SAN ANTONIO.- In tomorrow's practice, that would be today for you reading this, it will be decided if I'll be available for the 2nd game against Memphis. It will depend on how well the elbow brace I have to use works. I'll try it during practice playing one-on-one and, if it doesn't bother me and Popovich thinks I can lend a hand, I'll be ready to play. It will be decided by noon, but it will only be announced a few minutes before the game.
Hope everybody understands that I'm dying to play. You have no idea how much I suffered the first game that we lost last Sunday and I had to watch it from behind the bench. It's terrible. To give you an idea, that the injury is on my right arm gives me a chance to play; if it would have been in the left, my shooting hand, forget about it.
I suffered the hyperextension of the elbow in the last game of the regular season against Phoenix and it provoked a lot of pain, besides of a big scare. My arm was stretched between Tim Duncan and Grant Hill, who kept on running and pushed it opposite of the natural articulation. I've been healthy all season and I had to get injured in the very last game. I couldn't believe it. On top of that, since that area is very sensitive, I lost strength and mobility in the entire arm. I couldn't even grab a soap with that hand.
The day after I felt better, and the next one even better, but it wasn't enough to start the playoffs. Regardless, I wanted to play that first game, I wanted to help and I asked Popovich, but he thought that my arm was too weak. He spoke to the doctors before making his decision. I think it's understandable. He didn't want to risk me. It was the first game of the series and there was 3 more days of rest after the second. The thing is, I never missed a playoff game, except for 2009 when I was out during the regular season because of that ankle injury.
With regards to the game we lost, I though we played well, aggressive, controlling their strengths, and executing the tactics we planned. We neutralized fairly well Memphis' scoring in the paint, we didn't turn the ball over much, and we defended well. I think the only thing missing was to make the shots in the most important moments. We missed key shots. That's why it hurts to lose the first game, but there's nothing to critique or get mad about, we didn't mail it in. Sometimes it happens that you lose playing well.
The reality is that Memphis is a team that can make anybody uncomfortable, defends well, plays very physically and has very good players, especially Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, who make things difficult under the rim. Memphis had a really good end of the regular season. Houston tried to catch up with them winning some games but they couldn't. That said, I think Memphis choose to get the 8th seed and play against us in the first series of the playoffs. They could have gone for the seventh seed, but they let their best players rest in the last few games that they lost (vs Portland 102-89 and Clippers 110-103) because they didn't want to play against the Lakers.
So they have their best players rested to start the playoffs. But the second game will not be the same. There's more pressure. We can't lose it because if we end up 0-2 it will be hard to turn around the series. Few teams have historically done that. We have to win, tie the series and then head to Memphis and "steal" a game to recover home court.
One more thing, losing the first game of the playoffs is nothing new for San Antonio. It already happened to us in 2003, against Phoenix, and we ended up winning it all. Also, I think in 2005 we started losing against Denver and we ended up winning the title. Regardless, the West is going to be a dogfight from the first round, something I don't think will happen in the East, where the candidates to pass to the second round are more or less well defined.
