Tony Parker is listed as day-to-day after getting an MRI on his hamstring, from The AP: “Parker had an MRI on Wednesday that revealed a Grade 1 strain of his hamstring, the mildest level of strain. He’s listed as day to day. “I was just hoping it was not a tear,” Parker said. “The good news is it’s not a tear or a defect. So that’s the good news. Now I just have to see how I feel tomorrow.” Parker did not participate in the portion of practice on Wednesday that was open to the media, instead watching his teammates go through a light workout while spending much of the time in conversation with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. We’ll talk with Pop,” Parker said. “I know Pop is always going to prefer to take low risk.” When asked about Parker’s outlook, Popovich said, “A lot of it will be what he feels, I think.”
- If Parker can’t go, Manu Ginobili will be concerned, from Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida: “Manu Ginobili said it will be difficult if Tony Parker can’t play or is limited. “Well, it’s going to be difficult,” Ginobili said. “If he’s limited, it’s going to be hard, because we know we need his speed, his judgment, his pick‑and‑rolls. Because after that, from that we create a lot of offense. And if we don’t have him or if we have him limited, it’s going to be very, very difficult. But we’ll have to figure it out and find other answers.”
Doc Rivers may be considering the idea of moving on from the Celtics, from Ken Berger of CBSSports: “According to an NBA front-office source, Rivers has given indications he “might be ready for a new situation.” Rivers has been attending the Celtics’ pre-draft workouts and huddling with Ainge to chart the offseason strategy — one that could become an exit strategy for Rivers if the remnants of Boston’s Big Three era can’t be parlayed into moves that sustain the team as a championship contender. “[Doc] has been pretty open that he doesn’t want to coach in a rebuilding environment,” said a person briefed on Rivers’ conversations with Ainge. “And if they make some moves, they’re not going to have a rebuilding environment. That’s Danny’s challenge.” Ainge, never wary of discussing bold moves, is in agreement with Rivers that a rebuilding of the Celtics’ roster isn’t ideal, sources said. But with an aging core and a payroll that is pushing up against the dreaded luxury-tax apron — where the full mid-level exception, bi-annual exception and sign-and-trade acquisitions are restricted — the Celtics’ options are limited.”
Gregg Popovich apparently believes foreign players are harder workers than Americans, from Seth Wickersham of ESPN the Magazine: “The U.S. has the NCAA serving as a conflicted arbiter of both the players’ time and money; there is no pretense of amateurism overseas, and for better or worse, practices often last hours longer than our regulated college ones. The Spurs, of course, are not in the business of worrying about the demands on a student-athlete’s time and saw it as a plus that guys like Ginobili and Parker had been playing club basketball since they were teenagers, schooled by accredited coaches, the 10,000-hour rule brought to the hardwood. Consider Pop’s brutal assessment that foreign players are “fundamentally harder working than most American kids,” and it’s no wonder the Spurs want to avoid the fate of so many NBA teams, which are, as Buford says, “the end of the road for the developmental habits that are built in the less-structured environment in the U.S.”
Erik Spoelstra ripped his team after getting demolished in Game 3, from Golliver: “We got what we deserved tonight,” Spoelstra said, repeating the phrase multiple times throughout his postgame press conference. “We got what we deserved. [The Spurs] got into an incredible rhythm, even in the first quarter. Every shot they wanted to get they got. We did not disrupt them. And then that’s the flow. And it just went from there. We never got to our game.”… “If you’re not doing your job and doing it early and doing it with focus and discipline, guys get open,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what happened. They got all the easy ones they wanted first.”… “[The Spurs] played with more force and more focus,” Spoelstra said. “They outplayed us, outclassed us from the very tip.”… The most disappointing thing for us in that locker room is to look at each other and to know that we let ourselves down tonight, in terms of the competitiveness and focus that we needed to bring.”
- Stephen Jackson opened up about his life before basketball and said Ron Artest wondered if they would get in trouble right after “the incident” in the Palace. The interview with Dan Le Batard is well worth a watch:
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