Jazz-Spurs Preview

By KATE HEDLIN
Posted Dec 31 2011 2:11AM

The San Antonio Spurs have won two of their first three games, but they've looked rusty doing so.

The Spurs look to remain undefeated at home when they host the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.

With a veteran roster including three starters age 31 or older, San Antonio's ability to sustain success during a compact schedule was a concern. After opening the season with consecutive home wins, the Spurs, playing on back-to-back nights and for the third time in four days, struggled Thursday in a 105-85 loss at Houston.

With the game getting out of hand, Tim Duncan played less than 16 minutes and all San Antonio starters were on the bench by the fourth quarter.

The Spurs shot 37.6 percent from the field - their second game already shooting less than 40 percent. Duncan - who will turn 36 later this season - is having a particularly tough start, averaging 8.0 points and 4.0 rebounds. He was 1 of 8 from the field and finished with four points and one rebound Thursday after going 5 of 13 for 10 points in a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers the previous night.

"We were below where we want to be," said Manu Ginobili, who scored eight points Thursday. "In a season like this, we will have to wait and see if this might happen more often. You have to let it go and think about the next game."

The Spurs will need solid production from their bench when their aging starters tire. San Antonio ranked sixth in the NBA with 36.5 bench points per game last season, but has averaged just 29.3 from its reserves thus far in 2011-12. One key may be Gary Neal (appendectomy), who averaged 9.8 points last season but has yet to make is 2011-12 debut and is not expected back for a few more games.

The Jazz (1-2) are also dealing with a grueling early schedule, as they will be playing on a second consecutive night for the second time already and will be playing on the road for the third time in four games.

Utah played its first home game Friday and broke into the win column, defeating Philadelphia 102-99. Derrick Favors, making his first career start at center, scored a career-high 20 points while adding 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Devin Harris scored 13 of his 19 points in the second quarter, helping the Jazz come back from an early 13-point deficit.

Favors had been in line to come off the bench after getting into early foul trouble as the starting power forward in the season's first two games. However, Al Jefferson was scratched Friday with an inflamed right ankle, forcing Favors into the starting center role.

Jefferson's status for Saturday is uncertain.

"He gave us a huge lift," Utah coach Tyrone Corbin said of Favors. "We know he can score some points for us, but he had some huge rebounds."

Second-year forward Gordon Hayward also gave the Jazz a lift Friday, with 15 points and two blocked shots.

"We've got a lot of work to do and we have another game (Saturday)," he said. "We can't celebrate this too long."

The Spurs and Jazz have alternated season series sweeps over the past three years. San Antonio won all three meetings in 2010-11, and Utah swept four matchups the previous season.

Ginobili leads Spurs past Jazz, 104-89

Posted Jan 01 2012 1:05AM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) Manu Ginobili got the San Antonio Spurs back on the winning track, and Gregg Popovich to the 800-win plateau.

Ginobili scored 23 points, 14 in the second quarter, to lead the Spurs to a 104-89 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night. He was 9 of 10 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range.

Popovich is the 14th coach to reach 800 wins and ranks third among active coaches behind George Karl (1,038) and Rick Adelman (945).

"I don't feel as old as you look," Popovich said to one reporter when asked if reaching 800 wins equates to getting old. "Other than that, you get that number of wins, it does mean you've been hanging around for a while. And that you've got good staff and good players and a good management team. We've all achieved 800 wins, I haven't really."

Popovich, in his 16th year of coaching, is second on the career wins list for one team, behind Utah's Jerry Sloan (1,127). Most of the victories have been with his Big Three: Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

"I don't think the number itself is significant. The round number of 800," Ginobili said. "It's been 16 seasons of coaching great teams, coaching very well, making it to the finals, winning regular-season games and becoming with time, probably one of the most respected, for sure, coaches in the league. Very happy and proud of him. He's my only coach in my NBA career. It's a great thing."

DeJuan Blair had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Parker added 14 points and Duncan 12 as San Antonio moved to 3-1.

Duncan continued to struggle to find his form. The 36-year-old forward followed up his 1-of-8 performance in Houston by going 4 of 13 from the field. He had nine rebounds.

Ginobili injected life to an offense that had gone cold in Thursday's 105-85 loss to the Houston Rockets. He began the Spurs' quick turnaround in the second period, scoring the first 11 points of the quarter. That propelled San Antonio on a 22-10 run that ended with Richard Jefferson hitting a 3-pointer with 5:26 left and gave the Spurs 17-point lead.

The Spurs were 7 of 8 from the 3-point line during the second period and 10 for 16 for the game ( 63 percent).

"In Houston, I couldn't make one," Ginobili said of his 3-point shooting. "Today it felt great. I'm not the kind of shooter that's going to go 5-for-5 at the beginning. It just so happens that today was a different night. They were falling."

Al Jefferson returned to the starting lineup for Utah, scoring 21 points with 11 rebounds in 35 minutes. Jefferson sat out Utah's 102-99 win over Philadelphia on Friday night with an inflamed right ankle.

"It got to a point where I was running on it real well before the game," Jefferson said. "That was when I made the decision to play."

But Utah shot just 35 percent (18 of 51) from the field and had only 11 assists.

San Antonio never trailed and built its largest lead at 27 points on Blair's basket with 9:52 left that made it 89-62.

"It wasn't a great effort tonight," said Utah coach Tyrone Corbin. "They made a run in the second quarter, we missed some rotations and they made some 3-point shots. We kind of lost it from there."

Josh Howard, who flirted with signing with San Antonio earlier in the month before committing to the Jazz, had 18 points. Forward Derrick Favors, who had a career-high 20 points in his first career start Friday, only had seven.

Notes: Ginobili and Blair are the only Spurs to score 20 or more points in a game this season. ... Utah is 2-14 since the AT&T Center opened in 2002-2003 season.

Notebook: Spurs 104, Jazz 89

By Tim Price, for NBA.com
Posted Sunday January 1, 2012 12:14AM

THE FACTS: Manu Ginobili hit nine of 10 shots, including his first five 3-pointers, and the San Antonio Spurs brought in the New Year with the trappings of a 104-89 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday at AT&T Center. Behind Ginobili's 23 points and San Antonio's 10-for-16 3-point shooting, the Spurs (3-1) allowed their fans to leave early and get to their New Year's Eve parties in plenty of time to throw confetti while leading by as many as 24 points in the third quarter. Utah (1-3) was led by Al Jefferson, who was 10-for-19 for 21 points and 11 rebounds after missing the previous night's game with right ankle inflammation.

QUOTABLE: "It's one of those games that you start with the right foot and the shots went in. That's what happened."
-- Ginobili

THE STAT: San Antonio outscored Utah 30-6 from the 3-point line. While the Spurs missed just six of their 16 attempts, the Jazz went 2-for-16.

TURNING POINT: The Spurs led the entire game, but were up by only five a minute into the second quarter. San Antonio had taken just two shots from the 3-point line for the game, but the Spurs started putting the long ball in the air like the batting-practice nets were lined up on the court. During the next four minutes they let fly six 3-pointers, hit them all, and outscored Utah 20-8 to go up by 17. The closest the Jazz got after that was eight points with three and a half minutes left in the first half.

QUOTABLE II: "It wasn't a great effort out there tonight. We missed some rotations, they made some 3-point shots and we lost it from there. We didn't trust the right rotations. We ran to the wrong guy and they spread us out a little bit. We left the shooters open."
-- Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin

HOT: Ginobili scored his 23 points in 24 minutes. Not only did he hit his first five 3-pointers, he started 7-for-7 overall. He has shot 50 percent or better in his last three games (19-for-28, 68 percent).

NOT: Tim Duncan got off to a 1-for-7 start, which was in keeping with his 10-for-28 performance from the floor from the first three games of the season. But kept on the floor along with the Spurs reserves and working against rookie Enes Kanter for much of the third quarter, Duncan rallied by going 3-for-6 before sitting the fourth quarter.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Jefferson's 21-11 performance was a good tick upward from his first two games this season. He had been averaging 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds coming into the contest.

GOOD MOVE: After missing one game, Jefferson was back in the lineup and started alongside Paul Millsap in the Jazz frontcourt for the first time this season. The pair combined for 29 points on 14-for-26 shooting, 18 rebounds (five offensive), three steals and two blocks. Utah outscored San Antonio 48-36 in the paint and held a 17-9 advantaged in second-chance points. The trouble for Utah clearly was not on the inside.

BAD MOVE: Despite the Spurs getting hot and hotter with their 3-point shot, the Jazz were unable to get out and chase any of the shooters off the line. The first five 3-pointers the Spurs put up in the decisive second quarter were mostly open looks. Not until Josh Howard got out and got a hand up on a Ginobili shot with a minute and a half left in the first half did the Jazz manage to contest threes.

ROOKIE WATCH: Kawhi Leonard (San Diego State) added seven points to his six rebounds in 21 minutes for the Spurs. Fellow Spurs first-rounder Corey Joseph (Texas) saw three minutes but missed his only shot and turned it over once. Kanter (Kentucky) saw what it was like to guard Duncan, and he scored seven points, had a blocked shot and a pair of steals. Alec Burks (Colorado) played less than three minutes for Utah but hit both his shots from the floor.

NOTABLE: Gregg Popovich recorded career victory No. 800 with the win, putting him second all-time behind Jerry Sloan (1,127) for coaching victories with one team. ... Despite recording a 20-point night that featured 10-for-16 shooting and 11 rebounds in a starting role at center, Derrick Favors was not in the starting lineup against San Antonio. Off the bench Favors sputtered with seven points (2-for-6 from the floor) and seven rebounds in 23 minutes. ... Howard was called for a flagrant-1 foul late in the third quarter.

UP NEXT: For the Jazz, Monday vs. New Orleans, Tuesday vs. Milwaukee, Friday vs. Memphis. For the Spurs, Monday @ Minnesota, Wednesday vs. Golden State, Thursday vs. Dallas.

• Jazz: --
• Spurs: Neal

• Jazz: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #17 Joe Crawford, #11 Derrick Collins, #31 Scott Wall
• Attendance: 17769
• Duration: 2:05