LYON-VILLEURBANNE, FRANCE, Oct. 5, 2006 -- In the gastronomic capital of the world, Tony Parker served up a little home cookin'.
Playing in front of 5,600 of his countrymen, Parker played like he was in mid-season form, not a player who was just cleared Saturday to resume all basketball action after suffering a broken index finger on his shooting hand in early August.
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Parker stole the show in his homecoming.
Gregory Shamus/NBAE/Getty Images |
Asvel's Rowan Barrett scored 22 in the losing effort, shooting an equally astounding 10-of-14 for the host, while teammates Brian Greene and Laurent Foirest added 17 and 15 points, respectively.
"The game was very competitive for a long time," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said after the game. "Yves (Baratet) does a great job with his team. They're very aggressive, very disciplined and they played very hard. We had to play our starters for three quarters of the game for us to win. We're happy with the win."
Asvel, already in-season in PRO A play, looked sharp through the first 12 minutes, trading the lead with the Spurs throughout the NBA-length first quarter. San Antonio, with the exception of Parker, looked exactly as a team with six practices under its belt should: rusty.
Parker scored 18 of the Spurs' 33 first-quarter points, penetrating the French team's defense for easy layups and pulling up from the perimeter, demonstrating no ill effects of the injury that kept him out of the FIBA World Championship in Japan.
His Spurs teammates, however, needed a little time to settle down and control the ball, not to mention the game. Too often they tried to force passes they wouldn't ordinarily try a month from now or were whistled for offensive fouls, letting Asvel hang around and be down only four points, 33-29, at the end of one.
But the Spurs used a 17-0 run, holding Asvel scoreless for more than five minutes spanning the first and second quarters, to open up a lead they would maintain for the rest of the contest.
Asvel made a run of its own, however, after a dunk by Manu Ginobili and a nice spin move for two by Fabricio Oberto, as the big man put the ball on the floor, opened the second half. The next 12 points went on the other side of the scoreboard, though, cutting San Antonio's lead to 15 points.
Doing much of the damage during the spurt were Americans Greene and Chevon Troutman, who had 10 rebounds -- four on the offensive glass.
But that was as close as Asvel would get, as the Spurs starting unit got a well-deserved rest. Four of the five starters played 23-plus minutes; Oberto logged only 14.
Parker, who played a team high 26, answered the chants of "To-ny! To-ny!" and returned for an encore in the fourth quarter, against the better judgement of his coach.
"We didn't want to put him back in for two reasons," Popovich explained moments after the game concluded. "One, we were up 25 points and I think that would be rude, very honestly, to put a starter back in when you're ahead 25. You just don't do that. Secondly, it would be very irresponsible on my part to put him back in a preseason game like that and have him become injured.
"So, at the very end, with just a minute to go, we played a little game trying to get the crowd involved and Tony came down and asked me to go back on to the court to try to say thank you to his fans and to his country. So, we did that."
Following the game, the Spurs departed for Paris, the setting for Sunday's matchup with Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv. Maccabi is one of the top teams in Europe and, in light of Philadelphia's loss Thursday to Winterthur FC Barcelona in Spain, Popovich was asked whether he was concerned about losing to a European club.
"I'm only concerned with one basic philosophy at this point in the season," Popovich replied, "and that's to get better every day and get prepared for our season. We'll do the best job we can in the next game and hopefully we'll win, but the higher goal is to continue to improve and prepare us for the NBA season."
The team will naturally improve its chemistry and familiarity with each other as it spends more time as a unit. At times in tonight's game, you could see the players weren't quite on the same page, but that they were working toward that goal.
Whether it was Parker calling out the play "Circle!" to new teammates on an inbounds situation or Manu Ginobili going to the sidelines to talk with free-agent signee Jacque Vaughn, the players are communicating amongst themselves and will most certainly iron out any kinks associated with having so many new faces.
The team will not practice Friday in Paris, but resumes camp Saturday.