Spurs Duncan, Parker and Grizzlies Gasol Receive All-NBA Nods

The San Antonio Spurs currently lead the Memphis Grizzlies 2-0 in the Western Conference finals and will look for a third win on Saturday evening. This series is getting less attention than the the Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers one and maybe the LeBron James Show has that much more appeal.

ProBasketallTalk noted lower TV viewership and cited the following via the Big Lead:

Game 2 of the Grizzlies/Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals drew 4.6 million viewers on ESPN Tuesday night, down 48% from Celtics/Heat Game 2 last year (8.8M), and down 34% from Thunder/Mavericks Game 2 in 2011 (7.0M). Compared to Game 2 of last year’s Thunder/Spurs WCF on TNT (7.3M), Tuesday’s viewership declined 37%.

Keep in mind, these low ratings come even after a game that went into OT.

What’s going to draw viewers to watch Game 3? You can’t help but wonder if a few Eva Longoria sightings would have helped.

Bovada has the Spurs at +325 to win this year’s Championship, while the Grizzlies are +1800.

Spurs Forward Tim Duncan

The series doesn’t lack talented players including three recently named All-NBA players.

On Wednesday, the league announced that Spurs forward Tim Duncan and guard Tony Parker had been named to the NBA’s All-NBA Teams. This is nothing new for Duncan with his selection; it represents a 10th All-NBA First Team nod and his fourteenth All-NBA selection for his career.

As for Parker, he received an All-NBA Second Team–the third time for an All-NBA honor during his career.

Duncan and Parker’s All-NBA honors mark the seventh time in Spurs team history that two teammates grabbed All-NBA honors from the same season. This last occurred in the 2008-2009 season when Duncan got a Second team honor and Parker a Third team selection.

And for the Spurs, they’ve had these impressive selections before during its history. In fact it’s been 38 times that a player has been selected to this All-NBA team with 19 previous First Team selections, 10 Second Team selections and nine Third Team selections, according to NBA.com.

For the 2012-13 season, Duncan averaged 17.8 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.65 blocks (No. 3 in the league) over 30.1 minutes. His blocks figure represented his highest average since the 2003-04 season when he had a 2.68 block-average and also the highest average for a league player 37-years-or-older since the NBA began keeping track of this stat in 1973.

Duncan is now the second oldest player to be selected on the All-NBA First Team since Abdul-Jabbar (at 38) had the honor for the 1985-86 season.

As for Parker, this year’s honor represents his second consecutive one to the the All-NBA Second Team.

For the season, the player saw a team-high 20.3 points and 7.6 assists (No. 6 in league) average with 3.0 rebounds over 32.9 minutes of playing time. He shot .522 from the floor (No. 17 for the league) and from the free throw line, a career-high .845.

According to NBA.com, Parker is the only NBA player to average a minimum of 20.0 points and 7.0 assists while still shooting more than 50.0 percent from the field and from the free throw line, 80.0 percent.

And just to add one more notch to his belt, Parker led all NBA guards for shooting percentage.

For this talented player, this comes as he’s been playing on an injured left calf. On Thursday, the player said he will have an MRI on it but he doesn’t anticipate missing any playing time.

In Tuesday’s game, Parker scored 15 points with a career-high 18 assists.

Marc Gasol

While these Spurs are dominating the headlines, the Grizzlies also had their own player to join this impressive honor, center Marc Gasol, who made the All-NBA Second team–a first. Previously he was named as the 2012-13 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

For the regular season in his 80-game starts, Gasol averaged 14.1 points (.494 shooting), 7.8 rebounds and a career-best 4.0 assists. Add in 1.00 steals and 1.74 blocks on 35.0 minutes of play and that’s an impressive season.

Looking to Saturday’s game, it could be more interesting as Memphis gets the win (-5.5, 177.5 u/o).