Game Thread: Spurs vs Knicks

By DAN BURCH, STATS Writer

Tim Duncan is back and resembling the form that made him a two-time league MVP.

With a healthy Duncan, the San Antonio Spurs look to wrap up a quick two-game road trip undefeated Monday when they visit the New York Knicks.

The Spurs beat Toronto 103-94 on Sunday, then play at Madison Square Garden before heading home. San Antonio hosts the Knicks on Saturday, quickly wrapping up the season series between the teams.

Sunday's win gave the Spurs (2-1) consecutive road victories away to open the season. Since joining the NBA in 1976-77, San Antonio has never started a season 3-0 on the road.

Duncan had 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting to help the Spurs beat the Raptors, showing none of the affects of the plantar fasciitis that limited him most of last season.

"It's gone. Luckily enough it's gone," said Duncan, who won MVP awards in 2002 and 2003. "I don't wish that on anybody. That's a tough thing to go through. It was a constant pain last year that never really went away throughout the year."

Duncan averaged career-lows of 18.6 points and 11.0 rebounds, and San Antonio was bounced out of the playoffs in the Western Conference semifinals a year after winning the NBA title.

If Duncan can average 20 points and 10 rebounds like he did for the first eight seasons of his career, the Spurs will again have one of the league's most dominant players.

"It's great to see Timmy moving with that kind of quickness again and knowing that the bank shot isn't far behind," Spurs guard Brent Barry said. "When Tim is playing at that high level we force teams to do so many different things. It allows us to open up the outside of our game."

San Antonio has won five of its last six meetings with New York (1-2), including a blowout victory in the last meeting at Madison Square Garden. The Spurs led by 31 points after the third quarter before winning 109-96 on Dec. 21, 2005.

That was one of many losses last season for the Knicks, whose 23-59 finish cost coach Larry Brown his job and resulted in GM Isiah Thomas taking over those responsibilities.

New York beat Memphis 118-117 in triple overtime in its season opener, but has since reverted to last season's form in consecutive defeats. The Knicks lost 109-95 to Indiana in their home opener Saturday, allowing the Pacers to shoot 64 percent in the second half.

Point guard Stephon Marbury was just 1-for-9, scored only four points and committed six turnovers. It was his second consecutive subpar game -- he went 2-for-9 and was limited to nine points in a 102-92 loss Friday to Atlanta -- and Marbury was booed during the contest.

"Surprised? They came here to see us win. They didn't come here to see us lose," Marbury said. "I knew I was going to get it. I had a bad game. Fortunately, there's 79 more. I just didn't play well. I just had a bad game. I can't explain that. I just played bad.

"It's still early in the season. We will definitely be back next game."

The Knicks begin a three-game road trip Wednesday at Denver.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview?gid ... 18&prov=ap

I predict this will be the first loss (of many) that makes people question Isiah's abilities as a coach.

You know when you're just driving along the road and a squirrel darts out, if you're going slow enough you swerve to avoid it. Let it live to run across streets another day. But sometimes, you are just going too fast. The roads are slippery. It's unsafe to slam on your breaks. So you hit the little squirrel, because there was nothing you could do to avoid it.

The Knicks are just like that little squirrel. And the Spurs are a 4x4 pickup truck.

Beep beep!

another player landing on Bowen's foot incident; hopefully they dont start calling Bowen dirty again

Bonner for 3!!!!!!

manu made a nice half court bounce pass to a driving beno for the layup

nice alley oop dunk by duncan from parker


and barry is still on fire from 3


39 -24 with 7:40 left in the 2nd

7:39 NY - Full timeout (Timeout #3)
7:48 SA - B. Barry made a 23-foot three-pointer from the left corner. Assist: T. Parker
7:54 SA - B. Bowen steals the ball from J. Crawford
8:18 SA - Alley-oop dunk by T. Duncan. Assist: T. Parker
8:25 SA - F. Oberto defensive rebound

45-24 with 5:39 left in the 2nd

San Antonio 52, New York 32 with 2:44 left in the 2nd

Malik Rose is entering the Game !!!!!!!!!

54-41 at the half. Knicks made a little run at the end thanks to some veteran defense by Malik Rose on Tim Duncan.

how do you blwo an 18pt lead? This is disgusting............

Spurs Win!

105 - 93

Thank you Tony for stopping the bleeding. He made two treys!

And Bones keeps up the hot streak. Excellent.

I wish Malik was still with the good guys, I didn't much like seeing him defend Timmy.

Whew! Got ugly there for a while. It was pretty weird. The Spurs forgot who they were. They'd just feed the ball into Duncan and wait for Malik to force a "turnover" by raking him accross the arms or pulling his shorts to make him travel. Then on D they were apparently asleep.

It was nice to see them wake up with only a 1 point lead left and take the game over (without Pop even taking a time out). That kind of game will help the Spurs later. That was a raucous MSG crowd towards the end, and the Spurs grabbed the surging Knicks by the neck and slapped them to the hardwoods.