No Reason To Sweat San Antonio Spurs' Slow Start

The Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic have taken flight. The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers are still humming.

Someone will have to beat the Lake Show to retake the NBA throne, and Kobe Bryant's 41-point night in Houston, which he managed while battling the flu, reminded everyone how tough that task will be.

While the Celtics stole the Cleveland Cavaliers’ home opener and the Lakers won back-to-back overtime games in Oklahoma City and Houston without Pau Gasol, it would appear the San Antonio Spurs have yet to leave the city’s international airport.

The real ones, at least.

The team is 2-0 at home, winning by an average of 18 points. On the road, the squad is winless, with an 11-point average margin of defeat.

It might be tempting for silver and black fans to start the annual freak out a few months early. The panic button looks attractive, huh?

Step back. Gather yourself, Spurs fan. It’s OK.

A road loss to the banal Utah Jazz Thursday night—who then let one slip at Energy Solutions Arena to the lowly Sacramento Kings over the weekend—is as disconcerting as the 12-point smack down in Portland Friday night.

In the first half of the second-night surrender to the Chicago Bulls, no one in a Spur uniform could snare a rebound, despite playing excellent initial shot defense. In that second half, no one in a Spurs uniform could score, despite a better effort on the boards.

How did the Blazers and Bulls shoot below 43 percent and still win handily?

With Tony Parker again sidelined in November with an ankle sprain and the squad’s inability to put together complete games, this might feel like déjà vu.

This isn’t last year, and the signs are as encouraging as they are plentiful.

A thorough roster overhaul costs more than money. It requires time and patience, both of which you should afford the Spurs before giving up on them.

You want to entomb this team after five games? What kind of fan or basketball viewer are you?

This early in the year, it is silly, unadvisable, and dangerous to worry about other contenders’ fast starts. The Spurs cannot win or lose a fifth Larry O’ Brien trophy in November, not with that domineering 113-96 opening night win over the New Orleans Hornets, a playoff nemesis just a year ago.

San Antonio fared differently at the end of October in 2008. Then, the dysfunction-tplagued, square-peg-in-a-round-hole Phoenix Suns beat the Spurs on opening night, the first time any opponent had done that in the Tim Duncan era.

A string of double-digit defeats and single-digit wins ensued. The Spurs point differential was the lowest since Duncan's rookie campaign.

This team can be good, really good—if you can wait long enough for the expected results.

Adding Rasheed Wallace and Ron Artest, hot-tempered and flammable as they are, is an easier task than meshing six new rotation cogs with an established championship core.

Coach Gregg Popovich has his most athletic frontcourt flyer since David Robinson—a talented rookie rebounder, a tenacious 29-year-old defender, an aging shot blocker, a rugged frontcourt mate for Duncan, and a few youngsters with spot-duty potential—and he has no idea how to use any of them.

Trust me. This is a wonderful problem.

Richard Jefferson tomahawked an emphatic jam over Greg Oden late in Friday’s loss. When was the last time a Spur other than Manu Ginobili did that?

He scored 21 points on seven-of-eight shooting in a home rout of the Sacramento Kings.

He won't just compile those numbers against lottery squads.

His 28 free throw attempts, tied for the team lead, demonstrate his aggressiveness going to the rack.

Dejuan Blair corralled 14 rebounds in his professional regular season debut.

Theo Ratliff blocked four shots against the Kings.

Antonio McDyess nearly recorded a double-double against the Hornets. His elbow jumper has been automatic and he moves as well without the ball as any post-Robinson big.

Keith Bogans gave the squad a few effective minutes of defense in the Portland game.

Popovich will sort out the particulars of the most talented roster in franchise history soon enough.

McDyess won’t often be a primary reason for an opponent’s facile layup drill as he was in Salt Lake City.

Jefferson will learn to balance his forays to the rim with his treys and mid-range jumpers.

He will punctuate more than a few important possessions with thunderous jams.

Blair’s size will hurt him against Gasol, David West, and other primo bigs in the Western Conference, but Pop will find the right compliment of players who can help mask his defensive deficiencies and height disadvantage when working in the post.

The 6’7” glass cleaner with a freakish wingspan won’t play at the end of most close contests. Tim Duncan, the greatest power forward ever, will do that.

When Parker returns, his backup-turned starter fill-in George Hill will be that much better.

The San Antonio Express-News quoted Pop as saying during training camp that Hill was his “favorite player.” His mucilaginous defense allows him to cover ones and twos, and his improved three-point stroke will pay dividends.

We might not be saying “Bruce who” in a few months, but the defense will be a lot more consistent.

Expect the team to finish in the top three or four in opponent field goal percentage, top five in points allowed, top six in point differential, top five in fewest turnovers, and top 10 in scoring.

That, my friend, is a recipe for a title shot.

Popovich told the Express-News that the summer spending spree would put the Spurs “back in the ballgame.”

They are not better than the Lakers until they prove it in the playoffs. The coach knows it, the players know it, and you should, too.

In baseball terms, this is the first inning with many more opportunities to avoid strikeouts.

If you can’t trust this team to figure it out, whom can you trust?

If the team fails to take advantage of this home friendly stretch—in which it plays 12 of the next 15 at the AT&T Center starting with tonight’s contest against the Toronto Raptors—your finger should inch closer to the panic button.

Until then, relax and enjoy the ride.