Road woes becoming road kill for Spurs

[Babyface(보영짱!!)]

Road woes becoming road kill for Spurs

Web Posted: 04/09/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES — After making quite the impression in Dallas, as well as in Detroit, Indianapolis, New York and Denver, the Spurs touched down here early Friday amid concern their arrival might set off another frenzied celebration among the locals.

More coverage

Tonight: Spurs (55-20) vs. Clippers (34-42)

For much of the past six weeks, the Spurs have used their travels as an NBA goodwill tour, boosting the self-esteem and playoff hopes of teams across the nation. Including the 104-68 beating they absorbed Thursday in Dallas, they have lost six consecutive road games and eight of their past 11.

With only two home dates among their final seven games, the Spurs will need to stomach the $17 room-service grilled cheese a while longer.

"We realize we're having a lot of trouble on the road," Manu Ginobili said. "At home, you always find something else to help — the crowd, the arena. But on the road, we don't have that. The crowd is on their side, they get all excited, and we go down."

The Spurs probably would have far less reason to question their resiliency if they weren't missing their 6-foot-11 security blanket. In the team's past eight road losses, Tim Duncan has been on the floor for a total of less than two minutes.

Duncan might be able to return as early as next week. In the meantime, his teammates hope to do a better job of playing without him.

"When Tim comes back, if the rest of the group isn't playing well, it's not going to bode well for our chances in the playoffs," Brent Barry said. "We need to be as sharp as possible, so that Tim will have time to get himself back in a rhythm, and then we can all click."

The Spurs have hardly been a well-oiled machine away from the SBC Center, averaging only 80 points on 35.6 percent shooting in the past four road games.

Thursday's loss was their most lopsided in almost four years. And it wasn't hard to see why: the Mavericks outshot them 53.2 percent to 34.6 percent and outrebounded them 51-35. The Spurs' 68 points were four more than their all-time low.

Aware of how the past few weeks have worn on his team, coach Gregg Popovich took advantage of a beautiful Southern California afternoon Friday and turned his players loose on a local high school soccer field. After Rasho Nesterovic briefly auditioned as Slovenia's first 7-foot striker, the Spurs stayed outside and scripted some offense from their chosen sport.

"You can't translate our whole season into one game," Tony Parker said. "We're obviously not happy about it, but it's not like we lost 10 games in a row."

The Spurs' inconsistency, however, has become a trend. Barry has performed well since Devin Brown went on the injured list, but the team would benefit from better production from the rest of its bench.

With Robert Horry starting in place of Duncan, the Spurs also have missed Malik Rose's energy and, even more so, his experience. Nazr Mohammed is still learning the system, and the team now has Glenn Robinson to also work into the mix.

"Me and Manu also have a tendency to try to do too much to make something happen," Parker said. "It's just frustrating because we know we can do better."

Ginobili was clearly fatigued Thursday, though the team as a whole has labored significantly when playing on consecutive nights. In their past seven back-to-backs, the Spurs have won the second game only once. The lone victory — a week ago against the Lakers — also was the lone game played at home.

The Spurs have two more back-to-backs in the next five days. After tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers — who have been off since losing Wednesday at the SBC Center — they play at Golden State on Sunday.

"I think there are a lot of built-in excuse mechanisms for how we've performed on the road recently," Barry said. "You could point to lineup changes. You could point to the opponents we've played and the positions they're in — some of them being in desperate situations and some of them fighting for their playoff lives.

"But this team has to be far beyond that. We need to put all that aside and maintain a focus and not get ourselves out of sync to the point where we can't recover."

스퍼스의 어웨이 경기에 대한 얘기들입니다. 당연히 왜 이리도 어웨이 경기에선 약한 모습을 보이느냐를 다뤘습니다. 그리고 내일 클리퍼스와의 어웨이 경기가 있습니다. 현재 달라스와 네 경기 차이던가요?( 귀찮아서 확인 안 합니다.-_-;)

스퍼스가 남은 7 경기 중 5 경기가 어웨이입니다. 개 중엔 스퍼스가 까다로워 하는 맴피스와 요즘 무지 잘 나가는 골든 까지 껴 있어서, 달라스에게 컨퍼런스 우승 자리를 내 줄 수도 있는 상황이고요. 지난 뉴욕(뉴욕을 비하하는 건 아니지만, 상대적인 전력 차이가...-_-;)에게 지는 걸 봐도, 스퍼스는 어웨이 경기에선 필요 이상으로(-_-?) 약한 모습을 보이고 있기 때문에 솔직히 불안합니다. 하지만 그렇더라도 정규 시즌 내에 던컨 복귀는 반대입니다. 뭐 지 나온다고 하면 나오는 거지만....-_-;

[SpursHolic]

시즌중에 던컨 나오면 안될것같습니다. 충분히 휴식을 취하고 부상을 털어버려야지요.. 최종목표는 결국 우승!