SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Spurs guard Tony Parker on Tuesday backed off comments made to French journalists last month that San Antonio can no longer likely contend for another championship.

“You know newspapers need stories and to talk about stuff, and I’m in a great situation to know what it is,” Parker said. “I love the Spurs. I love being a Spur. I re-signed four years so if I didn’t believe we can win a championship I would not have signed.”

The former All-Star, however, didn’t exactly go out of his way to try to clarify the remarks made last month in Paris, a few weeks after the 61-win Spurs were upset in the first round by eighth-seeded Memphis.

An article on FIBA’s website quoted Parker as saying, “We will always have a good team but can no longer say we’re playing for a championship.” He added that it would be tough for the Spurs to regenerate themselves with Tim Duncan turning 36 next spring and Manu Ginobili turning 34 next month.

Parker is speaking French in the interview. A video of the interview, credited to the French sports daily L’Equipe, quotes Parker in English subtitles as saying, “It was sort of our last chance this season.”

Back in San Antonio on Tuesday, Parker brushed off the quotes, offering a vague explanation of French reporters getting carried away.

“I don’t have to justify anything,” Parker said. “Me, bottom line, I love being a Spur and that’s why I signed four more years. I have nothing to justify to you. The only thing I care about is (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich), Timmy and Manu, and my teammates.”

Parker has spent his entire NBA career with the Spurs, arriving in San Antonio at the age of 19 and winning the starting job that season. He turned 29 last month and begins a four-year, $50 million extension next season.

Parker was equally candid about San Antonio’s diminishing title hopes in training camp last October. He said then that he felt the upcoming season was the last chance for the Spurs to win a fifth championship in the Duncan era, again pointing toward the team’s aging core.

If this season was the Spurs’ last chance, they mostly spent it playing that way. They carried the league’s best record for practically the entire season and entered the playoffs with the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. But the youthful Grizzlies beat the Spurs in six games, making San Antonio just the fourth No. 1 seed to fall in the first round.

Parker averaged 17.5 points and 6.6 assists last season. He said no one within the Spurs contacted him after the interview in France was published.

“They know me, they don’t need to contact me,” Parker said. “Pop doesn’t have time right now. He’s drinking wine and having fun.”

SAN ANTONIO
– Spurs guard Tony Parker on Tuesday backed off comments made to French journalists last month that San Antonio can no longer likely contend for another championship.

“You know newspapers need stories and to talk about stuff, and I’m in a great situation to know what it is,” Parker said. “I love the Spurs. I love being a Spur. I re-signed four years so if I didn’t believe we can win a championship I would not have signed.”

The former All-Star, however, didn’t exactly go out of his way to try to clarify the remarks made last month in Paris, a few weeks after the 61-win Spurs were upset in the first round by eighth-seeded Memphis.

An article on FIBA’s website quoted Parker as saying, “We will always have a good team but can no longer say we’re playing for a championship.” He added that it would be tough for the Spurs to regenerate themselves with Tim Duncan turning 36 next spring and Manu Ginobili turning 34 next month.

Parker is speaking French in the interview. A video of the interview, credited to the French sports daily L’Equipe, quotes Parker in English subtitles as saying, “It was sort of our last chance this season.”

Back in San Antonio on Tuesday, Parker brushed off the quotes, offering a vague explanation of French reporters getting carried away.

“I don’t have to justify anything,” Parker said. “Me, bottom line, I love being a Spur and that’s why I signed four more years. I have nothing to justify to you. The only thing I care about is (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich), Timmy and Manu, and my teammates.”

Parker has spent his entire NBA career with the Spurs, arriving in San Antonio at the age of 19 and winning the starting job that season. He turned 29 last month and begins a four-year, $50 million extension next season.

Parker was equally candid about San Antonio’s diminishing title hopes in training camp last October. He said then that he felt the upcoming season was the last chance for the Spurs to win a fifth championship in the Duncan era, again pointing toward the team’s aging core.

If this season was the Spurs’ last chance, they mostly spent it playing that way. They carried the league’s best record for practically the entire season and entered the playoffs with the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. But the youthful Grizzlies beat the Spurs in six games, making San Antonio just the fourth No. 1 seed to fall in the first round.

Parker averaged 17.5 points and 6.6 assists last season. He said no one within the Spurs contacted him after the interview in France was published.

“They know me, they don’t need to contact me,” Parker said. “Pop doesn’t have time right now. He’s drinking wine and having fun.”

Each day, we are going to preview the night’s NBA Playoffs action by looking at the adjustments that can be made by the losing team and showing what they can do to get the win.

Maybe the biggest shock of round one’s first set of games was the San Antonio Spurs losing to the Memphis Grizzlies this past Sunday.  Even without Manu Ginobili, this should have been a game that the Spurs won, and they could have won it if they would have done a few things differently.  They are going to have to make these changes if they want even up the series tonight.

Offense: Kick The Ball To The Corner

The Spurs were able to put together one of the league’s best offenses by taking advantage of their ability to shoot the three-point shot, especially from the corner. One of their favorite ways to set up the corner three is to work the pick-and-roll game, force the defense to sink in, and then kick the ball out to the corner. The Spurs abandoned this strategy in Game 1:

For the game, the Spurs only attempted four threes from the corner, which is much lower than what they have done over the course of the regular season.  So how did this happen?

Here, Tony Parker comes off of the screen and gets into the paint.  Once in the paint, Parker takes a little floater that he misses.  This isn’t a terrible shot, but it isn’t the Spurs’ offense.  Normally, the ball gets kicked to Jefferson in the corner (who is open on this play) and Jefferson knocks down the three-point shot.

Once again, we have the Spurs running another pick-and-roll.  This time, Parker gets the basketball to DeJaun Blair who goes up for the lay-up but misses.  Again, he has a chance to kick it out to the corner for an open three.

Finally, we have Tim Duncan in basically the same position as Blair was in the previous clip.  One thing Duncan has been very good at all season is taking that pass as the roll man and immediately kicking it out to the corner without even looking at the rim.  That quick touch pass is what got most of those corner threes.  Here however, Duncan takes a lay-up that he misses instead of kicking it out to the corner.

When the Spurs stuck to the offensive system, they were able to get good looks against the Grizzlies:

This is the Spurs’ offense.  Run a pick-and-roll, try to get the ball in the middle, and when the defense collapses, kick it to the corner for the open three.  Parker misses the three, but these are the open looks that the Spurs need to get.  They didn’t get enough of them in Game 1, and if it happens again in Game 2, they might get beat again.

Defense: Double The Post

We knew going into the series that the Spurs were going to struggle with the Grizzlies and their post offense.  The Spurs have one good defender in Tim Duncan, but their second post defender (DeJuan Blair/Matt Bonner) was at a mismatch.  The Grizzlies were able to take advantage in the post during Game 1, scoring 30 points on 23 post chances, good for a PPP of 1.28.  However, when the defense committed a second defender, the Grizzlies only scored three points off of it.  The problem with this is that the Spurs only did it five times.  

Here, the Grizzlies eventually get the basketball to Zach Randolph in the post.  Once the pass gets made, Tony Parker leaves the passer, Mike Conley, and doubles down on Randolph.  This forces Randolph to kick the basketball out to Conley who misses the contested three.

The reason why doubling down on the post works is because the Grizzlies are the worst spot-up shooting team in the league, and the double team takes them from doing something they are really good at doing and forces them to something they are not very good at doing.  If the Spurs want to stop Randolph/Gasol, they are going to need to send doubles and live with the Grizzlies taking shots on the outside.

ATLANTA (AP)—The San Antonio Spurs, determined to end their recent string of road losses, made a fourth-quarter statement against the Hawks.

Tony Parker(notes) scored 26 points and San Antonio moved closer to home-court advantage in the playoffs by ending a four-game road losing streak with a 97-90 win over Atlanta on Tuesday night.

The Spurs led only 81-79 midway through the final period before taking control with an 11-3 run.

“Finally!” said Parker, who contrasted the Spurs’ strong finish with the team’s problems in closing out games in their recent six-game losing streak.

“If we don’t learn from those, something’s wrong with us,” Parker said.

Manu Ginobili(notes) had 18 points and Tim Duncan(notes) had 17 for the Spurs, who had been 0-6 on the road against Eastern Conference teams which have clinched playoff berths.

The Spurs began the night 2 1/2 games ahead of the Lakers in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

San Antonio ended the six-game losing streak with Sunday’s home win over Phoenix. The Spurs took a more important step toward home-court advantage through the Western Conference playoffs by taking their first road win in almost three weeks.

“We were a little shaky the last couple weeks,” Ginobili said. “But we are still out there and we are optimistic, but yet I don’t feel that we are playing our best basketball right now.”

Joe Johnson(notes) had 21 points and Jamal Crawford(notes) had 20 for the Hawks.

Atlanta’s Al Horford(notes) said he could see a difference in the Spurs in the final period.

“I think they picked up the tempo a little bit, and it took us out of some things we wanted to run and how we wanted to do it,” Horford said. “They’re just a great defensive team. They have a lot of guards that just keep attacking you in different ways.”

The Hawks were short-handed on their front line. Forward Josh Smith(notes) had swelling in his right knee and was not in uniform. Center Jason Collins(notes) did not return after suffering a sprained left ankle late in the first half.

With Smith out, Horford moved to forward as Collins started at center.

The injuries only added to the Hawks’ difficulties in stopping the drives to the basket by Parker and Ginobili.

“Both guys did a great job of breaking the defense down and getting into the paint,” said Hawks coach Larry Drew of Parker and Ginobili. “We did not do a good job of containing the ball.

“We certainly missed Josh. We missed his energy. We missed his athleticism. Josh has a way of erasing some of our mistakes.”

Zaza Pachulia(notes) took over at center for the start of the second half.

The Hawks led 42-31 in the second quarter before the Spurs closed the half with a 12-4 run to trail 46-43 at the break. Parker had 10 points in the third period as San Antonio pulled ahead.

The Spurs outscored the Hawks 31-25 in the final period.

“We obviously did a better job than we’ve been doing in that regard,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said.

“We started out a little flat, but I thought the defense picked up and we got a little more physical and aggressive and that fueled some of our offense.”

San Antonio led 81-79 when Atlanta’s Kirk Hinrich(notes) was called for a flagrant one foul against Ginobili, who made both free throws to start the decisive 11-3 run.

Hinrich had 13 points before fouling out. Horford had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Popovich has 795 wins with San Antonio since 1996, matching Red Auerbach’s total with Boston from 1950-66. The two are tied for second all time for the most wins with one team, behind Jerry Sloan’s 1,127 with the Jazz.

Notes: F Marvin Williams(notes) was given the Jason Collier Memorial Trophy before the game for his community service. The award is named for the late Hawks center who died on Oct. 15, 2005. … The Spurs’ last road win came on March 18 at Dallas. … C Etan Thomas(notes) appeared in only his 10th game as the injuries to Smith and Collins stretched the Hawks’ bench. … The Spurs took a 39-25 advantage in rebounds while outscoring the Hawks 46-36 in the paint.