• San Antonio Spurs fans this may cause you some irritation. NBA.com's Shaun Powell has a few ideas on how the NBA can hold on to the casual fans and it includes stopping the San Antonio Spurs from spoiling the fun:

Keep the Spurzzzzzzz from spoiling the fun. Look, nothing against the loyal basketball fans in San Antonio, and the Hall of Fame-worthy coach, and the Big Fundamental and all that. Seriously: Congrats on the fine season so far. But can we all agree to end it in May? Nobody's saying the Spurs aren't worthy of being champions; on the contrary, with oodles of depth and experience, they've got a title twinkle. And that's what's scary, because the ratings in the NBA Finals were flatter than Tim Duncan's free throws whenever the Spurs showed up. Do you want to spend June stifling a yawn? Didn't think so, either. Effective but dreadfully boring, like a Harvard biochemistry lecture, the Spurs own a variety of punches that can put other teams to sleep. They can work over an audience, too.

• More people are tuning in to the San Antonio Spurs in the San Antonio viewing area on Fox Sports Southwest:

Another success story is in San Antonio, where the league-leading Spurs have averaged a 10.01 local rating. (sportsbusinessdaily.com)

• Spurs' Manu Ginobili suffered an accidental hit to the lip from teammate Gary Neal in the win over the Sacramento Kings and now Ginobili wants payback:

Hit the jump to hear what Manu had to say about Neal's inadvertent hit, why Tim Duncan deserved a spot on the All-Star squad and more:

All San Antonio Spurs fans collectively gasped at the sight of San Antonio Spurs' forward Tim Duncan's fall to the court in the game against the Golden State Warriors in January.

Fortunately for the Spurs Duncan was fine and fans breathed a sigh of relief. However, it made me think, can the Spurs survive without Duncan or Manu Ginobili for a while should either suffer an injury?

The Spurs are having one of their best seasons in recent memory. Fifty games into the season, the Spurs hold an NBA best 42-8 record.

Who would have thought they will be the league's best team at this point of the season? Not many people can claim they saw this coming and maybe no one can.

Hit the jump to see how the numbers stack up for the Spurs with Duncan and Ginobili on the court and more.

The San Antonio Spurs have officially announced the signing of Steve Novak:

The San Antonio Spurs today announced they have signed forward Steve Novak from the Reno Bighorns of the NBA Development League to a 10-day contract.  Novak is the eighth call-up of the 2010-11 D-League season.
 
Novak, a 6-10 forward, has appeared in two games with the Bighorns, averaging 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in 29.5 minutes, while shooting .684 (13-19) from the field and .643 (9-14) from three-point range. Prior to joining the Bighorns, Novak appeared in seven games with the Dallas Mavericks, averaging 1.6 points in 2.6 minutes.
 
Originally a second round draft pick (32nd overall) of the Houston Rockets in 2006, Novak played two seasons in Houston before being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. In his first season with the Clippers in 2008-09, Novak averaged career-highs of 6.9 points and 1.8 rebounds in 16.4 minutes while shooting .444 (176-396) from the field, .416 (119-286) from three-point range and .913 (21-23) from the free throw line.  In his five-year NBA career, Novak has appeared in 202 games, averaging 4.0 points and 1.1 rebounds in 9.9 minutes, while shooting .435 (289-664) from the field, .406 (191-471) from three-point range and .868 (33-38) from the free throw line.

Novak will wear No. 23 for the Silver and Black and will be available for tonight’s game at Detroit.

The San Antonio Spurs will face the Detroit Pistons tonight who might be without their All-Star guard Rip Hamilton:

Richard Hamilton is a gametime decision for tonight against the San Antonio Spurs because of a sore groin.

But even if he is healthy, he’s a game-time decision because Pistons coach John Kuester wants it that way.

Kuester said Monday he was proud of how Hamilton played Saturday night, but there is no guarantee he will be in the rotation moving forward.

Also Pistons' coach Kuester had to say this about the Spurs winning ways this season:

"They’re accustomed to it because they do it year in and year out," he said. "It’s one of these things where they have handled business fairly well. You can tell by their record."

"They’ve got great veterans, great leadership and a great coach," Kuester said. "They play hard, they play smart and they always play together. It’s very impressive to watch."

(source: mlive.com)

• Want to win two free tickets to the San Antonio Spurs-Oklahoma City Thunder game in San Antonio later this month? All you have to do is follow @projectspurstiq on Twitter to enter for a chance to win.

• Express News' Tim Griffin reports Manu Ginobili is fine after receiving an accidental elbow from Gary Neal during the Sacramento Kings game:

“It just happened,” Ginobili said. “He grabbed a rebound and was protecting the ball. I don’t know if I got pushed or something, but I ran right into his elbow.”

Ginobili crumpled to the ground after the elbow, which drew blood from his lip. After the injury, Ginobili did not return to the game.

“I was very upset because the Lakers game was tough for me. I got hit a lot and everything was sore,” Ginobili said. ” I thought I was taking this game kind of easy (at the end of the game.) We were up 15 or 20 and nothing was going to happen today and then on my last play boom, I got hit.”

• Matt Bonner is getting some support from The Basketball Jones for his spot on the 2011 NBA All-Star Three-Point Shootout. Check out the Napoleon Dynamite inspired video campaign for Bonner:

Hit the jump to see the video, to read ESPN's take on DeJuan Blair and George Hill, and more

The San Antonio Spurs just announced they are re-assigning rookie guard James Anderson to the Austin Toros.

Anderson was with the Toros for two games before the Spurs called him back up prior to their game with the Houston Rockets last Saturday.

Anderson, a 6-6, 215-pound guard, was originally assigned to Austin on January 26.  He appeared in two games for the Toros, averaging 14.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in 14.0 minutes.  He shot .556 (10-18) from the field, .444 (4-9) from three-point territory and .714 (5-7) from the free throw line.  Anderson was recalled by the Spurs on January 29 and saw limited action in three games.

The move should help Anderson, who was still working on his conditioning through his stint with the Toros. At the time, Toros coach Brad Jones said that Anderson looked tired after his second game. A gradual increase in minutes per game seems to be exactly what Anderson needs.

On this episode of the Spurscast, Jeff and I looked over the last five games for the San Antonio Spurs, which included a big win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

We talked about the positives and negatives from each game before moving onto some San Antonio Spurs new, including Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, DeJuan Blair and Gary Neal all heading to Los Angeles for All-Star weekend.

Our topic of the week was: Was Tony Parker snubbed and did Tim Duncan deserve to make the All-Star games, especially over other centers like LaMarcus Aldridge and Nene.

The Spurscast. The original Spurs podcast.

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The San Antonio Spurs wasted little time in adding a new player to the roster after Larry Owens rejoined the Tulsa 66ers this weekend.

According to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, the Spurs will be signing forward Steve Novak to a 10-day contract.

Novak recently had a two-game stint with the Reno Bighorns of the D-League, averaging 18.5 points on 68 percent shooting from the field and 64 percent from beyond the arch.

Novak has NBA career averages of 40 percent on three-pointers and seems to be in the mold of Matt Bonner, so he should provide the Spurs with some extra depth and shooting help off the bench until Bonner returns to the lineup.

The signing is expected to be official tomorrow. With the addition, the Spurs roster will be at 13 players. 

San Antonio Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich and forward Tim Duncan are nearing personal milestones in their illustrious NBA careers.

Currently, Popovich is third on the all-time list of most coaching victories with one team trailing Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan who has 1,126 wins and Boston Celtics' former coach Red Auerbach who recorded 795 wins.

With the win against the Sacramento Kings, Popovich is now sitting at 778 wins moving him within 18 more victories of surpassing Auerbach for second place.

As for Duncan, he currently is ranked 11th on the NBA career blocked shots list with 2,331. Should he record 26 more blocked shots this season, he will move into the top 10 and pass former NBA player Alonzo Mourning who recorded 2,356 blocked shots.