Gregg Popovich returns to Spurs

BOSTON -- San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich returned to the sideline Sunday in Boston after missing two games due to an undisclosed minor medical procedure.

Meeting with reporters before Sunday's game against the Boston Celtics, Popovich was asked if he was happy to be back coaching.

"Sure. I don't know what else I would do," he said. "It's winter, you know, plants don't grow. I'm having a fight about books right now because I've decided that, at my age, there's so many things you want to read, that you can't do it. So do you just give up and read nothing, or do you go into high gear and read everything that you can find? I just thought I'd throw that out there."

When a reporter joked that Popovich was getting pretty deep after missing just two games, the 65-year-old coach added, "That's what your mind does. You start thinking about weird things. ... I have some more if you want to hear them. All kind of things went through my head."

Popovich was asked if it was odd to watch his team on television.

"Oh, definitely. You rarely get to do that," he said. "You realize that it's probably harder for the people that watch than the people that are in the battle. Your family, [general managers] and their staff -- you watch it and you don't have any control over anything. You just live and die with every play and every call, that sort of thing. So it's much easier sitting on the bench and being in the middle of the fight."

Did Popovich find himself screaming at the TV?

"No, I'll save it for when I'm coaching," he joked.

The Spurs topped both the Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings while being coached by assistant Ettore Messina the past two games.