Arianné and Jeff are back for the latest Spanish edition of the Spurscast. In this episode, Arianne recaps the last games for the Spurs, and we discuss the Spurs loss against the Nets and Manu Ginobili.

Remember, Project Spurs was the first Spurs blog to have a Spurs podcast and the first to have a Spanish podcast for Spanish-speaking fans.

Jeff y yo estamos de regreso con el Spurscast en Español mas reciente.  En este episodio Arianné repasa los juegos de los Spurs y discutimos los Spurs contra los Nets de Nueva Jersey y Manu Ginobili.

Y recuerden que Project Spurs fue la primera página de Internet en tener un podcast de Los Spurs y la primera en tener un podcast en español para los fanáticos de habla hispana.

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With the Spurs facing the Houston Rockets tonight, here is an injury update on Manu Ginobili and Roger Mason via the San Antonio Express News.

Ginobili who suffered back spasms after the win in Boston over the Celtics and sat out against the Spurs loss to the Nets.

On the recent Project Spurs road trip with the Spurs, our first stop was in Boston at the TD Garden as the Spurs took on the Celtics.  During pre-game warmups, Project Spurs was able to see Tim Duncan warm-up prior to the game.

After four NBA titles, back-to-back NBA MVP trophies, three NBA Finals MVP trophies, numerous All-Star appearances, and countless other accolades, Duncan still practices the basics. To see this in person, one can really appreciate Duncan's commitment to the basics and the example he sets for younger players.

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!