Holy smokes. Anyone watching Sunday's breathtaking Game 1 simply can't wait for the next battle in the Spurs/Mavericks showdown: everyone, that is, except for fans of either team, who all had heart attacks and keeled over from the intensity. To recap: Tim Duncan dropped 31 points, Bruce Bowen played great defense on Dirk, and the Spurs pulled off an (extremely) narrow 87-85 victory when Jerry Stackhouse airballed on the final possession. The Mavs led......

Can the Spurs finally repeat as NBA Champions? ESPN doesn't think so. CNN/SI, not so much. Charles Barkley? No. And the Spurs' first opponent, Ron Artest and the Sacramento Kings? Absolutely not. So despite the emergence of Tony Parker as an All-Star, the addition of Michael Finley to their bench, and a record-setting 63-win season, the Spurs go into the playoffs...as decided underdogs. Wild, eh? Most of the naysayers believe that the Spurs will......

If the San Antonio Spurs want to stay healthy for the playoffs, Austinist suggests they avoid playing the Denver Nuggets ever again. The Nugs are gaining some notoriety around the league for replicating the bruising style of the Knicks and Heat of the early 90's, and last night proved to be no exception. Tim Duncan got poked in the eye twice, Tony Parker was literally tackled on a lay-up, and Ginobili was thrown into......

On Saturday, Austinist rolled down 71 and I-10 to Houston for NBA All-Star Weekend. Our seats could only be described as nosebleed-arific, but hey, we got to go. The event started swimmingly when a Tony Parker-led Spurs team won the jump-shooting contest over a Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson tandem. The next event, the skills contest, featured the brightest stars of Saturday evening (with LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Steve Nash all participating), but we......

We went to Carnaval. And loved it. SXSW full list of bands and movies updated. Cat Power backs out of SXSW and cancels tour. Ausitn art goes green. Tired of run-of-the-mill valentine's day activities? We got you covered. We reviewed the new documentary The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat and Beers. And laughed our asses off. For about $600 in fees, your band can play a showcase at Waterloo Records during SXSW. The week in interviews:......

If you thought your week went well, check out five days in the life of Spurs guard Tony Parker. On Monday, he and girlfriend Eva Longoria appeared on The Oprah Winfrey show to donate $50,000 to Oprah's Hurricane Katrina fund and to talk about their relationship. On Wednesday, Parker scored 32 points and added 13 assists in a road win against Toronto. Yesterday, he was named to the 2006 NBA All-Star Team for next......

The Detroit Pistons beat the San Antonio Spurs last night, 96-79, in Game 3 of the 2005 NBA Finals, and no one could be happier than the sportswriters and broadcasters of America, who finally get to talk about the Pistons with a straight face. Did you know that if you sneak up on Rip Hamilton when he’s not wearing that mask and give him a firm tap on the nose, his face will disintegrate......

It is often said that defending a championship is one of the hardest things to do in professional sports. Therefore, we give proper kudos to the Detroit Pistons for returning to the NBA Finals, after a gutsy run through the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The Pistons had to slug thru several difficult series under constant media speculation about the fate of their wanderlust-suffering coach. They are professionals (except when Rasheed Wallace loses his mind, God......