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• A 12-year-old kid was suspended from school for having Matt Bonner's likeness shaved into his head. Bonner responded by giving him and his folks free tickets to Game 2 of the Spurs-Clippers series at the AT&T Center on Thursday night.
• There's a ton of insight to glean from Chris Ballard's tremendous profile on Tim Duncan in Sports Illustrated titled, "21 Shades of Gray." You can read about how Duncan isn't much of a Kevin Garnett fan, how Duncan first bonded with Gregg Popovich on the beach at St. Croix and how Stephen Jackson is "humbled" to count Duncan as a friend. Ballard also offers this very telling portrait of what happens when the Spurs call timeout: "When the Spurs call a timeout and you see the San Antonio coaches huddle a few feet from the bench, it's not to hash out strategy. Rather, Pop is giving Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker time with the team. 'You'll see Timmy over there with a young kid, talking about how he should do this or that or what we meant by such and such,' says Popovich. 'I'll come back to the timeouts sometimes and say, "Are we square?" and Timmy will say, "Yeah, we got 'em."' Popovich pauses. 'He commands that type of respect because he doesn't demand it, if that makes sense.'"
• Should Tim Duncan have been a more public celebrity over the course of his legendary career? Would the NBA and the Spurs been enriched had Duncan given us a deeper glimpse of both his interior and external life? Alex Dewey of Gothic Ginobili grapples with these questions and more.
• For years, Popovich has rationed the minutes of his most important players, readily sitting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker during tough stretches of the schedule. In doing so, Popovich has raised eyebrows around the league and the ire of basketball populists who feel that the Spurs owe it to the ticket-paying public to put the best players on the floor. History sides with Popovich and you don't have to look much farther than the Spurs' current series with the Clippers -- a younger, sprightlier team -- to appreciate Popovich's strategy. But there's also an ancillary benefit to sitting Duncan, Parker and Ginobili periodically: It means that secondary guys get the ball in meaningful spots during games that matter.
• As Zach Lowe of The Point Forward documents in pictures, the Spurs' ability to stretch the floor, mastery of the misdirection, and constant movement have the Clippers' young big men twisted in knots.
• Bill Simmons at Grantland, on the Spurs: "Thank God for the Spurs, an offensive powerhouse that has single-handedly saved the playoffs from turning into a rockfight. They're headed for a second sweep while pacing the league in points per game (103.7), shooting (49.1 percent) and 3-point shooting (42.7 percent). It's the best version of international basketball we've ever seen -- the Spurs might as well be Argentina or Spain, only with superior players. Everything revolves around their slash-and-kick guys (Parker and Ginobili), their 3-point shooters (too many to count) and their versatile big men (Duncan, Diaw and Splitter, all of whom know where to go and what to do). And unlike Nash's high-scoring Suns teams from back in the day, San Antonio can also rebound and protect the rim, which makes them our single most dangerous playoff favorite since the 2001 Lakers. They aren't just beating teams, they're eviscerating them."
• Boris Diaw might best illustrate the strength of the Spurs' system and culture. Here's a guy who, as recently as 12 weeks ago, was a punch line for his conditioning and an irritant to Bobcats coach Paul Silas. Now he's the starting center for the title favorites. When you watch Diaw dig in defensively for the Spurs, it’s a reminder of what a dominant role effort plays in defensive makeup. Prior to landing on the Spurs' doorstep, Diaw hadn't played much defense in years, but here he is grinding away for Popovich in May. On the offensive end, Diaw passes with so much confidence, and his high-low deliveries to Duncan are a reminder of his refined skill set as a big man. Yet another instance of the R.C. Buford telling the league, “If you’re not going to use that guy, we’ll take him.” At 48 Minutes of Hell, Jesse Blanchard has more on Diaw.
• Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell: "You’ve heard me say it before, but the Spurs’ ability to attract a championship supporting cast was fueled by veterans who signed on for an opportunity to chase a championship alongside Tim Duncan. Duncan was the draw. Not the city of San Antonio. And never the promise of more money. It was always Tim Duncan. Not anymore. The draw is the opportunity to play in Gregg Popovich’s system. It’s Tony Parker. It’s Spurs culture. It’s Pop himself. It’s the confidence that the front office can always shore things up by adding a Gary Neal, Tiago Splitter or Kawhi Leonard. It’s the confidence that the front office will manage its books and never the saddle the team with a cancerous contract. It’s the confidence in the ability to improve through the internal development of guys like Danny Green. The Spurs have it figured out. Players understand this."
• Paul Garcia of Project Spurs on the quiet professionalism of rookie Kawhi Leonard, about whom Popovich once said, "He just does his work and goes home."
• Steve Perrin of SB Nation on Gregg Popovich, the Alchemist.
• Jordan Heimer and I shower the Spurs with much love on the most recent episode of The Clippers Podcast, presented by ESPN LA.

How the San Antonio Spurs got tagged as boring never made much sense to me.

Yes, the Spurs were the proctors who broke up the spring flings thrown by the Seven Seconds of Less Phoenix Suns. For those who like their superstars to dazzle, Tim Duncan's charisma deficit and his mechanical game can be affronts. The Spurs have historically been defensive stalwarts, likelier to grind an opponent into submission, not run it off the court. Those qualities, along with a lack of interpersonal drama, might lull certain fans to sleep.

But boredom, at its very root, can be defined as the absence of choice. Get stuck with a program that uses the same formula to produce the same outcome over and over and over again, and you get bored. If you eat the same stuff every day for lunch, you grow tired of it. The same outings with the same people where you talk about the same stuff -- those experiences can become rote.

We're rarely bored when our expectations are challenged, and the most interesting way to do that is by introducing choice into the equation. Anything can happen means that the range of possibilities is endless.

When the Spurs bring the ball upcourt, that's usually the case. They relied on isolation plays only 7.1 percent of the time in the regular season. (Only the Magic used a smaller percentage of their possessions in iso.) In their first-round sweep of Utah, the Spurs ran isos only 24 times in four games. (The Knicks, in contrast, had 124 such possessions over five games.) Instead, the Spurs did what they usually do to get what they want in the half court -- rely on motion, timing, ball movement and, most of all, choice.

Choice is the overriding principle at work in an efficient offense. Take away that offense's primary objective in a half-court possession, and it will gladly move on to option No. 2. Sniff out No. 2, and a third choice will materialize. And so on.

The Spurs under Gregg Popovich have always understood that NBA defenses are too big and quick to confine your offense to one option. There have to be multiple contingency plans in a given possession; otherwise, you leave yourself vulnerable to chance. A lot of fans like the element of chance in sports -- and perhaps that's one explanation for the Spurs' "boring" rap.

But the Spurs' trademark set -- called "motion weak" -- is anything but boring. It's a magical merry-go-round of basketball possibility, a play that has an endless number of outcomes. When it begins, the players aren't even sure where the ball will land, but they know that if they read the defense and move with precision, a quality look at the basket will surface from somewhere.

Let's take a look:

The play starts simply enough: Tony Parker passes the ball off to a wing player on his right. It might be Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Jackson or Gary Neal. Once the ball leaves Parker's hands, he cuts through to the basket.

If the defense is napping or Duncan has prime position against his defender down on the low right block, the ball can go immediately from the wing to Parker on the move (it'll look like a simple give-and-go) or Duncan for a quick shot. Against bad defenses in January, the Spurs will pick up a couple of easy buckets this way, but deep into the postseason, the Spurs usually will have to put in a little more work.


Whoa! There's a lot going on here!

Very true, so let's break down what each of our chess pieces is doing on the board:

• Tony Parker: Rarely do the Spurs get that easy give-and-go mentioned above, so when Parker dishes the ball off in Picture 1, he dives to the basket, but ultimately clears through, then loops around to the wing on the weak side.
• Tim Duncan: If Duncan isn't fed the ball down low on the right block, he'll use a cross screen along the baseline provided by the Spurs' other wing player (2/3), then set up on the opposite block.
• 4/5 (Boris Diaw, Tiago Splitter, Matt Bonner, DeJuan Blair): The big man who isn't Duncan sets up at the top of the floor, where he'll receive a pass from the wing, then keep the ball moving by dishing it off to Parker once Parker has cleared through. When he dishes the ball off, our 4/5 man will then set a down screen for 2/3, once 2/3 has finished setting that aforementioned cross screen for Duncan. After setting that down screen, 4/5 will head over to the right block vacated by Duncan. On the rare occasion Bonner is the guy at the top of the floor and his defender is elsewhere, he can fire away. But generally, this is merely a transit point for the ball between the strong and weak sides fo the floor.
• 2/3 (Ginobili, Leonard, Green, Jackson, Neal): As mentioned above, 2/3 has two jobs: setting that cross-screen for Duncan, then looping back to the perimeter courtesy of a down screen from the big man.

When this cycle of events is over, the ball is back in Parker's hands on the other side of the floor. Duncan may or may not have a mismatch on the left block, depending on how the defense dealt with that cross screen.

The carousel has slowed down a bit, and Parker has a few options:

• Feed Duncan on the left block, six words that have yielded four championships. Duncan might have a mismatch or have his man sealed off. Whatever the case, Duncan one-on-one in the low post is never a lousy consolation prize.
• Kick it over to 2/3. It's difficult to capture the choreography with still diagrams, but 2/3 will often be buzzing at warp speed with his defender trailing in hot pursuit. If there's ample separation and Parker can hit 2/3 on the move, this can either serve as a catch-stop-and-pop midrange jumper, or 2/3 can keep moving and attack.
• Move into a pick-and-roll with Duncan on the left side. If you're the San Antonio Spurs, there are worse things than a Parker-Duncan two-man game on the left side of the floor with the defense still catching up to all the movement.

The responsibility now lies with Parker and Duncan to make the call. If Duncan moves off the block to set a ball screen for Parker, we move on ...

The final resort of the Spurs' signature set looks like the first strike from most teams -- a simple angle pick-and-roll on the left side with a variety of drive-and-dish options for Parker. He can deliver a bounce pass to Duncan on the move (or a quick dish if Duncan pops, which is increasingly the case these days). Otherwise, Parker can hit the other big man on a duck-in beneath the weakside glass or kick the ball out to either of his wings on the perimeter.

Parker recorded a career-high 28.4 assist rate this season, far and away the best mark of his career. How did he do that at age 29? By become fluent in situations like these. It takes years to master an intricate offense, even for the most instinctive players. There's a reason we see veteran teams executing best in the playoffs. It's because this stuff is tricky! Running a sophisticated offense requires tens of thousands of possessions in repetition over several seasons with the same guys.

There was a time when Parker couldn't see or wouldn't respond to all the options in the Spurs' offense. He didn't arrive in the league with the vision of Chris Paul or Steve Nash. It took several seasons and some tough love from Popovich, but Parker has arrived in full.

And that's how you build the league's No. 1 offense.

---

Information in this post was provided by mySynergy Sports.com.

The least profitable death pool in history might be the one that aims to predict the demise of the San Antonio Spurs. It's been a decade-long exercise that accelerates with each injury to Manu Ginobili, every trade rumor that has Tony Parker being shipped off and every moment when Tim Duncan seems like he might finally succumb to the hands of time. Even those who appreciate the Spurs' longevity and don't care that a lot of fans find the team uninteresting whisper every fall that it might be time to blow the whole thing up, lest San Antonio risk descending into small-market purgatory with an aging core.

Then, while everyone is placing bets on their collapse and is distracted by the league's shiny new objects or sexy sideshows, the Spurs quietly get to work. As the rest of the world has been wrapped up in the Linsanity over the past two weeks, the Spurs have ripped off a 10-game winning streak out of plain view. As metaphors go, the contrast couldn't be more poetic. Lin breathed life into a team in a death spiral, whereas the Spurs never require any rescue missions. Their mode of consistency is every bit as certain as Lin's explosion was improbable. In a league dominated by spectacle, the Spurs toil in anonymity.

On Saturday afternoon, San Antonio notched that 10th consecutive victory with a 103-100 overtime win against the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. The victory was bizarre, practically gifted to the Spurs when the Clippers botched an inbounds pass leading by three points with only 9.5 seconds remaining in regulation. The ball landed, serendipitously, in Gary Neal's hands. Neal squared up at the top of the circle, and sent the game into overtime with a 3-pointer.

Despite the strange circumstances, the win was, in many ways, a trademark Spurs performance -- workmanlike and predicated on systematic precision. When Tony Parker wasn't penetrating, he was buzzing around twin baseline screens to tip the balance of the Clippers' defense that was run ragged by the Spurs' ball movement. The Clippers have had success recently switching their big men onto ball handlers in the pick-and-roll, but the Spurs have made a living turning the tables on less experienced opponents. San Antonio sniffed out the Clippers' defensive game plan and made a mockery of it. Parker generated three scores in fewer than two minutes toying with backpedaling Clippers forwards.

The game's most pivotal possession came in overtime when, once again, the Clippers switched on a Parker-Duncan pick-and-roll. With Chris Paul now guarding Duncan on the left block, the Clippers sent a full platoon of help defenders to buffer their diminutive point guard. Duncan has been reading double- and triple-teams for an eternity from the post. All it took was a zippy baseline pass to Gary Neal in the weakside corner for a 3-pointer that put the Spurs up 101-98 with 25.4 seconds to play.

San Antonio has been prospering on its core competence for nearly a generation, but rarely receives anything but a groan from rabid NBA fans outside central Texas. Stylists bemoan the Spurs' adherence to fundamentals as boring and a betrayal of the league's new era of supreme athleticism. The Spurs foiled the Suns squad that was everyone's second-favorite team during the Seven Seconds or Less regime, denying the basketball world a new championship paradigm, and have never been forgiven.

The Spurs' critics loathe that Duncan has stubbornly clung to a monastic public persona. His on-court success is rarely punctuated with an expression of any sort, and the only time he gets excited is when the NBA offices decree that he must go business casual with a sportcoat when sidelined. Ginobili was booed during introductions on Saturday in Los Angeles, presumably for his flopping. Parker is a point guard every bit as dynamic as the league's supernovas, but is rarely claimed by the cool kids. Then there's Popovich, who openly flouts the league's rugged schedule each season by resting his stars at will, denying the ticket-paying public the as-advertised product.

All the while, the Spurs chug ahead, staving off mortality. In a league where coaches operate in fear, a meticulous Popovich wins games choreographing sets that rely on execution rather than one-on-one play. The front office plucks an all-world backcourt of Parker and Ginobili in the NBA draft with the 28th and 57th picks respectively. Lesser players become greater ones by subscribing to a system built on leveraging the strengths of those who have few. Coaches around the league have appropriated Popovich's greatest hits. Watch Philadelphia and others run the "Motion Weak" set, which the Spurs rode to their most recent titles. See team after team run a wedge play fashioned by the Spurs for Duncan to free up their own power forwards. Imitation might be the most sincere form of flattery, but few teams can approximate the Spurs' sturdiness.

On Sunday, the NBA will be enraptured by Jeremy Lin and the Knicks as they host Dallas at America's basketball cathedral. More than 1,500 miles away at the AT&T Center, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo will feature a Donkey & Mule Show as the Spurs soldier on to Salt Lake City, where they'll continue their nine-game road trip in obscurity -- respected by many, but unloved by most.

SAN ANTONIO -- A year ago, Gary Neal was shooting jump shots in Malaga, Spain. Playing for Spanish club Unicaja Malaga, he was a long way from the NBA playoffs.

Twelve months later, Neal is the man largely responsible for helping the San Antonio Spurs avoid elimination for at least a couple of nights. Neal hit a 3-pointer as time expired in the fourth quarter Wednesday night to send San Antonio’s game with the Memphis Grizzlies into overtime. The Spurs went on to win 110-103 and cut Memphis’ series lead to 3-2.

It’s been a long road for Gary Neal. It took two colleges, several European teams and a summer league stint for the 26-year-old to make his way to the NBA.

"It was mid-September and I was working out and he showed up one day,” Manu Ginobili said after the game. “They told me that this was the new shooter we had. I’m not lying when I say that I saw him miss the first 20 shots he took.”

Neal went on to become a valuable shooter off the bench for the Spurs, averaging 9.8 points per game in his rookie season and shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. Neal was even named to the rookie team at NBA All-Star Weekend. In the playoffs, Neal’s averages have dipped to 7.8 points per game and 38 percent from 3, finding open looks hard to come by against the Grizzlies’ swarming defense.

But when San Antonio’s season came down to one final play during Game 5 on Wednesday night, the Spurs facing a three-point deficit with 1.7 seconds left, coach Gregg Popovich turned to Neal. Popovich drew up a play to get Neal the ball at the top of the key and find space for a shot.

“I think it was a very good call by Pop,” Ginobili said. “It was the kind of play that's designed for him to take a shot like that because he’s the one with the quickest release.”

With Ginobili inbounding the ball, Neal lined up on the opposite side of the floor. Spurs big man Tim Duncan curled around the free throw line and set a down-screen for Neal. Neal cut to the top of the key and gathered the pass from Ginobili.

O.J. Mayo, who was defending Neal on the play, lost his balance slightly trying to tip the pass away. Neal turned, swung the ball through and took a hard dribble to his right.

“Timmy had set a great screen, and the guy defending me was kind of behind me,” Neal said. “I knew that he was going to try to overplay me, so I knew he was a little aggressive.

“My feet were directly under me, I had good legs, I got the one dribble, I had a good follow-through.”

Falling away slightly toward the sideline, Neal was able to get a great look at the rim and sink the shot. It was one of the better looks the Spurs have gotten from 3-point range in the series and it came at an opportune time.

“You don’t really think about the magnitude of making or missing it; you just think about trying to get the best shot you can get,” Neal said. “It went in today, but I think that was best shot I could have got in that situation.”

Despite admitting that the shot was the biggest of his career, Neal didn’t seem fazed when discussing his number being called on San Antonio’s most important play this season.

“It’s kind of a great feeling; Coach Pop draws the play up and you see you’re going to get the shot and nobody looks around and questions it or anything like that,” Neal said. “It was great walking out of the huddle and your teammates are happy with you getting the shot and expecting you to make it.

“That’s a great feeling.”

The San Antonio Spurs have plenty of veteran leaders on their team, but facing elimination in the final seconds of regulation against the Memphis Grizzlies, it was a rookie that saved them. Gary Neal hit a three-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer to send the game into overtime where the Spurs would go on to win 110-103.

Neal led rookies in three-point percentage at 41.9 percent during the regular season, good for 12th-best overall in the league among qualifiers. However, he wasn't even the best three-point shooter on his own team during the regular season. Matt Bonner and Richard Jefferson both shot a higher percentage.

Before Wednesday night, Neal had only one attempt this season in the final five seconds to win or tie a game -- missing a three-point attempt in the final seconds against the Suns on April 13 that would have tied the game.

From the Elias Sports Bureau: This was the first time in Spurs history that they avoided elimination from a playoff series with an overtime win. Prior to Neal, the last player to make a game-tying three-point field goal with less than one second remaining in the fourth quarter of a playoff game was the Detroit Pistons Chauncey Billups in 2004 against the New Jersey Nets. The Nets won that game in triple overtime.

A lot of credit for Wednesday's win goes to Manu Ginobili, who made a tough two-pointer with his foot on the three-point line to cut the Spurs deficit to one point with just over two seconds left in the fourth quarter. Ginobili, who struggled in Game 4, bounced back with 33 points on 10-of-18 shooting. The Spurs are 8-0 when Ginobili scores 30 or more points in the playoffs.

OTHER NBA ACTION:
The Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Denver Nuggets behind a dominant performance by Kevin Durant. With the Thunder trailing by nine points with 3:30 left in regulation, Durant led the comeback by outscoring the Nuggets 14-6 by himself. Durant hit five of six shots in that stretch and finished with 41 points, which tied a playoff career high. Of the four 40-point playoff games this season, Kevin Durant has two of them. The Thunder are now 7-0 this season when Durant scores 40 or more (5-0 in the regular season, 2-0 in the postseason).

The most dramatic shot of the Las Vegas Summer League came at the buzzer of the 58th and final game -- a side-winding heave by Mark Tyndale to give the D-League Select a 79-78 win over the Clippers:

• How will Larry Sanders' game fit in with Milwaukee's existing parts? His sound face-up 18-footer will help a Bucks offense that was choked for open space in the half court. He also gives Brandon Jennings another dependable partner on the pick-and-roll and wins almost every race to the rim in transition. A Sanders-Andrew Bogut tandem could eventually constitute the best defensive frontcourt in the league. Milwaukee is unlikely to reach the highest echelon in the East with its firepower, but by blanketing the paint with two capable pick-and-roll defenders who can block shots and clean the glass, the Bucks have the makings of a team that could post a stingy defensive efficiency rating in the high 90s.
• Luke Babbitt will be a deadly catch-and-shoot threat and will give Portland the spacing it needs when he's on the floor at either forward spot. On dribble-drives, Babbitt's handle is strong enough, but he had trouble finishing at the rim this week through traffic. In his final game, Babbitt made an adjustment. He was still aggressive off the dribble, but looked to draw and absorb contact. Babbitt got to the stripe eight times (8-for-8) after earning only 13 attempts in his first four games.
• After turning the ball over 28 times in his first four games, Clippers point guard Eric Bledsoe put together a heady, controlled performance against the D-League Select team. He changed speeds and read the defense beautifully off high ball screens from Rod Benson -- bursting into the paint only when invited, and making smart passes or drawing contact when the defense converged. He scored 13 points (6-for-10 from the field), grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists against three turnovers.
• The Spurs bludgeoned the Grizzlies by sticking Benetton Treviso guard Gary Neal in the left corner and creating open looks for him off drive-and-kicks or curls. When sets broke down for the Spurs, Neal was the safety valve. He hit 6-of-9 attempts from beyond the arc in the first half.
• Greivis Vasquez finished up an unremarkable week at the point for Memphis. Never has so much dribbling produced so few results.
• DeMarre Carroll, who has also struggled this week, looked more like the active, versatile forward whose intensity gave the Griz a jolt of energy at selective moments last season. He looked most comfortable at the 3 on Sunday.
• It's not unusual for a player to take a tour with one team in summer league and then hook on with another squad after the first team finishes up or has gotten a sufficient glimpse of him. Sun Yue started summer league with the Wizards, then moved over to the Bucks midway through the schedule. Meanwhile, Gary Forbes played sparingly with Houston, then got a call from the Clippers, who wanted to get a look at his game.
• At 6-foot-9, Wayne Chism defends all over the floor, fights through perimeter screens, keeps the ball moving and will battle -- even if he doesn't excel -- as a post defender. If he can get a little stretchier with his range, he could help out an NBA team in the future as a thinking man's Brian Cook.
• Yaroslav Korolev was in action against the Clippers, the team that drafted him in 2005 with the 12th overall pick. Now 23 years old, the 6-foot-9 Korolev has filled out and looks the part of the rangy, athletic all-purpose forward, but he still lacks an intuitive rhythm for the game. Against a small Clippers lineup, Korolev could've been a strong defensive presence, but he's far too timid as a helper. Offensively, he's decisive only as a spot-up shooter from distance. The closer he ventures to the basket, the less assertive he is.

• John Krolik of Cavs: The Blog on Omar Samhan: "Samhan has really worked on that pick-and-pop jump shot, and it's looked good throughout his time in Vegas. When he can get his feet set, he's very comfortable -- it's a very natural shot for him. He went 0-10 from the three-point line during his time at St. Mary's, but earlier today he stepped out behind the college three-point line and calmly swished one. He told me earlier in the week that he's working on extending his range to the NBA three, and he's making strides in that direction. Hopefully he performs well in Lithuania."
• New rule for Las Vegas Summer League 2010: Defenses are required to implement a full-court press for at least three possessions per half.