For those of you late to the party, it should be obvious by now that it is a difficult year for the San Antonio Spurs (44-29). The same team that beat the Boston Celtics (47-26) on Sunday evening couldn’t beat the struggling New Jersey Nets (10-64) a mere 24-hours later.

While back spasms forced Manu took a seat courtside next to injured teammate Tony Parker, the Spurs’ starting lineup of Keith Bogans, Antonio McDyess, Tim Duncan, George Hill and Richard Jefferson took to the hardwood.

The first minute of the game was just foreshadowing for what was to come as the Nets gained first possession of the ball. After a Spurs rebound, Hill went for a failed layup and put the ball back in the Nets’ hands. Almost immediately, former Dallas Maverick Devin Harris shot a three-pointer for the first points of the game… not exactly a good sign.

After Devin Harris’ free throw to tie the score at 14-14, Duncan missed what could’ve been a nice floater. With four minutes left in the quarter, San Antonio was barely trailing New Jersey with less than stellar shooting, making seven of sixteen shots. Garrett Temple, one of the newest members of the team, made his own mark with a huge three from the corner with a minute to go. Coming off a double-double on Sunday night against Boston, former Net Jefferson was actually a significant contributing factor to the Spurs’ offense with 10 points in the first, in which San Antonio finished with a six-point lead over New Jersey, 33-27.

Nearly a minute into the second quarter, Roger Mason Jr.’s basket put the Spurs on a seven-point run as well as an eight-point lead, their largest of the game so far. It wasn’t long before New Jersey returned to narrow the lead to four. San Antonio’s shooting began to suffer further, missing five consecutive shots; Duncan stepped up to the free throw line only to miss both shots. Jefferson brought the ball back in and got the ball to Hill, who shot an impressive three-pointer right when they needed it most with nearly six minutes left in the half.

A three-point play from Jefferson gave the Spurs an eleven-point lead, taking advantage of the Nets’ own shooting woes before Harris came back with a layup. In addition to seven turnovers in the second quarter alone, missed free throws from San Antonio continued to hurt the team as Bogans missed both shots with less than two minutes left. Harris’ three-point play brought the Nets back within three of the Spurs; Bonner’s three-point attempt and Blair’s offensive rebound-for-layup both failed at the end of the half - San Antonio 46, New Jersey 43.

We all know the third quarter is unusually rough for San Antonio and Monday night was no exception, which wasn’t helped by Mason’s sprained right knuckle - he did not return to the game. Picking up the slack, Duncan and Jefferson came back to help early on by adding three-of-four free throws to bring the Spurs a little room to breathe over the Nets, who were fighting to avoid the worst record in NBA history.

San Antonio fought to stay alive over New Jersey towards the end of the third, but Harris continued to lead the Nets in a charge to catch up. With just under three minutes left in the quarter, Hill made two nothing-but-net free throws before a big offensive play ending in a basket. Blair recovered a missed New Jersey shot and found Hill, who moved the ball down the court before passing to McDyess. He got the ball back to Blair, who passed back to Hill - a big jump gave the Spurs a six-point lead yet again.

Hill’s missed jumper was recovered by Blair, who went in for the basket to bring the Spurs back within six over New Jersey, but a Nets basket cut the San Antonio lead right at the buzzer to end the third quarter, San Antonio 66, New Jersey 62.

It was hard enough to watch live, so for those who missed out, here’s a two-word synopsis of the fourth quarter in general:

THEY CHOKED.

I won’t ask what words began flowing from the mouths of every Spurs fan in the Izod Center, but I can assure you they weren’t pretty, considering the final score of San Antonio 84, New Jersey 90. The San Antonio defeat ended New Jersey’s 14-game losing streak to the Spurs, their first win over the team since 2002.

The upside to the dismal duel in the Meadowlands was the nice turnout of fans donning the silver and black, including Project Spurs’ own head honchos, Jeff Garcia and Mike DeLeon. With so many fans in the seats to cheer the team on far from the 210 area code, it’s sad that the team didn’t quite show up to play for them.

After a humiliating loss to the New Jersey Nets, comes this bit of good news for Spurs fans and especially for Manu Ginobili.

The San Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginobili today was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for games played March 22-28.

Ginobili averaged 25.8 points, fourth among Western Conference league leaders, 5.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds to hoist the Spurs to a 3-1 record. He scored 20 or more points in each game, including 30 points in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, and handed out at least five assists in three games. In addition to scoring 21 points, Ginobili posted five rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in a win at Oklahoma City.

Congratulations to Ginobili. Well deserved!

Project Spurs' very own, Arianne Villanueva, visits Fatso's Sport's Garden (a local San Antonio Sports bar and restaurant) and interviews Spurs fans about the Spurs performance this season, and their chances of making it to the playoffs and NBA Finals this year.

After a humiliating loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Spurs continued their roughest week of their NBA schedule as they hosted the the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With the Spurs history of losing to quality NBA teams, history was not on the Spurs side. However, surprisingly the Spurs pulled out the victory over the Cavs. Final score: 102-97.

To dig deeper in this game, we turned to David Wooley of Stepien Rules, one of the best Cavs blog on the net and not to mention one of our Bloguin Brothers.

Cavs came out not looking like the best team in the NBA tonight. Did they play down to the Spurs?

A: To put it bluntly, yes. The Spurs are always a challenge for the Cavs because of two things: The similarity of their systems, and the three headed monster of Parker/Duncan/Ginobli.  Problem is, Parker is out, and the Cavs came into this game without a lot of intensity. They really seemed to run out of gas in the 2nd half.  The trend recently with the players' body language is that they are almost becoming bored with the regular season.  This mindset is never a good thing, but they did rip off 8 wins in a row prior to last night's game.

Antawn Jamison had a good first half but was quiet in the second half. Was it something the Spurs did or was it all on him?

Pop is a great coach. I'm sure he made some adjustments defensively at halftime.  The cavs offense overall was out of rhythm most of the 2nd half. Jamison has always been a streaky scorer, and with the Cavs tendency to default to LeBron in tight games, he usually doesn't get as many 2nd half opportunities either. I would have to say it is a little of both.

With Big Z back, I was expecting him to exploit the soft middle of the Spurs. Still too early to expect anything out of him since he has not been playing for some time?

Z has no back to the basket game or ability to score in the paint at this point in his career, so that may have been an unreasonable expectation on your end. In the rotation he is always paired up with Andy Varejao, and Andy went out with a tight hammy in the 2nd quarter. Those two oddly work well together on offense, with Z spreading the floor and looking for a 15-20 foot jump shot, and Andy cutting through the lane looking for layups.  For the rest of the season Z is no more than a role player in the playoffs who can hopefully give us 10-20 solid minutes a game when his number is called.  As long as he can offer some solid team defense and knock down the open jumper in playoffs he will meet all fan expectations. To answer your question, It will probably take the rest of the regular season until he is back to peak value within the team.

Cavs didn't get much from Mo Will and Delonte West. Is the front-court an area of concern for Cavs nation?

This is about as big of a concern that you can have when you're the best team in the NBA.  Delonte has been killing it lately, so he is exempt from the concern at this time. However, Anthony Parker's defense on Manu Ginobli was far from effective, and he is only on the floor for his defense and spot shooting.  Parker's played a lot more minutes this year than he expected, and it appears that it's catching up to him. If Maurice (Mo when he returns to all star form) doesn't shoot well he doesn't defend well either.    Sometimes, Mike Brown needs to ignore his rotation minutes and adjust on the fly.  When Mo's way off, put in Boobie Gibson. When Parker's getting dominated by Ginobli's bald spot, Jamario Moon and Delonte should be getting his time.

Mike Brown, Hank Egan, Danny Ferry, Lance Blanks. Seriously why not change the team name to the Cleveland Spurs! 

If thats what it takes to get a championship, I'll be the first to lead the petition!

Recently, there was news Real Madrid would make a contract offer to Manu Ginobili this summer when his current contract with the Spurs is over. However, Ginobili's agent, Herb Rudoy, flatly said Ginobili does not have any desire to play with Real Madrid and wants to remain in the NBA.

Good news but it still left the question with Spurs fans, "Will the Spurs resign Manu?"

According to Critica de la Argentina, it appears Spurs General Manager, R.C. Buford, has had some contract discussions with Ginobili and will continue discussions, when Buford returns from a trip in Europe.

Las negociaciones para la renovación del contrato entre el argentino y los Spurs continuarán en cuanto R.C. Buford, manager general de la franquicia, regrese de su viaje por Europa.

With Ginobili playing well of late, resigning Ginobili is a "no brainer." He is proving he still can be a major contributor for the Spurs. Plus, not resigning Ginobili would put the Spurs at risk of him signing with a top Western Conference team. That would not be good!

If what was reported is correct, then it leaves the next question for Spurs fans, "For how long and for how much?"

Puzzles come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There's the standard jigsaw puzzle, which can have anywhere from five to 1000 pieces. Word Puzzles, like crosswords or anagrams, test ones knowledge of vocabulary and challenges you to discover new properties of your language. Then there's the number one selling puzzle of all time, the Rubik's Cube, which is one of the most mentally challenging puzzles around.

However, not all puzzles can be bought off the shelf at Toys'R'Us. Puzzles are all around us. A mechanic putting together a new transmission, or an architect designing a new sky scraper, are all putting pieces together to construct a finished product. Both are, in one way or another, fitting pieces together to finish their puzzles.

One puzzle you can't buy in a store, and is definitely harder then a Rubik's Cube, is the San Antonio Spurs. Thankfully for Spurs fans, it seems like Gregg Popovich has completed a couple Rubik's Cubes in his day.

The Spurs opened the season with five new players added to their roster. Out were former Spurs staples Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto, as well as Tony Parker's back up Jacque Vaughn and Kurt Thomas. In were Richard Jefferson, the veterans Theo Ratliff, Antonio McDyess and Keith Bogans, and Pittsburg rookie DeJuan Blair. In comparison to the Spurs roster, your nieces Dora the Explorer jigsaw puzzle seems like a Rubik's Cube.

Nonetheless, expectations were extremely high at the beginning of the season and rightfully so. On paper, this was and still is one of the most talented squads in the league. But no matter how talented a team may be, without the proper rotation, the chances of competing for a championship are slim to none. Pop had his work cut out for him.

But before the season even started, the injury bug reared its ugly head. Tony Parker, Pop's on-court voice, sprained his ankle playing over seas for France. Parker was able to play in the first five games, but missed the next three.

The rest of the Spurs roster also fell victim to the injury bug. McDyess missed four games with a variety of injuries. Also, Matt Bonner missed 17 games with a broken hand. Manu Ginobili missed time with a strained groin, and Micheal Finley missed almost two months with an ankle injury. The Spurs have dealt with so many injuries, they seem more like a skateboard team at the X games then an NBA team.

To make matters worse, Pop has had to deal with players demanding trades, and asking for more playing time. Roger Mason asked to be traded before the trade deadline because of lack of playing time, while Micheal Finley basically forced his way out of a Silver and Black jersey and into a Green one.

But through all the early struggles, player complaints, injuries, and with a seemingly ever changing starting line-up, Pop has been able to keep his team focused and well above .500. As of late, the Spurs have hit a nice stride winning 10 out of their last 14. Even though they are still struggling against teams over .500, they are 17-24 versus teams over .500, they seem confident, and can hopefully make a nice run come April.

Pop has taken a lot of criticism this season for the Spurs lackluster performance. But Pop should get more recognition for what he's been able to accomplish. Every time a player is injured, which seems like all the time, he's been able to make adjustments that help keep the Spurs in play-off contention. The fact that he's been able to overcome so many roster changes, and still keep the Spurs on the winning track, makes me believe that Pop could be a candidate for coach of the year.

I know what some of you are saying, "Coach of the Year?!?! You've got to be kidding me!" And I understand. I don't think he's going to win coach of the year, I believe that award should go to Scott Brooks of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the incredible job he's done with such a young team, but I do think he should get a little more credit for the job he's been able to do.

This season Pop has been trying to put all the right pieces together to build his championship Rubik's Cube. But with all the injuries he's dealt with, and players demanding trades, it's like someone taking out all the green squares of the cube, and trust me, you can't finish a Rubik's Cube without the green squares. Yet Pop still finds new pieces to add to his puzzle by adding players like Malik Hairston to the roster. Hairston, when given enough minutes, has shown he's able to produce. In 29 minutes against the Warriors, Hairston finished with 16 points, going seven of nine from the field.

Popovich has dealt with an assortment of problems this season. His coaching has been in question all year and many blame him for the Spurs inconsistencies. But if there's one thing we Spurs purist know, it's never question Pop. He always finds a way to get the most from his players and come April and May, I have no doubt Pop will succeed in putting this cube together. I just hope this Rubik's Cube has championship gold as one of its colors.