"For much of the season, Tony Parker has been waiting for coach Gregg Popovich to lose it.

Game in and game out, win or lose, good play or poor, Mount Popovich would not erupt. Not like it used to in its magma-spewing heyday.

"As he gets older and drinks more wine, he gets more patient," Parker said.

Wednesday night, with a lead against Atlanta growing tenuous and the Spurs sleepwalking out of the halftime locker room, Popovich's patience finally wore out, and Parker finally got his explosion."