Is anyone expecting a Spurs-Pacers NBA Finals?

If so, then the verbal war has already begun.  Spurs coach Greg Popovich blasted the Pacers on a San Antonio radio show for the way the team campaigned for Ron Artest to be named the Defensive Player of the Year, which he won.  Popovich claimed that Artest was not in the same league defensively as his player Bruce Bowen, Artest's teammate on the All-Defensive team.

"Bruce guards the best player on the other team almost every single night," Popovich said when comparing Bowen and Artest. "Artest doesn't do that. Artest just looks the part. He looks like a big, tough guy. He whacks and gets knocked out of the game once in awhile. But that's not the Defensive Player of the Year."

Artest wasn't appeciative of the comments made by Popavich, saying that if the championship coach had something negative to say about him he could say it to him personally instead of involving the media, thus tainting what he has earned.

"All he'd have to do is call the Pacers' office and ask for my phone number, and he could speak to me instead of going to the papers," Artest said. "It's taking a lot of positive away from it. He could talk to the Pacers and call me, and let me know that I didn't deserve it, so I don't have to hear it from you guys."

But Popovich wasn't done yet, criticizing the statistical data compiled by two Pacer officials that showed Artest allowing players he's guarding only 9.4 shots and 8.1 points per game.  

"What a bunch of baloney," Popovich said on the radio show. "Totally unsubstantiated stats put out by Indiana. The media bought it and then the NBA printed those stats. I am amazed by that . . . but the coaches know."

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle campaigned hard for Artest to win the award, asking two of his video guys to go through the tape from the season extracting out every defensive play Artest was involved in.  This took the two employees over a week to compile, and formed the basis of Carlisle's argument for Artest being the most deserving.

Bowen had finished fourth in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year behind Artest, Ben Wallace of the Pistons and Theo Ratliff of the Blazers.

"I understand where Pop is coming from," Carlisle said. "He has a strong belief in his player, and obviously, I have a strong belief in mine. I don't believe he'd have made some of those comments had he known they were going to show up the next day on the Internet (on the radio station's Web site).

"One thing I'll agree with Pop on is that the coaches' vote is the most important vote. And in the coaches' vote, Ron was clearly the highest vote getter. So it really should make any of the other arguments moot on who the best defensive player is."

Artest was supportive of Bowen's talents, even going as far as fantasizing what life would be like having Bowen as a teammate.  But then the competitive juices started flowing...

"If I had a defender on my team as good as Bruce, I would play nothing but offense, score more points, make first-team All-NBA and win the MVP trophy," Artest said before reconsidering. "Actually, I do have some guys like that on my team.

"I think what would be a good thing is to ask the other players around the league about me and Bruce. Ask the other players who they respect more. I'm not taking anything from Bruce. He's a great defensive player. But ask the guys we play. I do it both ways. Ask them who can guard you and then come back at you on the other end.

"I love the award. And I believe I deserve it. I worked hard."

And if there are still any doubts as to who is the true winner?

"We can play one-on-one," said Artest. "I'll play for the award. We can go one-on-one and see what happens."

After disposing of the Memphis Grizzlies in four straight games, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs have a new worry to contend with.

Playing well, the Spurs must wait at least another week before playing Game 1 against either the Lakers or the Rockets in San Antonio.  Will they lose any momentum gained from the Memphis series during this time, and will their opponent come in more polished fresh from playing rather than rusty from sitting around?

History this season hasn't been kind to this team when breaks are concerned.  As Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News points out put the Spurs were able to put together a 13-game winning streak in late December, when a rare schedule break gave them five days off at Christmas. When they returned they lost to the lottery-bound Sixers... without Allen Iverson.

Then there was the time when the Spurs carried a five game winning streak into All-Star break. After 10 days off they barely beat Toronto and then lost to Cleveland.

"I guarantee we won't do that now," Bruce Bowen said. "That was the regular season, and this is something else. We will be focused."

"It's not an ideal situation," Popovich said of the long break, acknowledging that he and his staff would try to determine the best strategy.

Up three games to none in their first round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, the San Antonio Spurs are looking to close out the series with a sweep.

Memphis has been a Cinderella team this season, winning a franchise best 50 games en route to their first ever Playoffs campaign, but after losing seven in a row and nine of their past ten they are all but done.

The Spurs, meanwhile, have not lost since March 23 and have the fact that no team has ever come back to win an NBA playoff series after losing the first three games on their side.  The Spurs are all but guaranteed a spot in the second round against the Lakers... should they be able to hold off the Houston Rockets of course.  Jerry Crowe of the L.A. Times reports that the Lakers hold a 3-1 advantage against San Antonio this season, but Spurs coach Greg Popovich was quick to point out this was misleading.

"We couldn't have beat your Budweiser team three times before Christmas," Popovich said.  The three losses came in the first five weeks of the season when the Spurs were trying to find their feet.

Memphis will look to lean on the experience of guard Bonzi Wells, who last season found his Portland Trail Blazers down 0-3 to the Dallas Mavericks before rallying back to force a Game 7.

"It's like I'm experiencing deja vu," Wells said.

Before the Grizzlies took their first steps toward adding the best chapters of a nine-year history, point guard Jason Williams gathered the starters and formed a circle.

Music blared. The SBC Center rocked. The defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs were stomping onto the court. None of that rendered Williams mute.

"He was telling us to have fun," Griz forward Pau Gasol said. "He said, 'Let's do this together.' That was the gist of it."

They didn't have fun for most a 98-74 loss to the Spurs in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series. And the Griz, thanks mostly to the Spurs' defense and partly to postseason jitters, were so disjointed offensively that you'd need to remember Dec. 15, 2003, to find a relevant reference for what transpired.

That's the last time the Griz scored so few points in a game. Then, San Antonio held Memphis to 67 points.

"They did to us what they've done in the last 14 games," Griz coach Hubie Brown said of the Spurs, who own a 14-game home win streak dating back to the regular season.

"We never got in a groove," Williams said. "We never did anything we were supposed to do, and we made it easier for them. It's like we got down on ourselves. We weren't having fun."

Gasol and the Grizzlies begin their first playoff series tonight against the San Antonio Spurs in the SBC Center. The franchise has made it this far largely because of Gasol's gifts, and how he responds to the pressure of playoff basketball will speak volumes about himself and the Grizzlies' chances.

"We want to be respected for competing," Gasol said. "That's what I'm going to do. But I'm not going to be the hero here. We have to do it together. In this series, everybody is going to count. Everybody is going to have to do their job."

Nobody, though, has had to carry more bricks than Gasol in the Grizzlies' renovation. That doesn't figure to change all of sudden.

Gasol will get the most touches. He will play with expectations that are higher.

He's the person the Spurs will be most mindful of.

"He's the guy that makes everything go for them. He's going to get a lot of (defensive) attention," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters. "We just hope he doesn't go crazy."

Hubie Brown doesn't care that the Griz lost their last four regular-season games. He's already put behind him a lopsided, season-ending loss to Minnesota on Wednesday when the Griz trailed by as many as 29 points in The Pyramid.

And Brown won't lose sleep about the San Antonio Spurs being labeled a 9-point favorite in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

None of the above will have an impact on their best-of-seven series when the ball is tossed up Saturday in the SBC Center.

"I know we're not going to be favored in the series," Brown said. "But we know that we can push them. We know we can get into a series where they really have to pay attention to us. We play well in San Antonio. And what it's going to come down to is: Can they continue this incredible run that they're on? . . . It should be a good series."

Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter and LeBron James will be watching the NBA playoffs on TV when the first round begins Saturday. Yet if you were the Bulls, you'd figure your problems would be solved if you had one of those players. So just how do you build a successful team?

Among the Bulls' many rebuilding plans, the centerpiece always was to get a star, whether it be through free agency--like their pursuits of McGrady, Grant Hill and Tim Duncan in 2000--or through the draft with Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry.

 

Now look for the Bulls to pursue what is becoming the new, popular rebuilding option in the NBA, practiced best these days in Milwaukee and Memphis.

"When you take over a team," one veteran general manager said, "all you hear is you have to go out and get a star and you'll be OK. But there's a lot of merit in building a team first and when it's the right team, see if you can add a star. Just having a superstar doesn't guarantee you success.

"Look at Toronto, Philadelphia and Orlando. If you don't have a team, you're not going anywhere. Maybe you can only go so far with that kind of team, but at least you can be successful until you figure out how to get that guy."