IN THE LANE

A VOTE FOR SPURS: Count Heat forward Udonis Haslem among those giving the Spurs at least a puncher’s chance against the Warriors in the West finals, out of respect for San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich. “I’m not going to count out San Antonio,” Haslem said during his appearance on WQAM’s “Joe Rose Show.” “I will never count out San Antonio. I will never count out Gregg Popovich. I don’t think that series is going to be a walk in the park for Golden State. Part of me partially wants to say that San Antonio can win that series; I think San Antonio will win that series. I just never can go against Pop.” THE BUG: It happened for Alonzo Mourning, those forced appearances at charity golf outings at the start of his Heat tenure eventually producing a polished game that had him often hitting in foursomes with President Obama. Now Ray Allen, ranked as the NBA’s top golfer during his playing days, said at his Thursday foundation appearance that Dwyane Wade also has caught the bug. But there are limits when it comes to Heat and hacking. “D-Wade’s trying to get me into golf, but I ain’t rolling on that one,” Haslem said. “I can just see myself breaking a golf club or two, and those things ain’t cheap. Especially when I retire, I’m going to have to be on a budget, so I can’t be breaking golf clubs.” THE AFTER LIFE: Speaking of retirement, Allen said as his Thursday appearance that his days remain full now in his second year away from the game. “I enjoy every aspect of it,” he said. “There’s so many great things that I’ve been able to partake in. I’m a chauffeur now. I get up every morning and take my kids to school and I picked ’em up. And they have after-school activities. So being a dad is awesome, being able to be present. I didn’t realize how much I wasn’t until I was really home, because I was doing things around the holidays that I had never been able to do. And then I get to travel a lot. This year I took a USO tour. So I visited troops. I was in Afghanistan. I was in Qatar. I was in Germany. I was in Turkey. I just recently got back from a trip to Poland. I visited Auschwitz last week. So I’ve really been able to do things that schedule-wise I wasn’t able to.” A SPO VOTE: While he had his differences with Erik Spoelstra at the end of his Heat tenure, Allen said he was impressed in Spoelstra coaching the Heat from 11-30 at midseason to a 41-41 finish. “It’s easy when your team is successful and you talk about what a great job you did and you’ve got great talent,” Allen said. “But for him to do what he did, with the roster he had, he had a lot of guys that were kind of pieced from other places. And you kind of land free agents, you try to make it work. And to get them all on the same page and push the way they did, he definitely, when you look at the teams that are playing now, it’s easy to say, ‘Well, you’ve got this player and that player,’ but for what he did, if he made the playoffs would have been a stamp for him to be Coach of the Year. So even though they didn’t, they had a hell of a run.”