Tony Parker was a shadow of himself Thursday night — two points on 1-of-6 shooting — and it got so bad, he was hobbling so much, that Gregg Popovich pulled him after just a couple minutes of play in the fourth quarter.
Parker has an assortment of bumps and bruises (he missed time with a sprained ankle) and he has been getting some nights off for all that, but after the game Popovich talked about a new one, a shin situation, that could lead to Parker missing a number of upcoming games. From the San Antonio Express News.
“I saw him come across half court actually limping at one time, so that’s when we pulled him,” Popovich said. “I said ‘Tony, you’ve got to stop, so we can figure out what it is.’ He just couldn’t go….
“My feeling is tendonitis, something in his shins or whatever, from the way it looked on the court, but I don’t know,” said Popovich, who described himself “very concerned” about his star guard’s health. “We thought he had just kind of recovered from his ankle, so this was something new tonight with his leg,” Popovich said. “I just don’t know what it is right now.”
Nobody was willing to talk definitively about what was to come, but look for Parker to get some time off — maybe a couple weeks off until the playoffs start.
If the Spurs are going to be the contenders we expect, they need Parker and Manu Ginobili healthy to create offense and shots for others. At this point getting those two right is all that matters, far more than just being the top seed in the West.
