Top assistant, rookies lead Spurs to victory over Warriors
Web Posted: 10/19/2007 12:18 AM CDT
Jeff McDonald
Express-News
A few hours before the Spurs’ preseason game Thursday night against Golden State, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich approached his lead assistant with a curious and unenviable assignment.
Take over the team for a night, Popovich told Mike Budenholzer.
Oh, and you don’t have the services of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Bruce Bowen, Brent Barry, Robert Horry, Jacque Vaughn or Beno Udrih.
Good luck with that.
Turns out, Budenholzer didn’t need it.
With Popovich watching from the comforts of general manager R.C. Buford’s luxury box — and with his team sporting a more potent lineup in street clothes than in uniform — the Spurs outlasted the Warriors 116-111 at the AT&T Center.
“I didn’t think it was fair that we chose to rest Tim and Tony and Bruce and Brent and those guys tonight,” Budenholzer joked after coaching his first NBA game. “That wasn’t my decision. But it was in the cards and I just had to roll with it.”
With Budenholzer moving to lead assistant this season in the wake of P.J. Carlesimo’s exodus to Seattle, Popovich wanted his new right-hand man to have the practice of coaching a game. It’s an experience that could prove vital to Budenholzer should Popovich ever be ejected from a regular-season game.
For his NBA head coaching debut, Budenholzer didn’t have Duncan. But he did have Darius Washington.
Washington, a surprise starter at point guard, capped a stellar night by hitting six free throws in the final 40 seconds to put the Spurs ahead for good. The undrafted rookie from Memphis flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
The Spurs (2-1) closed out their first victory over an NBA team this preseason with a lineup of Washington, Marcus Williams, Keith Langford, Kris Lang and Ian Mahinmi on the floor.
“I think we showed heart and hustle,” Washington said. “We were trying to get the victory, that’s the great thing about it.”
Manu Ginobili continued his sizzling preseason with 16 points, despite sitting out the fourth quarter. Francisco Elson, who started in place of Duncan, had 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, the furthest Duncan got from the bench came during a second-quarter timeout, when he wandered over to the scorer’s table in a fruitful search for cherry Lifesavers candies.
Elson said he knew it was going to be a different kind of night when he glanced around the locker room during pregame.
“I saw all the jerseys disappearing,” Elson said. "He’s not playing, he’s not playing, he’s not playing "
The Warriors (3-2) hardly treated the game as a must-win affair, but stuck with their veterans a little longer than did the Spurs.
Baron Davis, Matt Barnes and Al Harrington all played a large chunk of the fourth quarter. Davis and Harrington were two of four Warriors to finish with 17 points.
Harrington added 14 rebounds to complete the double-double, but also missed 15 of his 22 field goal attempts.
“We did some good things and some bad things,” Golden State’s Stephen Jackson said. “So we have a little way to go.”
To hear Budenholzer tell it, he still has a long way to go before he feels comfortable taking over for Popovich in a real game.
“I think we’re a lot better with Pop on the sidelines,” Budenholzer said. “I enjoyed it, but it’s not something I expect to do a lot of this year.”
Still, he won an NBA game, and he did it with most of his all-stars tied behind his back. That must count for something.