Tony Parker Sprains Ankle Could Miss International Play

It’s looks like San Antonios Spurs and French national team point guard Tony Parker might not be fit to play for France in their upcoming tournament Eurobasket 2009.

Parker hurt both his right ankle and thigh when he collided with Austrian player Stjepan Stazic in game last Friday.

The pain in the point guard’s thigh was what bothered him the most, so much so that Parker didn’t even realize that he had sprained his right ankle as well. Thankfully there is no signs of serious damage after Parker went through tests the following day, no ligaments tears or anything that would keep him out for a considerable amount of time for either his French team or the Spurs.

The Spurs look to make a difference in the Western Conference this season after a disappointing playoff appearance where they lost to the Dallas Mavericks. Not only will everyone be back heathly, including Manu Ginobili, but with the addition of Richard Jefferson the Spurs look to be a much better team and a real threat to the Los Angeles Lakers next season.

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Parker Buzzer Beater Puts Spurs Past 76ers 108-106

The San Antonio Spurs aren’t exactly beating teams like they used to with 20 point blowouts and all around convincing victories, but they have been very clutch as of late when tested.

First it was Roger Mason hitting a very clutch three against the Phoenix Suns on Christmas day, everyone thought the Suns were going to walk away with a victory that day, including me, but they Spurs proved they still got it!

The Philadelphia 76ers had a some pretty big expectations coming into this season after having a surprisingly good playoff performance last season and adding superstar Elton Brand into the mix with a lot of young and talented players, but things haven’t been going as planned.

After having a pretty miserable start to the season, head coach Maurice Cheeks took the bulk of the blame and paid for it with his job. Since then, not much has changed, but they definitely came ready to play the Spurs on Saturday night taking them all the way down to the wire.

Through the years in San Antonio point guard has awesome, even though he gets dissed in the All-Star voting year after year it would be hard to argue that he isn’t one of the best and most consistent point guard in the NBA today and he showed why against the 76ers.

With the game on the line and tied at 106 a piece Tony Parker got an offensive rebound off a Manu Ginobili three point shot and made a quick high arcing turnaround shot for the win. Parker finished the game with 15 points and 10 assists, he only hit two shots in the second half, but one of them was the most important in the game.

As for the 76ers Andre Iguodala had a pretty good game with 25 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Andre Miller lead the way in the scoring column with 28 points for the 76ers, but it just wasn’t enough to close out the Spurs.

One of the more impressive and unexpected players on the Spurs this season has been Roger Mason. He kind of caught the eye of the league with the game winner against the Suns, but he has been very consistent as of late, especially from beyond the arc like he was on Saturday as he went 5 for 5 from deep and finished with 19 points.

With this win the Spurs go a half game up in the Southwest division over the New Orleans Hornets for first place. It will be a tough battle in arguably the toughest division in the NBA, but if they keep closing out teams like this they will be tough team to beat down the stretch.

Big Night by Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut End Spurs Win Streak

Well it had to end sometime, but I didn’t think it would have been the Milwaukee Bucks that would be the team to end the Spurs 5 game win streak.

Not like a 5 game win streak is big news or even that impressive, but with so many teams playing at a high level in the NBA this season the Spurs need to be on the ball at all times or it might be the end of an era in San Antonio sooner rather than later.

The Milwaukee Bucks haven’t been a great or even a good team for quite some time now, but at times they do show some signs of promise with their young core of players.

The game was pretty close all game long with both teams going runs through out the game, but even though the Spurs were obviously the better team the Bucks never went away and kept the Spurs on their heels.

The Bucks Michael Redd lead the way in the scoring column with 25 points and managed to rip down 10 boards as well, center Andrew Bogut had a great night too with 20 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks playing pretty good defense on Tim Duncan throughout the game.

As for the Spurs, five players scored in double figures, but Tim Duncan struggled with a poor shooting performance only hitting 7 of 20 from the floor. Tony Parker played well with 19 points and 10 assists, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the Bucks from stealing win in San Antonio.

Although the Spurs were getting out played by the Bucks, Tim Duncan had a chance to send the game into overtime with 5 seconds left as he gave Bogut an up fake and went up for the layup, but missed.