SAN ANTONIO -- Tony Parker said that he was feeling no additional pain in his strained hamstring the day after his Spurs suffered a Game 4 loss, but that doesn’t mean that he’s entirely healed.
After practice on Saturday at the AT&T Center, Parker gave us an idea of just how tenuous the situation is.
“My hamstring can tear at anytime now,” Parker said, when asked if a couple of extra days of rest might help him get closer to 100 percent. “If it was the regular season, I would be resting it for like 10 days. But it’s the NBA Finals now. If it gets a tear, that’s life.”
Despite delivering this somewhat ominous news, Parker maintained that he’s feeling better, and that the treatment he’s been receiving has him optimistic about turning in a stronger performance in Game 5 after being limited to 13 minutes in a scoreless second half the last time out.
“I’m getting stronger with it,” he said. “My goal is to be close to 100 percent by [Sunday]. I feel confident, and I’m being disciplined with all the treatments, with the ice right now. Hopefully I’ll be good for tomorrow.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has said for three straight days now that his star point guard is “fine,” but the dropoff in production in that second half of the last game says otherwise.
As for whether or not Parker will be able to contribute for the entirety of his minutes on Sunday, he wasn’t willing to speculate on his Game 5 chances.
“I don’t know,” Parker said. “We’ll see tomorrow, I guess, huh?”
