Popovich not around to see Spurs win fifth straight

didn't see the game, it was blacked out in san diego. i heard the spurs
pulled it out late.

dave


http://www.sportsline.com/nba/gamecenter/recap/NBA_20041231_SA@LAC



Popovich not around to see Spurs win fifth straight
Jan. 1, 2005
SportsLine.com wire reports
LOS ANGELES -- It didn't matter to the San Antonio Spurs that Gregg Popovich
was ejected. They had another head coach waiting in the wings -- P.J.
Carlesimo.

Tim Duncan scored 23 points, and Tony Parker added 21 points and 11 assists
to help the Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers 98-79 on Friday night for
their fifth consecutive win.

"I don't know that we necessarily need the captain of the ship to make a
quick exit off the plank there. But obviously we responded to it," Brent
Barry said. "P.J. pretends to know what he's doing over there. We listened
to half of what he said, and then the other half we made up."

Popovich never made it to the end of the first quarter. Referee Eddie F.
Rush ejected him for arguing about a ruling after a rebound deflected off
the fingertips of Clippers guard Lionel Chalmers and out of bounds with 58.4
seconds left in the quarter and the Spurs trailing 19-12.

"Certain plays are frustrating when you see them over and over again,"
Duncan said. "It's not about what happened on that one play. It's probably
about similar plays that have happened over the last five or six games. But
we fought through it. P.J. did an excellent job along with the rest of the
assistants, and we did great."

The ejection was the first for Popovich since Nov. 3, 2003, when he
complained about a foul that wasn't called against the Memphis Grizzlies and
made contact with referee Tony Brown. That led to a one-game suspension and
a $1,000 fine.

Moments after Carlesimo took over, the Spurs went on a 12-4 run that sliced
a 10-point deficit to 26-24 and they pulled ahead on Duncan's 18-footer with
1:21 left in the half.

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"Tony Parker really got us going and we took care of the ball," said
Carlesimo, whose NBA coaching experience includes stints with Portland and
Golden State -- where he was choked by Latrell Sprewell after a heated
exchange during practice.

The Southwest Division-leading Spurs, off to the best start in franchise
history, improved to 25-6 with their 17th victory in 20 games.

"We're playing good team ball right now," Duncan said. "We have a very
unselfish team and guys are moving the ball real well, finding open guys and
making plays. When you have seven or eight guys contributing on a nightly
basis, it's tough to beat a team like that."

Manu Ginobili, who sat out Thursday night's victory in Portland because of a
strained neck, had nine points in 25 minutes.

"It feels much batter. It's a little tight behind my left shoulder, but it's
doing better than what I thought," Ginobili said.

The Clippers dropped to 13-14, marking the 25th time in 29 years that the
franchise took a losing record into New Year's Day -- not counting the
lockout-delayed 1998-99 campaign. It was the third time in four games that
they have scored fewer than 80 points, and the 10th time they failed to
reach 90.

Corey Maggette and Rick Brunson each had 17 points for the Clippers, who
have won just three of their last 27 games against San Antonio. They have
dropped nine of 11 overall and finished the month 4-9 after going 9-6 during
November.

Point guard Marko Jaric missed his fifth straight game, and is expected to
be out at least another four weeks after an MRI taken Thursday on his
injured right foot revealed a stress fracture.

Brunson, starting in Jaric's absence, ended the third quarter with a
buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 28 feet out that narrowed the gap to 70-62
after San Antonio pulled away to a 60-44 lead with a 21-5 run that opened
the second half.

"We spotted them seven points in the beginning of the second half, and we
can't do that against a team like that because they will bury you," Brunson
said. "They have great shooters and play their roles so strong, so we have
to play the right way together for 48 minutes."

The Spurs began the fourth quarter with a 15-6 run that opened up an 85-68
lead with 7:18 to play. Barry, who scored 12 points on his 33rd birthday,
capped the rally with two free throws and Los Angeles got no closer than 15.

The Spurs, who hardly broke a sweat in Thursday's 114-80 rout at Portland,
could do no better than a 39-all tie at halftime after shooting 35.7 percent
from the field. They finished at 49.3 percent.

Notes
The Spurs finished last December 13-2, including a 13-game winning streak
that ended with a loss in their first game of 2004. They had a
regular-season record of 60-21 in the 2004 calendar year, compared with a
62-19 mark in 2003.
This was only the second time the Spurs have played on New Year's Eve since
moving from the ABA to the NBA in 1976-77. Two years ago, they lost 105-103
at Washington.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2004-2005, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved E-Mail
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P.J. Carlesimo holds Gregg Popovich during a first-quarter argument with the
referee.(Getty Images)


Scoreboard
Final 1 2 3 4 T
San Antonio « 14 25 31 28 98
L.A. Clippers 22 17 23 17 79

SA:T. Duncan 23 Pts
SA:T. Duncan 8 Reb
SA:T. Parker 11 Ast LAC:R. Brunson 17 Pts
LAC:C. Maggette 10 Reb
LAC:R. Brunson 8 Ast


PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Los Angeles San Antonio

R. Brunson
T. Parker
Pts Rebs Ast Pts Rebs Ast
17 6 8 21 4 11


San Antonio Spurs
STARTERS M FG FT TR A PF PTS
T. Duncan, PF 36 11-18 1-2 8 2 3 23
T. Parker, PG 35 7-12 6-8 4 11 0 21
B. Bowen, SF 31 3-8 2-2 2 3 3 10
R. Nesterovic, C 27 1-3 0-0 6 0 2 2
M. Ginobili, SG 25 4-7 0-0 4 4 0 9
BENCH M FG FT TR A PF PTS
B. Barry, SG 27 3-9 4-4 5 2 3 12
R. Horry, PF 17 0-3 2-2 3 0 1 2
M. Rose, PF 14 4-5 0-0 5 0 1 8
B. Udrih, PG 13 2-5 2-2 0 2 0 7
D. Brown, SG 12 2-4 0-0 0 0 1 4
T. Massenburg, C 2 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0
M. Wilks, PG 1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Totals 37-75 17-20 39 24 15 98
49.3% 85.0%
Complete Box Score


Los Angeles Clippers
STARTERS M FG FT TR A PF PTS
C. Maggette, SG 43 4-12 7-8 10 2 2 17
R. Brunson, PG 39 7-13 1-2 6 8 5 17
E. Brand, PF 35 6-13 2-4 8 4 3 14
B. Simmons, SF 31 5-13 0-0 7 1 5 10
C. Kaman, C 19 2-6 0-0 4 0 0 4
BENCH M FG FT TR A PF PTS
Z. Rebraca, C 23 3-6 0-0 3 1 2 6
M. Moore, C 18 2-6 0-0 2 1 3 4
Q. Ross, SG 17 1-2 0-0 0 0 2 2
L. Chalmers, PG 9 0-3 0-0 0 0 1 0
C. Wilcox, C 5 2-3 1-3 1 1 0 5
K. Penney, G 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
M. Jaric, PG Did Not Play
Totals 32-77 11-17 41 18 23 79
41.6% 64.7%