I'm heading to Utah today! My ribs feel better now that I rested a few days. We're leaving in the beginning of the afternoon, and we have practice as soon as we get there. Big game to come… Aujourd’hui, direction Utah ! Ces quelques jours de repos ont fait du bien à mes cotes. Nous partons en début d’après-midi et nous... nous entraînons tout de suite après sur place. En tout cas, c’est un gros match en perspective !!!

Lemon Face: Spurs conditioning.

I touched on this over at FanHouse, but I don’t give a damn if it is the second game of the season. That’s a reason they should be in better shape. The Spurs have championship aspirations. That means they don’t get to just say "Oh, well, it was a back to back." You get beat by the Kings on a back-to-back at the end of a road trip? Okay, that’s just an anomaly. But they were flat out outworked tonight in Chicago against a playoff team. They looked slow, confused, and frustrated. They can give this one up. But the Spurs cannot afford to start this as a pattern. The seed does matter. The Spurs need to face Utah or Phoenix in round one, not Portland or Denver. They need to give themselves the best opportunity they can to beat LA, and that means setting up as easy a playoff run as possible. What’s more, they’ve got to prove themselves dominant. This game was fine and understandable for last year’s Spurs. No biggie. But the stakes have been raised.

Oct. 6: First preseason game (home vs. Houston)

Oct. 26: Roster set

Oct. 28: Regular-season opener (home vs. New Orleans)

Excited as hell..
Can't wait any longer..

I just finished my morning workout and broke the gym record. I made 51 three pointers in a row today...I can't wait for the season!

The first big move of the offseason will prove to be the best move, more than one-quarter of our voters said. RJ is the piece that will get the Spurs back into the West's elite. Jefferson's shooting numbers were down last season with the Bucks, but he shot 40 percent from beyond the arc and still knows how to score. Playing in a winning atmosphere certainly will help matters, too.

Most important, perhaps, is that RJ has been healthy for the past two years -- something the Spurs' big three has not been -- and he's still on the right side of 30. If he proves to be the perfect fit, the Spurs could push the Lakers for the Western Conference crown.

The additions of Jefferson and McDyess pushed the Spurs well over the tax limit (almost $9 million, according to one account) and required some arm-twisting of longtime owner Peter Holt.

"We told him that if we were going to compete, we had to go over the [tax threshold]. He did not like that answer,’’ Popovich said. "But he also said, ‘I don’t like it, but I understand it, so go out and do what you need to do.’ ’’

I ran into ex-Spur Bruce Bowen, a huge Cowboys fan, at training camp in the Alamodome and picked his brain a bit about the Mavs' off-season. He really likes the deal to bring in Shawn Marion, saying MFFLs would "see something special" from the Matrix since he's playing again with a passing whiz of a point guard who can get the transition game going. Bowen thought the additions of Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas could help. But Bowen wasn't aware that Gooden, whom he said struggled to learn the Spurs' system after a late-season arrival in San Antonio, would be logging heavy minutes at center. "Center? Drew?! Wow," Bowen said with raised eyebrows. "That's a tall order. That'll be interesting." While the Mavs don't envision Gooden battling elite post scorers too often, Bowen questions whether Gooden can handle the dirty-work duties of manning the middle.

Apparently, Marcin Gortat is going to stay in Orlando. That made my day, at least he won't be with Dallas. Good luck to them guarding TD, Dice, & Blair with Nowitzki & Dampier!

Palin used the word "crazy" in her remarks, as well as a tortured metaphor involving point guards. She brought the ball up the court, and ran the offense, and decided whether to shoot, or who to pass to....should she dump the rock into the post or take the shot herself. Come on, guys! Get the spacing right! Got to move without the ball! Wait, what does Ron Artest want? OH GOD! WHY DID RON ARTEST BRING A GUN ON THE COURT? THAT GUY IS CRAZY! Put the gun AWAY, Ron ARTEST. You are totally going to draw a technical. OH I BETTER CALL A TWENTY SECOND TIME OUT AND RESIGN AS GOVERNOR OF ALASKA."

If the Bucks do waive Bowen, he will be free to sign with any team, but he made clear that his first choice would be to return to the Spurs, were they to offer him a contract.

"Absolutely," he said.