San Antonio seeks more road success
By Christopher Spata, Mari Faiello, Josh Fiallo, Natalie Weber, Rick Stroud and Joey Knight
The San Antonio Spurs, who have won three of their last four, hope to continue their success on the road when they begin a seven-game trip with a stop in Atlanta on Friday.
San Antonio starts the voyage after a 114-91 loss to Golden State on Tuesday, but the Spurs had won their previous three and six of their last eight overall games. The Hawks, who lost to the Dallas Mavericks 118-117 on Wednesday, have dropped four of their last five.
This will be the first meeting of the season between the two teams. Atlanta swept the twogame series a year ago for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
San Antonio’s Demar Derozan has always been a difficult assignment for the Hawks. He averages 20.1 points against Atlanta and scored 47 in the two meetings last season. Derozan is averaging 20.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.7 assists. He scored 30 points in back-to-back games last week against Minnesota and Houston, but managed only 12 in the loss to Golden State.
San Antonio is a solid 7-3 on the road this season.
It is uncertain whether the Spurs will be at full strength. They played without starters Derrick White and Lamarcus Aldridge in the loss to the Warriors. Aldridge has a sore hip and has missed four straight games; he got a shot Tuesday and will be re-evaluated. The Spurs didn’t want to use White on back-toback nights as he returns from foot surgery in January.
Devin Vassell, the Spurs’ No. 1 draft pick, made his first career start against the Warriors in relief of White. He had six points and six rebounds and only one turnover in 24 minutes in relief and drew compliments from his teammates.
“He understands when he messes up and how to correct it,” Derozan said. “He’s learning a lot on the fly, having no summer league and really no summer to understand the NBA and the game at this level. Everything is still moving in fast motion.”
The Hawks continue to be led by Trae Young, who averages
26.6 points and 9.5 assists. He had 25 points and 15 assists Wednesday.
Atlanta is enjoying a timely offensive revival from John Collins.
Collins has scored 30-plus points in two of the last four games and raised his scoring average to 18.5 points. He had 33 points against Dallas, giving him 68 points in two games against the Mavericks. Over his last seven games, Collins is averaging 23.4 points and shooting 61.7% (66-of-107).
Center Clint Capela got in early foul trouble against Dallas and had only seven rebounds. That ended a personal-best streak of
19 straight games with doubledigit rebounds, the most by an Atlanta player since Dwight Howard’s 19-game run in 2017.
The Hawks blew a 13-point second-half lead in losing the Mavericks for the second time. They were outscored 37-27 in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got to get stops,” Atlanta guard Kevin Huerter said. “It comes down to 37 points in the fourth quarter.”
Huerter’s offense has picked up, too. He scored 23 against the Mavs and is averaging 19.8 points, 4.5 assists and shooting 53.6% (15-of-28) on 3-pointers over the last four games.
TAMPA, Fla. — This is why people move to Tampa, isn’t it?
A boat, some friends, a few beverages and an 83-degree afternoon in mid-february.
It was all that, plus thousands of adoring football fans and the gleaming Vince Lombardi Trophy on Wednesday as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrated their Super Bowl 55 victory with a boat parade on the Hillsborough River.
Sure, Tom Brady has won a few Super Bowls, but sitting at the controls of his custom, 40-foot Vida A Vida — just call it the GOAT boat — in the perfect Florida sunshine with his son on his lap must beat doing this in icy Boston.
One boat back, Rob Gronkowski, Mike Evans and Cameron Brate danced on the bow of a smaller vessel, beers in hand. Brady bravely tossed over the Lombardi trophy — about 10 yards, underhand — and Brate’s reliable hands saved it from taking a dip. (No such luck for wide receiver Chris Godwin’s phone. He said receiver Scotty Miller dropped it in the river.)
“If I had dropped that? I think I would’ve had to retire,” Brate said of Brady’s trophy pass. “That was amazing. He pointed it at me. We talked about it earlier. It was a great throw. I mean, what do you expect from Tom Brady. A great throw.”
Organizers said a day earlier that fans were not allowed to participate in the boat parade. Fat chance. They cruised alongside players in bass boats, jet skis, yachts and one pirate ship called the Lost Pearl.
Coast Guard boats kept watch, and at the front of the flotilla a Tampa Fire Rescue boat blasted water cannons to clear a path.
Thousands of fans lined the Riverwalk, the bridges and both banks of the river behind the University of Tampa and along the downtown waterfront, showing up hours before the 1 p.m. parade to claim a spot.
Some wore masks, as was required by mayoral order. Many did not.
“It’s Tampa, completely,” said Gulfport’s Tim Hershberger, 42, who showed up, masked, with beach chairs, an umbrella and a rolling cart of snacks. “It’s perfect.”
Clearwater’s Annie Schodt was appreciative the city was able to organize a celebration for Bucs fans who have been starved of such a moment for 18 years, and that so many fans showed up with less than 24 hours notice.
“It’s what we have to do right now,” said Schodt’s boyfriend Clayton Francis, 48. “I’m just ecstatic that they won. Parade on land, parade on water, I’m taking it.”
Bryan Williams, a longtime Patriots fan, left from Sarasota at 6 a.m. to get a good spot. It paid off. He was positioned not on the Riverwalk, but on a dock that would put him even closer to his beloved Tom Brady.
“There’s no love lost from any Pats fans,” he said. “We all were rooting for Tom.”
Tampa native Lorenzo Laporte brought a megaphone, leading non-stop chants of “TAMPA — BAY.”
Laporte, 28, doesn’t remember the Buccaneers’ last Super Bowl win, but remembers years of “atrocious play, blackouts because we couldn’t fill the stands, free tickets to everybody and allaround irrelevancy.
“There’s never been a Super Bowl win as sweet as this.”
Alika Rainford, 37, watched her 1-year-old daughter run around her stroller and play with a Bucs flag. Another mom with young kids seeking an autograph held a sign reading, “Maybe if you sign this, my school will use this as an excused absence.”
“Is anyone working today?” Brady jokingly asked Tampa Mayor Jane Castor when the boat she was on pulled up alongside his.
A group of players including Gronkowski and Godwin tried to convince the mayor to take a shot aboard the Pirate Water Taxi. They ended up sipping champagne in a toast from plastic cups.
Gronkoswki, shirtless just minutes into the parade with a giant strand of beads around his neck, would have looked at home at the Gasparilla Parade of Pirates, postponed this year due to the ongoing pandemic.
Headed to the boats, Jason Pierre-paul was carrying a boom box, Antoine Winfield Jr. had a WWE championship wrestling belt slung over his shoulder and general manager Jason Licht carried a 12-pack of beer.
After the parade, the team sailed to Port Tampa Bay for a private-but-televised postparade celebration.
Vita Vea surveyed the scene calmly from the upper deck of a yacht, smoking a cigar and wearing a T-shirt featuring a young Brady’s infamously sad-sack photo from the 2000 NFL combine. Linebacker Kevin Minter wore one, too.
Players came ashore to the sounds of the Buc-beat drum line and a DJ playing Spotemgottem’s Beatbox as cheerleaders danced on a balcony above.
The team danced on the stage, some holding children on their shoulders, until Castor took the microphone to thank “our health care workers that got to come cheer us on at the Super Bowl,” but “mostly, thank you to the team for ... making history in Tampa Bay.
“Today we partied like nobody else can,” she said. “We did it the Tampa Bay way.”