Spurs accept fourth set of rings, polish off Trail Blazers
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Web Posted: 10/31/2007 12:27 AM CDT
Jeff McDonald
Express-News
The
Spurs accepted their latest NBA championship rings Tuesday night. They squeezed another championship banner into the crowded rafters of the AT&T Center. They accepted another round of congratulatory handshakes from NBA commissioner David Stern.
Manu Ginobili had been through this season-opening drill twice before. So he knew what was coming next.
Whenever you raise a banner, you also raise goosebumps.
"It's a sensation I've been through before," Ginobili said after the
Spurs kick-started a new season with a 106-97 victory over Portland. "There's nothing you can do about it. You just play."
Once the lights went on and the ball went up, the
Spurs picked up where they left off in last season's Finals, toying with the Trail Blazers as if they were the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Tim Duncan had 24 points and 13 rebounds, teaming with the other two-thirds of the Spurs' Big Three to keep the game from becoming too terribly interesting in the fourth quarter.
Tony Parker finished with 19 points, including 11 in the first quarter, while Ginobili added 16 points and eight assists as the
Spurs won their opener for the 11th season in a row.
With the victory, which came before a sellout crowd of 18,797,
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich matched Bill Fitch, who coached five teams, for the longest season-opening winning streak in NBA history.
The
Spurs led by as many as 16 in the second quarter and never trailed after the 8:16 mark of the first.
"It was a great way to start the year," Popovich said.
Despite a somewhat shaky first half, the Blazers had the look of a team bent on crashing a championship party. They were thoroughly unimpressed with the pomp and circumstance with which the night began.
"We didn't come here to just keep it close," said Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge, the former University of Texas star.
Aldridge, especially, did his darndest to ruin the Spurs' big night.
He scored 27 points — and hit 12 of 19 field goals — to keep the Blazers in the game. Behind a diet of Aldridge jumpers and a 3-point barrage by Martell Webster, Portland climbed from down 16 points in the second quarter to within four at the end of the third.
Webster had 21 points, while center Joel Przybilla tallied 13 points and 10 rebounds — already giving him more double-doubles than he had all of last season.
They were no match, however, for the Spurs' title-toting troika.
Whenever the Blazers would begin to threaten the Spurs' lead, Duncan would make a play. Or Ginobili would. Or Parker.
The Blazers closed to within 98-95 on a final Aldridge jumper with 2:02 to play.
Parker answered with back-to-back baskets — the second on a breakneck drive that Aldridge had no choice but to draw a goaltending call — to put the
Spurs up 102-95 with 1:07 left.
It was a fitting cap to a championship celebration.
As the MVP of last year's Finals, Parker was the man perhaps most responsible for the goosebumps that began the game.
Before the night started, a wistful Popovich instructed his players to take time to savor the championship shindig.
"You never know how many of these opportunities you're going to have," he said. "With each passing day, you appreciate it more and more and more."
Popovich reminded himself of as much after the game. He was about to complain about his team's at-times spotty defensive effort when he caught himself.
"It's ring night," he said. "So everybody gets a break."
By the time the
Spurs left the building Tuesday night, the goosebumps were gone.
In their place came a gritty realization. The championship season is over. The championship defense is just beginning.
Or, as Duncan put it: "We have a lot of stuff to work on and a lot of time to do it."