It’s More Bad News for Spurs as Duncan Is Ruled Out Again

The wait for Tim Duncan continues.

The San Antonio Spurs’ franchise player, who sat out the last four games of the regular season and their ugly loss to the Phoenix Suns in the first game of this first-round playoff series, also will miss Game 2, Coach Gregg Popovich said Sunday.

“He’s not going to play,” Popovich said. “He’s not ready to go.”

Duncan suffered a small cartilage tear in his left knee at Sacramento on April 11. The Spurs, who were on a three-game winning streak, then came home and lost to Portland, before winning their last three.

Duncan is now only strolling gently around at practice and hasn’t started cutting. He said before the series started he was hoping for one more week’s rest, which suggested a Game 3 return at Phoenix.

Of course, that was before the Spurs scored 70 points without him and lost Game 1.

“It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks,” Duncan, taciturn as usual, said Sunday. “I’m going to go out there and play when I’m ready. I’m not worried about what everybody thinks I’m going to do and who wants me on the court. When I’m ready, I want to be out there more than anybody else. For my team. For myself. Give us an opportunity to do better than we are . . .

“I have to think with my head. I’ve learned that a little more. I just can’t risk it. I can’t go out there and risk injuring myself even more than I am now.”

Not that anyone thinks Duncan, a gamer, is babying himself but there is suspicion behind the scenes that his free-agent status is a factor.

But Popovich, the general manager as well as the coach, made the announcement that Duncan would sit out Tuesday, while Duncan still was saying he was “taking it day-to-day” and didn’t know.

“Sometimes,” Popovich said, “I think you’ve got to protect the player from himself because they’re competitors and they want to be out on the court. So I think I have a responsibility, and the trainers and the doctors do, to make sure that we feel good about it too.

“We’re going to treat him just like Sean [Elliott, who returned from his kidney transplant, only after satisfying the team in a series of tests]. If we’re going to err, it’s going to be on the side of caution . . .

“I’m not trying to play games with Phoenix or anybody. He’s just not ready.”

Of course, the Suns will believe it when they see it.

“I’m taking it with a grain of salt,” said their oldest pro, Kevin Johnson. “I’m not saying those guys are fabricating or trying to deceive us, but if he’s truly hurt, we’ll know on Tuesday game time. But I’ve been around so long that what you say two days before the game means nothing.”

Assuming Popovich isn’t playing games, the remaining Spurs will have to make a stand Tuesday if they are to avoid a 2-0 deficit going to Phoenix.

Not that it’s impossible for David Robinson to shoot better than three for 12 or Mario Elie (one) and Terry Porter (four) to combine for more than five points.

But it’s been that kind of a season for the Spurs in their title defense and right now, it’s that kind of post-season too.