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“Hopefully, we can change that. I want to go to Milwaukee and get a win.”
Bottom line: We need this win.
Seventh in the West, Spurs’ transitional period continues
Mike Monroe
MILWAUKEE — By the time the Spurs’ charter jet landed at Gen. Billy Mitc International Airport on Christmas evening, the cold rain that had fallen all day had turned several inches of crusty snow a dirty gray.
For South Texans, that still qualified as a white Christmas.
For Richard Jefferson, who had spent the previous holiday Christmas night here as a member of the Bucks, it was a reminder that even the coldest early San Antonio winter in years is a major upgrade from past experience.
“I’m not really big on white Christmas,” Jefferson said. “I’d rather enjoy 70-degree weather. That’s how I grew up. I don’t need snow to feel happy.”
Jefferson returns tonight to Wisconsin for the first time since the June trade that reshaped the Spurs and prompted instant speculation that the teams was headed for a fast return to the top of the Western Conference standings.
Things haven’t worked out as seamlessly as everyone expected, for Jefferson or the Spurs. A player who averaged 21.2 points over his previous two seasons enters tonight’s game against the Bucks at the Bradley Center averaging 13.4 points in his first 26 games in silver and black.
You have to go back to Jefferson’s rookie season in New Jersey to find lower single-season scoring production. Then, he averaged 9.4 points per game for a team that won the Eastern Conference le.
The Spurs come into the game off a distressing loss to an undermanned Portland team that was without its leading scorer, its starting center and his backup, and three more regular members of its player rotation. They are 15-11, seventh in the Western Conference. They haven’t beaten a team with a winning record since Nov. 27.
High summer expectations, Jefferson said, failed to account for the difficulties teams face when major roster moves are made.
“If you look at Antonio (McDyess), myself, DeJuan Blair, everyone outside of Tim (Duncan) has had ups and downs,” he said. “Everyone is going through adjustment days.
That’s a part of the game of basketball.
“Everyone started talking about all this (high expectation) stuff in the pre-season, and during the summer, but as players you realize: Forget what everyone is saying. We understand it’s going to be a 100-game season and you’re trying to get better.”
Jefferson is beginning to get better. In his last four games he has made 20 of 39 shots and appears to have fixed his free-throw stroke. A career 77.9 percent at the foul line, he had slipped to 67 percent before making all 13 free throws in his last four games to raise his season percentage to 71.0.
His early experiences on two Nets teams that reached the NBA Finals taught him the virtues of patience and perseverance.
“There have been a couple of teams in my career that were like that, just trying to get better as the season progresses,” he said. “And this is a new situation a lot of us are being put into. You come here and you have a group of guys who know it and have had a lot of success with it, and you add a group of guys that are trying to learn it, so you’re thinking while you’re playing. That is never a good thing.”
The Bucks hold the distinction of having the best record against the Spurs since Duncan joined the team in 1997.
But Jefferson said he and his former teammates never talked about what qualified as a statistical anomaly, considering the number of bad Milwaukee teams there have been during the Duncan era.
Sure enough, the lottery-bound Bucks swept the Spurs in Jefferson’s only season in Milwaukee.
“It wasn’t discussed,” he said. “But after we beat them the second time (last season), someone said, ‘We sweep them every time they win a championship.’
“I just laughed about that. You don’t really pay attention to that. And they’ve had about five coaches since Tim’s been here.
“Hopefully, we can change that. I want to go to Milwaukee and get a win.”
“Hopefully, we can change that. I want to go to Milwaukee and get a win.”
Bottom line: We need this win.
yes spurs need a w, to start the road trip with an L would be pretty fcked
Spurs win!
Spurs favored by 2.5 points. Bet the Bucks and be happy when the Spurs lose.
does anyone have timmy's record vs bucks? i wonder if he can finish his career with a winning record on every team in the nba
for that matter, it would be nice to see his head-2-head to any team in the league; i bet fakers are close by
11 wins, 12 losses.
nice! thanks 228
I was worrying about the team then I realized it's december. This team always starts slow and it'll take longer with so many new parts, So I'm not really worried till this happens in Feb.
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