games, as much to get his rhythm back as to get in better shape.

“I probably am doing a little better than the first two games, but I still have a long way to go, both offensively and defensively,” Ginobili said after logging 18 minutes and 44 seconds in Wednesday's game against the Clippers.

Tight race: The final preseason games likely will determine whether the Spurs keep a 14th and 15th player on the roster, and which players will earn those potential spots. Malik Hairston and Marcus Williams appear locked in a tight battle for a potential perimeter spot, and both
played well in Wednesday's game.

Except for two turnovers, one of them so embarrassing he apologized to DeJuan Blair for blowing a great pass, Williams was satisfied with what he has shown the coaches.

“Other than that one play,” Williams said, “I think I made open shots. The biggest thing for me, honestly, is just being able to settle down defensively, be that guy for them, and be able to hit open shots.

“Open shots come in the flow of this offense. When you play with players of this caliber, open shots are everywhere, because other teams have to worry about Richard (Jefferson), Manu, Tony and Tim. Christmas gifts just fall into your lap.”

Hairston was in the starting lineup Wednesday, happy for the chance to mesh his game with veteran starters.

“It put me in a different situation, playing with some different guys,” he said.

[owNinZ]

Parker, Duncan top ailing James

By Jeff McDonald


If there is one moment Matt Bonner would like expunged from his basketball existence, one play erased from the record as if it had never happened, it came less than a minute into the Spurs' 105-98 preseason victory over Cleveland on Friday night.

Shaquille O'Neal — he of the four NBA championship rings, the one MVP award and the sure-fire Hall of Fame credentials — rose to attempt the type of dunk he'd been unleashing in NBA arenas since Bonner was still running amok at the Concord (N.H.) YMCA. Bonner, slipping in from behind the play, ascended to meet 325 pounds of 37-year-old Diesel.

This time, for perhaps the only time, Bonner won.

The Spurs center slapped away O'Neal's dunk attempt, then reacted with the exact opposite of the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag.

“I just tried not to make eye contact, basically,” Bonner said.

Asked again and again about the play after the game, Bonner did everything but blame the block on Tim Duncan. Bonner has his reasons for his humility.

“We have to play those guys again,” Bonner said. “I don't want to give him any reason to come after me.”

These are all signs it is still the preseason. Bonner swats O'Neal. Replacement officials call a zillion fouls resulting in a billion free throws (or, Friday night, 61 fouls for 78 foul shots). And Gregg Popovich takes the night off from the bench, leaving a trio of assistants to sweat the whistle-happy referee crew.

Lead assistant Mike Budenholzer coached the Spurs to a 47-40 lead at half. Brett Brown took the reigns in the third, and increased the Spurs' lead to 10.

That left Don Newman to close down the game in the fourth.

“They were calling him Mariano Rivera back there,” Budenholzer said.

Of course, Newman was at somewhat of a disadvantage. He didn't have Duncan and Tony Parker in his arsenal, which is sort of like sending in Rivera without his fastball and splitter.

On a night when Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson also sat, Duncan and Parker took over early. Parker had 22 points and seven assists in 25 minutes, and did not play in the fourth.

Duncan enjoyed his finest night of the preseason, going for 13 points and nine rebounds in a shade less than 20 minutes. He did not play after halftime.

Instead, Newman had to hold on with a lineup lifted out of the Las Vegas summer league — George Hill, Malik Hairston, Marcus Williams, Ian Mahinmi and DeJuan Blair.

The Spurs also had to hold on through a litany of meaningless timeouts and purposeful fouls in the final 11 seconds, as Cavs assistant Michael Malone — who replaced head coach Mike Brown at half — attempted to extend the game.

“I thought we played well, considering it's preseason and guys are not fully at 100 percent, and we're still playing a lot of guys,” Spurs forward Antonio McDyess said. “Overall, we played well with the guys we put out there.”

Cleveland's LeBron James, the reigning league MVP, looked both in midseason form and in pre-flu form. James, who battled a bout of what might have been the H1N1 virus earlier this week, had 22 points in less than 20 minutes — including eight straight to end the second quarter.

After the game, James said he “still felt fatigued.” The Spurs weren't buying it.

“He looked well to me,” Budenholzer said.

So did O'Neal, the Cavs' keystone summertime acquisition. He had eight points and 12 rebounds, and made 3 of his last 5 shots after starting 0 for 6.

Bonner, of course, had a hand in Shaq's slow start. Not that he'll cop to it today.

“I'd call it the luckiest play of my career,” Bonner said of his block. “I was behind him. He didn't see me. It was all luck.”

Then Bonner shrugged, perhaps with visions of a March 8 rematch dancing in his head.

“Seriously,” he said. “I'm trying to take as little credit as possible.”

[owNinZ]

Shaq says reading Spurs' return is fundamental

By Mike Monroe


Cavaliers center Shaquille O'Neal has little doubt the Spurs will be back in the thick of the Western Conference title chase this season, but his belief is based less on the team's offseason additions than the condition of the player who has been a Spur the longest.

Tim Duncan's summer of rest, O'Neal said before Friday's preseason game against the Spurs, will make the difference for a team that was ousted in the first round in April.

“Yes, yes, they have (gotten back in the Western title chase),” O'Neal said. “You know they're always going to be there. Last year didn't count for them, because Mr. Fundamental had those knee problems. But he got a lot of rest, just like I got a lot of rest. I know they're going to be ready.”

O'Neal, 37 years old and in his 17th season, said he sees his role akin to that of David Robinson after Duncan joined the Spurs in 1995.

“It's a different time for me,” he said. “LeBron (James) is going to have the ball most of the time, and when he gives it up, it's our job to make him look good.

“David did it for Tim Duncan, so I've got to do it. I did it for D. Wade (Miami's Dwyane Wade, O'Neal's teammate on the 2006 NBA champion Heat). I can do it for LeBron.”

[tackielarla]

Yep yep yep. 105-98 SPURS defeat the Cavs. Minus Jefferson, Manu, and Pop.

[icon_king]

so pila na standing sa san antonio....

[koontz_circle]

welcome back tackie!

bai Icon_king, pwidi e post sad nimo ang spin move ni Tony P? hehe

[icon_king]

welcome back tackie!

bai Icon_king, pwidi e post sad nimo ang spin move ni Tony P? hehe

wala man ko atong spin move ni parker

[tackielarla]

Video: Bonner BLOCKS Shaq

Cavaliers vs. Spurs: 1st Half - NBA Videos and Highlights

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mao ni gi ingon nga hapit nani si shaq mamalandong....