{"id":400573,"date":"2011-04-26T21:26:18","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T21:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/26\/grizzlies-could-oust-spurs-in-game-5-ap\/"},"modified":"2011-04-26T21:26:18","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T21:26:18","slug":"grizzlies-could-oust-spurs-in-game-5-ap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/26\/grizzlies-could-oust-spurs-in-game-5-ap\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies could oust Spurs in Game 5 (AP)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

SAN ANTONIO (AP)\u2014So is this how the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u2019 dynasty might end?<\/p>\n

Not with Tim Duncan<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> hoisting a fifth NBA championship trophy\u2014a scenario that seemed wholly realistic just a month ago\u2014but with the top-seeded Spurs ousted in the first round by the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, a franchise that previously never won a playoff game?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put ourselves in this position,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cWe gotta stay alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan meant this series. But the stakes for him may go even further.<\/p>\n

Duncan, at the end what became a terrible 35th birthday, spoke softly after Memphis crushed the Spurs 104-86 on Monday in Game 4, putting San Antonio on the brink of becoming just the second No. 1 seed in NBA history to lose a best-of-seven series in the first round.<\/p>\n

Drafting the obituary of the Duncan era has been something of a spring tradition since 2008, a year after San Antonio won the last of its four championships. It remains premature to declare this the last run for the Spurs, whether or not Memphis finishes them off Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Yet these Spurs won 61 games. They secured home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. They played quicker, became a little younger this season and kept their Big 3 mostly healthy for the first time in years.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not the last run for the Spurs, at the very least, they seem on the verge of squandering a position Duncan may never see again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a lot to lose,\u201d Spurs guard Manu Ginobili<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> said. \u201cWe had an unbelievable season. We were the No. 1 seed in the league for 65, 70 games, playing unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of that has mattered to Memphis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the better team. They won 61 games, and we won 46 games,\u201d Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. \u201cTheir record all year long said they were the better team. As I\u2019ve always said, it doesn\u2019t matter who is this better team during the regular season. When you get to the playoffs, each series you have to be the better team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollins walked his players through a 25-minute film session in Memphis before the team left for San Antonio. So good a mood was Hollins in, according to guard Tony Allen<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> that the Grizzlies were bestowed with rare praise from their coach while re-watching their dismantling of the Spurs in the second half of Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a first,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

Hollins is hardly the only one in Memphis in high spirits: the city airport gave the team charter plane a water-cannon send-off before takeoff, before the Grizzlies possibly return late Wednesday night with a spot in the Western Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a media person standing around that would\u2019ve gone and put his house and his paycheck on us being up 3-1,\u201d Hollins said Tuesday. \u201cBut that\u2019s why you play the games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas is the only No. 1 seed to fall in the first round since the series was expanded to the best-of-seven format. That was in 2007, when Golden State beat the Mavericks in six games after Dallas coasted through the regular season with 67 wins.<\/p>\n

Only eight teams have rallied from a 3-1 deficit, Phoenix being the last in 2006. That same year, the Spurs nearly joined the list before losing Game 7 in overtime to Dallas, despite Duncan going for 41 points and 15 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Five years later Monday night, on his 35th birthday, Duncan had six points and seven rebounds. The Spurs this season diminished his role while putting together the second-best regular season in franchise history, making Duncan more of a complementary piece alongside Tony Parker<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> and Ginobili.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all been a part of what Spurs owner Peter Holt earlier this season called \u201cgoing from the Tim Duncan era to the next era.\u201d He said that March 4, and later that night, Holt sat courtside next to Texas Gov. Rick Perry as the Spurs crushed LeBron James<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> and the Miami Heat<\/a> by 30 points.<\/p>\n

That night, San Antonio improved to an NBA-best 51-11\u2014already more wins than the Grizzlies would get\u2014and few teams looked as legitimate championship contenders as the Spurs.<\/p>\n

A lot\u2019s changed in one month. But the Spurs don\u2019t have time to change much now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just go play,\u201d Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Memphis, Tenn., contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Read More:
\nGrizzlies could oust Spurs in Game 5 (AP)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO (AP)\u2014So is this how the San Antonio Spurs \u2019 dynasty might end? 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