Spurs-Lakers Preview

By JORDAN GARRETSON
Posted Nov 12 2012 9:36PM

The Los Angeles Lakers will no longer be searching for a new coach when they take the floor Tuesday night, but their newest employee won't be on the bench quite yet.

Two days after hiring Mike D'Antoni as their new head coach, the Lakers will face the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center.

Los Angeles made the hire late Sunday night, though it remains uncertain when D'Antoni - who underwent knee replacement surgery recently - will join the team. His first game likely won't be until at least Friday against Phoenix, one of his former teams.

"Dr. (Jerry) Buss, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak unanimously agreed that Mike was the best coach for this roster at this time," Lakers spokesman John Black said.

D'Antoni most recently coached New York before resigning in March. His hiring by Los Angeles brings him together with Kobe Bryant, who idolized the former Olimpia Milano star while growing up in Italy.

The new coach will likely have to wait a while to utilize point guard Steve Nash, who is expected to miss at least another week due to a small fracture in his leg. Nash, who won two NBA MVP awards while running D'Antoni's offense with the Suns, has missed the last five games.

Steve Blake, who started those games in place of Nash, will miss Tuesday's contest with a minor abdominal strain.

The Lakers also met with former coach Phil Jackson on Saturday, but decided to go with D'Antoni.

Los Angeles (3-4) has already smoothed things out a bit after a 1-4 start under former coach Mike Brown - their worst beginning to a season since 1993-94. The Lakers are 2-0 under interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff, though those wins came at home against Golden State and Sacramento, teams with a combined 5-9 record.

Dwight Howard tallied 23 points and 18 rebounds in a 103-90 win over the Kings on Sunday.

"I've been around a lot of teams, and this is the consummate professional group," Bickerstaff said. "No one's naive. They've been around a long time and we've been around a long time, so they understand."

They could face a greater challenge against a Spurs team coming to Los Angeles to finish a four-game road trip, although San Antonio hasn't been playing the polished brand of basketball that its 6-1 record might indicate.

The Spurs averaged 13.8 turnovers in their first four games - all victories, three of them at home - but they have at least 20 in each game on this trip. Opponents have taken advantage, averaging 100.3 points after San Antonio's first four foes averaged 89.5.

The Spurs needed a career-high 27 points from Gary Neal - including 20 in the second half - to manage a 112-109 win at Portland on Saturday. Gregg Popovich's team trailed by as many as 14 points in the third quarter.

Neal played 32 minutes, almost twice as many as he averaged in the first six games, as point guard Tony Parker sat out with a flu virus that has been plaguing the Spurs. Stephen Jackson missed their win at Sacramento on Friday with the bug and Tim Duncan has also been affected, though he hasn't missed any games.

"He carried us on his back," Popovich said about Neal. "Sometimes a player will do that, and he picked a good time for it."

The Spurs and Lakers have split their last 10 meetings, with San Antonio taking two of three last season - including a 112-91 road victory April 17. Parker had 29 points on 14-of-20 shooting along with 13 assists in that game, which Bryant missed with an injury.

Green's 3-pointer pushes Spurs past Lakers 84-82

By GREG BEACHAM
Posted Nov 14 2012 4:56AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) The San Antonio Spurs' final offensive play was smartly drawn and precisely executed, ending in a clutch jumper by Danny Green.

The Lakers' final play? Well, 7-foot Pau Gasol ended up shooting a 3-pointer.

While coach Mike D'Antoni is on his way to Los Angeles with new schemes and strategies, Gregg Popovich and the Spurs are headed out of town with an outstanding start to the season.

Green hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds left, Tony Parker scored 19 points and the Spurs beat Los Angeles 84-82 Tuesday night in the Lakers' first loss since firing Mike Brown.

Tim Duncan had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Spurs, who improved the Western Conference's best record to 7-1 thanks to Green's third 3-pointer of the night. The Spurs executed perfectly when facing a one-point deficit, with Duncan helping Kawhi Leonard get the ball to Green.

"(Popovich) drew up a play and said, `If you're open, catch it and shoot it,"' Green said. "When he draws plays for the young guys like myself, it's very rare and very surprising. You don't expect it. It's only my third year here, so for him to draw up a play for me, there was a lot of pressure on me. But you take the shot with the confidence he gives you."

The Lakers are hoping to have that feeling when D'Antoni arrives, likely for practice Thursday. Interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff ran the team for the third straight game, but the final play went poorly when they couldn't get the ball to Kobe Bryant, who had 28 points and eight rebounds.

After Gasol unsurprisingly missed just the 117th 3-point attempt of his 12-year NBA career, Tiago Splitter's hustle prevented the Lakers from controlling the rebound before the buzzer sounded on Los Angeles' first game since hiring D'Antoni late Sunday night.

"It felt good when I released it, (but) it wasn't designed to go that way," Gasol said. "We're not discouraged by it in the situation we're in. We're looking forward to a new coach stepping in on Thursday and getting going. Hopefully I'll be closer to the basket next time."

Dwight Howard had 13 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who dropped to 3-5 after committing 17 turnovers on a poor shooting night.

After the wholesale upheaval of the past five days, the Lakers found another kind of drama in their first game since the club surprisingly bypassed 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson to hire D'Antoni, who is expected to arrive in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The Lakers' crowd cheered for Bickerstaff, but never broke out into the "We want Phil!" chants that occurred in their past two games.

The Lakers haven't said when D'Antoni will formally take over the team, and Bickerstaff could still be running the bench Friday when the Phoenix Suns visit Staples Center.

And though Jackson has criticized the Lakers' handling of his candidacy, the players who had been eager to play for the Zen Master seem equally eager to line up for D'Antoni. Bryant and Steve Nash enthusiastically endorsed D'Antoni's hiring at the morning shootaround, with Bryant downplaying the notion that the Lakers' defense would suffer during the offense-minded coach's tenure.

"We're playing much, much better," Bryant said. "We're being much more aggressive on both ends of the floor. We're doing a good job communicating during the game, pushing guys and making them take tough shots."

Both teams struggled with poor shooting until the final minutes, when Antawn Jamison's 3-pointer from the corner put the Lakers ahead 78-77 with 2:10 to play. Duncan reclaimed the lead with a jumper, but Gasol hit two free throws with 1:36 left and added an elbow jumper.

Duncan trimmed the lead to one point before Metta World Peace missed an open jumper in the final minute, leading to the timeout in which Popovich drew it up for Green.

"Pop ran a play for Danny, and I think that was a great call, because Kobe always has a tendency to stay in the paint and think it's a play for me or for Timmy," Parker said. "Then we finished it off with a great play defensively. Kawhi did a great job denying Kobe."

The Lakers played without point guard Steve Blake, who has a minor abdominal strain. Blake had started the Lakers' last five games in place of Nash, who will be out for another week or more with a small fracture in his leg.

Darius Morris had one point on 0-for-5 shooting in his first NBA start in Blake's place, while veteran backup Chris Duhon managed five points. The Lakers played without a point guard down the stretch, with World Peace defending Parker while Bryant largely orchestrated the Lakers' offense.

NOTES: The Lakers barely exceeded the 80 points they scored in February 1999 during their lowest-scoring performance ever in their first 146 meetings with the Spurs. ... World Peace celebrated his 33rd birthday. The eccentric forward said he has enjoyed multiple birthday parties over the past few days. ... Floyd Mayweather Jr., Minnesota Vikings lineman Matt Kalil and David Beckham attended the game.

Notebook: Spurs 84, Lakers 82

Dan Arritt, for NBA.com
Posted Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:55 AM - Updated Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:55 AM

THE FACTS: Spurs guard Danny Green made a 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds left Tuesday night and the Spurs then clamped down on defense on the final possession by the Lakers. Pau Gasol was forced to shoot a desperation 3-pointer that missed, allowing San Antonio to escape with an 84-82 victory at Staples Center.

QUOTABLE: "We executed the play very well. Of course, you still have to knock it down and Danny did. Timmy [Duncan] set a great screen. It worked out for us."

-- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

THE STAT: San Antonio came into the game 23rd in the league in turnovers at 16.6, but committed only eight against the Lakers while forcing 17. The Lakers came into the game last in the league in giveaways at 18.1.

TURNING POINT: Gasol and Kobe Bryant executed a perfect pick-and-roll that resulted in Gasol's spot-up 17-footer for an 82-79 lead with 1:02 left in the game. Duncan cut the deficit to one with a jump hook that banked in with 40 seconds left, and Lakers center Dwight Howard was then called for a push off while rebounding Metta World Peace's missed 3-pointer with 19 seconds on the game clock. San Antonio called timeout and Popovich drew up a play for Green to hit his game-winning basket from the wing. After the Lakers called timeout, World Peace inbounded the ball to Gasol near the 3-point line in front of the L.A. bench. He looked for Bryant, but Bryant wasn't able to break free of the suffocating defense and Gasol opted for a 3-pointer that banged off the rim with two seconds left.

HOT: Bryant continues to enjoy one of the hottest shooting starts of his 17-year career. He shot 12-for-19 from the field and scored a game-high 28 points. He also led the team with eight assists. Bryant, a career 45.3 percent shooter coming into the game, is shooting 53.6 percent through the first eight games. He's never shot better than 47 percent for a season.

NOT: The Lakers were without their top two point guards, Steve Nash (lower leg injury) and Steve Blake (strained abdominal muscle), and it showed. Darius Morris made his first career start but the second-year player seemed to press under the spotlight. He missed all five of his field-goal attempts and finished with one point and one assist in 21 minutes. Chris Duhon wasn't much better as a replacement, so Bryant made the unusual move of playing the point down the stretch.

GOOD MOVE: The Spurs usually have Manu Ginobili on the floor late in close games but the 11th-year guard was struggling with back spasms and was 1-for-8 shooting while playing 18 minutes. Popovich elected to keep Green on the floor down the stretch and he came up with the big basket.

BAD MOVE: They Lakers didn't look like the league's top rebounding team down the stretch. Howard had a defensive rebound bounce off his knee and out of bounds with 4:28 left and the Lakers clinging to a two-point lead. Kawhi Leonard took advantage of the extra possession and sank a 15-foot jumper. On the next possession, Gasol grabbed a rebound but Green snuck in behind and stole the ball, leading to a basket by Parker. On the third straight trip down the floor, Green swooped in a grabbed an offensive rebound after Duncan missed in close. Parker took a shot that missed but slid in front of Gasol and rebounded his own miss, then laid it back in for a two-point lead with 2:29 remaining.

QUOTABLE II: "If I can quote Shakespeare, the problem lies not within the stars, it lies within ourselves."

-- Lakers coach Bernie Bickerstaff

NOTABLE: World Peace had 12 points on his 33rd birthday, but shot 4-for-14 from the field, including the key miss with 19.9 seconds left in the game. ... The Lakers haven't scored fewer than 80 points in 147 games against the Spurs.

UP NEXT: For the Lakers, Friday vs. Phoenix, Sunday vs. Houston, Tuesday vs. Brooklyn. For the Spurs, Thursday vs. New York, Saturday vs. Denver, Monday vs. L.A. Clippers.

• Spurs: Joseph
• Lakers: Blake, Nash

• Spurs: --
• Lakers: Bryant

• Lead Changes: 15
• Times Tied: 11

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #33 Sean Corbin, #9 Derrick Stafford, #52 Scott Twardoski
• Attendance: 18997
• Duration: 2:08