Before Tip-Off: Parker out, Splitter doubtful, Diaw to possibly play vs. Mavericks

Bonjour, comment tallez vous? BD

French? Why is Project Spurs writing in French? It’s more of an exaggeration to the fact that four French natives are in the AT&T Center in one night.

The San Antonio Spurs (30-14) and the Dallas Mavericks (27-21) are preparing to square off in San Antonio as both teams have four combined French players on roster in Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Ian Mahinimi, and Rodrigue Beabois.

However with all the French players in the building, the one supertstar, Tony Parker, won’t play. The newest Spurs addition Diaw could possibly play according to head coach Gregg Popovich.

“We’ll see,” said Popovich of Diaw playing. I also asked coach Pop if Diaw and Parker’s past play together could help Diaw fitting in a bit quicker, “I guess so,” said Pop, “I guess that’s logical.”

The Mavericks will have their French players in uniform, but one of their big men (Brendan Haywood) will be out tonight. The Spurs could also be without Tiago Splitter is doubtful with back spasms.

One last note, as Coach Pop was speaking he strayed away from a question to yell, “Get out of our training room! Get the hell out of here!”

Sure enough, the man he was yelling at was none other than Mavericks shooting guard Jason Terry who was in the Spurs’ part of the building.

Terry and Pop laughed with each other and once again folks, it’s a reminder of the one of the most wild rivalries in the NBA, the I-35 shootout.

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