Coach Pop "Disgusted" By Close Win

Back in December, SpursDynasty brought you an exclusive on Pop's first "This team is soft" speech of the year. It looks like he brought it out again after last night's win against the Nets, currently the hottest team in the league, having won 10 straight until last night.

From SpursReport.com

Even after ending the NBA’s longest winning streak, the San Antonio Spurs got nothing but criticism from their coach.

Tim Duncan scored 27 points, going 13-for-15 from the free throw line, and the Spurs snapped the New Jersey Nets’ 10-game winning streak with a 96-91 victory Tuesday night.

"Total lack of concentration, lack of effort, lack of cohesiveness, lack of leadership — both on the court and from me as a head coach," Gregg Popovich said in his only postgame statement. "It was a disgusting performance."

His comments may have been different had the Spurs held onto their 16-point lead with under 7 minutes to go. They had limited the league's eighth-leading scorer, Vince Carter, to 19 points until that point.

Carter then scored 15 points in a 22-13 run, and Scott Padgett's 3-pointer cut the lead to four with 2.8 seconds left. The Spurs held on by hitting 20 free throws in the last quarter, a franchise record.

Despite the win, the fact that the Nets scored 14 points in 39 seconds will stay with the Spurs for a long time, Bruce Bowen said.

"Right now there is really nothing too gratifying because of the way it ended and rightfully so," he said. "It wiped out everything we tried to accomplish tonight."