With the fourth quarter approaching its ending and the San Antonio Spurs leading the Orlando Magic 71-69 with 2:30 left in the ball game, Spurs guard Tony Parker hit a jump shot that gave the Spurs a 73-69 lead with 2:17 remaining.

At this point, you’d think the Spurs were well on their way to winning their first road game of the season. How hard could it be for the Spurs to lose this game on the road?

Well, the Spurs made it hard on themselves as they turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions with Tim Duncan losing the ball first, and Parker being the second to turnover the ball.

The Magic would tie the game behind crunch plays from guard J.J. Redick and overtime was underway in Orlando.

In overtime, Richard Jefferson, who bounced back after struggling in his past three games and a critical three pointer by guard Gary Neal, led the Spurs to a 85-83 win. Keep in mind, before Neal’s three pointer, the Spurs were 1-of-16 through four quarters of play.

The first half looked like a game featuring two tired teams, as the Magic were playing their third game on the last night of a back-to-back-to-back series and the Spurs were playing a back-to-back as well. The Magic shot 30% from the field and took a 40-37 lead into halftime.

The third quarter was another close quarter between both teams as the Spurs barely outscored the Magic 20-18 in the third quarter, but the Magic still lead going into the fourth quarter leading 58-57. no comments

Whenever we have an opportunity to provide free tickets to our loyal Project Spurs readers, we jump at the chance. Through a partnership between Project Spurs and Fancloud, 16 lucky readers will be set up with a free ticket to Friday night's San Antonio Spurs vs. Sacramento Kings home game at the AT&T Center.

To be assured you'll have a seat to watch Tim Duncan matchup against DeMarcus Cousins or Tyreke Evans vs. Tony Parker, follow these steps.

1. Sign up for fancloud.com.

2. Email freetickets@fancloud.com with "Spurs 1/20/12" in the subject line and include your fancloud username and mention Project Spurs in the email body.

3. If you aren't already following Project Spurs on twitter, do so and send out a tweet mentioning our twitter account and this post.

We'll be working with Fancloud throughout the season for more ticket giveaways as a way of giving thanks to our awesome readers. Also, make sure to really run Fancloud through its paces. I've set up my account, and it's a great way to keep up on all the latest from the game. Each game will have its own stream of live game tweets from sportswriters and Fancloud users at the game and it's a great way to connect fans at the game with fans watching from home. 

Once you get signed up, you may want to check out the Spurs @ Magic stream that I'll be watching aside tonight's game.

To say Dallas Mavericks' Jason Terry is not well-liked among San Antonio Spurs fans is a bit of an understatement.

Terry has rarely spoke fondly of the Spurs and never bites his tounge when it comes to ribbing San Antonio whenever the chance presents itself.

Well here we go again.

The Spurs have had plenty of home games scheduled in this truncated season (nine) and San Antonio has won them all. And it is because of this that Terry feels will eventually doom the Spurs.

I look at San Antonio, what they're doing at home right now, and I'm trying to figure out how they've been scheduled to have nine games at home already. They've won 'em all. The schedule will change and it's going to bite them in the butt, too.

I think I speak for Spurs fans when I say "Jet" needs to shut it and worry about his own team. Dallas hasn't exactly looked like the defending champs and repeating doesn't seem likely.

Not only that, Dallas doesn't exactly end the regular season with tons of home games. For April, the Mavs have seven games on the road with six in Dallas. It's also noteworthy the Mavs finish the regular season with two road games.

At least the Spurs have eight home and eight road games to finish out the season Terry.

After a disappointing loss to Miami last night, the San Antonio Spurs (9-5) have very little time to lick their wounds. They play in Orlando (10-3) tonight.

The good news is Orlando is on night three of a back-to-back-to-back. Not that it mattered when the Spurs played the Thunder in the same situation, but it's better than the Spurs playing Orlando when the Magic has a night or two of rest.

The Magic is off to a sneaky good start and of course come armed with Dwight Howard. They're coming off a surprisingly tough home win over the Bobcats where D-12 went off for 25 points, 17 rebounds and even led Orlando in assists with four. As we do from time to time, Project Spurs exchanged questions with the enemy in preparation for tonight's game. Today I exchanged questions with Phillip Rossman-Reich at the Orlando Magic Daily. Obviously we discussed Dwight Howard, both on the court and the trade rumors, as well as what concerns Phillip most about playing the Spurs. My thanks to Phillip for his help.

Trevor: I find it funny that people are talking about Dwight struggling early. Do people realize he’s averaging close to 15 rebounds a game and is still top 5 in field goal percentage and blocks per game?

Phil: Yeah, it is amazing what people do to feed their own storyline. A lot of people want to read Howard's intentions into every game he plays or use poor scoring numbers to say he is not truly among the league's elite. It is frustrating to know Howard probably actually listens to that when everyone who watches him every night knows that just is not true.
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Seeing how San Antonio Spurs fans might need a laugh after the Spurs were humiliated in their loss to the Miami Heat last night comes this gem.

At the recent San Antonio Spurs-Phoenix Suns matchup, some guy decided the best way to get some attention would be to hold up a sign asking Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich for his hand in marriage.

Now either this guy is just a goof or he lost a bet because he does not look happy at all.

Don't believe me? Check out the photo from Project Spurs' Sarah Alvarado.

The San Antonio Spurs (9-5) continue to look for their first elusive road win (0-5) as they visit the Orlando Magic (10-3) tonight in Orlando, Florida. The Spurs also want to get the bad thought of a 22-point loss they suffered Tuesday to Miami off their mind.

The Magic are 10-3 and on a five game winning streak, but don’t let their record fool you. The Magic are 2-2 against playoff teams as they’ve lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls, but defeated the Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks (if you count 6-7 a playoff team?).

In fact, the Magic are on a five game winning streak after defeating the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday 96-89, but the five teams they defeated are the Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, and Bobcats whose combined record is 26-42.

Also keep in mind that the Magic are finishing their third night of a back-to-back-to-back sequence.

Lineup for Magic (projected starters underlined)

All statistics below were averages from the Magic’s first 12 games. no comments

Although the Miami Heat and LeBron James thoroughly trounced the San Antonio Spurs last night in Miami, James had some great words regarding Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

James would absolutely love to see Pop become the next head coach of the U.S. Olympic team for the 2016 games should current coach Mike Krzyzewski not return.

"Absolutely," James said when asked by FOX Sports Florida about that possibility. "He knows the game. He knows the players. And he's coached enough stars at San Antonio. I think he'd be great (as Olympic coach). If Coach K decides he doesn't want to do it any more, I think Coach Popovich would be a great candidate. His resume speaks for itself."

And the endorsements didn't stop there.

Tony Parker also feels Pop would make an excellent Olympic head coach.

"He'd be a great (Team USA) coach. Pop knows European basketball," said Parker, referring to some of the top foes the Americans would face. "He's always traveling to Europe. He's always coming to watch me play European Championships. He knows European basketball for sure."

The last time Pop was involved with the Men's Olympic Basketball squad was back in 2004 when he served as an assistant to former Spurs coach Larry Brown at the Athens games. However, that team failed miserably and only managed to secure a bronze medal. no comments

The San Antonio Spurs remain winless on the road (0-5) after falling to the Miami Heat 120-98 Tuesday after posting a 17-point lead in one half, and LeBron James taking over in the second half.

The first half was all about magic for the Spurs as Danny Green hit back-to-back buzzer beating three pointers to end both the first and second quarter. Green hit the first buzzer beater right behind the three point arc after the first quarter, and hit the second one from halfcourt to end the first half.

Everything went right for the Spurs in the first half, as they took a 63-49 lead into the third quarter, the team was shooting a high percentage and scored 35 and 28 points in consecutive quarters. Tony Parker had 16 points at the half, DeJuan Blair had 12 points, and Kawhi Leonard had 10 points to lead the Spurs. LeBron James struggled to score 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting in the first half, after being defended by Leonard.

In fact, the Spurs got their lead as high as 17-points, and then the “real” Miami Heat decided to show up led by their remaining two members of the “Heatles”, James and Chris Bosh. Well, more James.

The Heat came out with two different looks in the third quarter. First, a more rejuvenated James, and second, a zone defense that absolutely closed the basket for San Antonio. The Heat started the quarter with a 23-5 run; the Spurs would only score seven more points in the third quarter as the Heat outscored the Spurs 39-12 in the quarter. James got hot and shot 7-of-9 in the third quarter where most of the baskets were three pointers as he burst for a 15-point third quarter that resulted in a 88-75 Heat lead going into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter can be summarized with Mike Miller returning from hernia surgery in his first game and shooting 6-of-6 from the field, all three pointers, most in the fourth quarter, for 18 points. Danny Green also shot well from behind the arc as he finished shooting 6-of-7 from three-point range and, as the leading scorer for the Spurs with 20 points.

With the loss, the Spurs fall to 9-5 on the season. The Spurs face another back-to-back as they play the Orlando Magic Wednesday in Orlando. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker did not play at all in the fourth quarter against Miami, so they should be able to go against the Magic with some energy.

Analyzing the Loss

• It began with “where was the offense?” in the third quarter to “where did the defense go throughout the game?” The zone defense really hurt a Spurs team that doesn’t automatically run through Duncan and is showing a fatigued Tony Parker on the floor. Throw in the fact that Richard Jefferson was 0-for-3 shooting and was held scoreless, the need for Manu Ginobili was overly apparent during the Heat’s third quarter run. The Spurs were lacking a playmaker that could create havoc in the zone defense and open the paint up. The Heat dared the Spurs to shoot the ball and they finished the game shooting 10-of-25 from behind the arc, 38-of-80 for the entire game.

It was well chronicled on this site that Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert was in San Antonio this off season training with several San Antonio Spurs players, most notably greatest power forward of all time Tim Duncan. As it turns out, the mentor-ship between Duncan and Hibbert didn't stop when the season started. According to our friends at Indy Cornrows, Duncan has been helping Hibbert out all season long.

"I text him and I ask him how to play different bigguys to help me with the little moves to get a little edge on guys," Hibbert said. "So he's just like a little voice in my ear and I keep in touch with him regularly."

Duncan and Hibbert's skill sets are slightly different, and the Pacers big man says that since Duncan is aware of that, he tailors his scouting reports to Hibbert's abilities.

"Yeah, he tells me to use this foot or use this hand to shield guys off," Hibbert said. "So he tells me the small little things I can do for my game to improve."

It's early, but so far Hibbert has been having a career year. He's specifically improved on the glass and playing in the paint. He also bulked up in the offseason and is using some new relaxation techniques to go along with Duncan's tips.

It's great that Duncan is giving advise to younger bigs like Hibbert. We also know Tiago was involved in those off season work outs as well. I'm not saying either guy's improvement is all Duncan by any means, but I don't imagine his advice has hurt. By the way, Hibbert is a restricted free agent this summer and the Spurs should have a ton of cap space. Just tossing that out there.

NBA.com released their annual GM survey Tuesday and one San Antonio Spurs related story that came out of it is Coach Gregg Popovich will not be hurting for work if he decides to ever leave San Antonio and keep coaching. 

The survey shows that 42% of GMs surveyed think Pop is the best coach in the league, good for first. 43% of GMs think Pop is the best manager/motivator of people, good for first. 36% of GMs surveyed think Pop makes the best in game adjustments of any coach, also good for first. He also finished tied for 3rd for best offensive schemes, and he tied for second in defensive schemes. Coach Mike Budenholzer finished 3rd in the best assistant coach category.

63% of GMs think the Spurs are going to win the Southwest and despite Manu's injury, I don't really know why anyone should think differently. Seven percent of GMs even think the Spurs are going to win the west. No one thinks they're going to win the title.

On the player side, Tim Duncan was in the "also receiving votes" category for best power forward. Kawhi Leonard also ended up in the also receiving votes category for "which rookie is likely to have sleeper success". Tim Duncan tied for fifth in "the best leader" category. Chris Paul finished first in that category and amazingly Kobe Bryant finished second. Who thinks Kobe is a good leader??? He's the biggest me first a-hole in the league. Anyways, Duncan also finished tied for fourth with among other players, Manu Ginobili in the "best basketball IQ". So basically, GMs still think Tim Duncan is useful. They're right. The only time Tony Parker was mentioned was in the "which player is fastest with the ball" category. Ginobili also came in third in the "which player is best moving without the ball" category and was also mentioned in the "Which player would you wanting taking the last shot with the game on the line" category.