Stakes higher, so Blair sacrifices favorite foods

Blair said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich pulled him aside a few weeks ago and conferred with him about how best to approach the playoffs.

The coach had one emphatic request: Drop some weight and get in better shape.

A self-professed fast-food junkie, Blair arrived in San Antonio from Pittsburgh and quickly discovered the joys of Whataburger.

Now he sounds like a man in a 12-step program.

“I’m not eating anything and I’ve changed from eating everything,” he said.

His dietary regimen is not a fast. It just feels that way.

“I just eat a lot of salads; eat a lot of little portions of a lot of things,” he said. “Portions, keep your metabolism up and drink a lot of water and you’ll be great.

“But no juice, no Whataburger with Strawberry Fanta.”

So far, he said, he has lost between 15 and 20 pounds in a little more than two weeks. Maintaining dietary discipline is easy, he said, because the stakes are so high.

“Pop told me they were going to need me,” Blair said. “I’ve got to be ready at all times.”

Blair’s assignment in the first-round series against the Grizzlies most often matches him against the Grizzlies’ beefy scoring leader, Zach Randolph. He admits the extra weight he was carrying about the time the Spurs lost to the Grizzlies in Memphis on March 27 proved Popovich’s point.

“I was huge,” he said. “Yes, fat. Now, I just try to get all the fat off and try to make it into muscle with cardio and running and all that.

“I feel great.”