Kori Ellis
04-30-2005, 12:12 AM
Spurs discount road history: Denver difficult to beat at home
Web Posted: 04/30/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA043005.1C.BKNspurs.game3.adv.2285440cc.html
DENVER — The Spurs arrived here early Friday evening to find snow on the ground and a 30-degree chill in the air, not exactly the muggy springtime weather they left behind in South Texas.
Not that they should have been surprised. Nearly every time the Spurs have stepped outside the SBC Center this season, they have encountered less-than-hospitable conditions. As comforting as they've found their own confines, life on the road certainly hasn't been all sun, sand and palm trees.
Having surrendered home-court advantage by losing the opening game of their first-round playoff series against Denver, the Spurs need to win at least once at the Nuggets' Pepsi Center to advance to the Western Conference semifinals. With the best-of-seven series now tied 1-1, Games 3 and 4 will be played here tonight and Monday.
In past years, the Spurs have welcomed their time away from home, even using their month-long sabbatical from the SBC Center during the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo as an opportunity to build chemistry. This season's travels, however, have proved more treacherous than usual: The team's 21-20 road record was its worst in Tim Duncan's eight years.
"We wipe that clean," Robert Horry said. "We were a whole different team then. Tim had his ankle injury, Manu (Ginobili) was hurt, nobody was really out there. Some of that was because we didn't have our total crew out there. We're fine now."
It's true some of the Spurs' struggles are self-explanatory: Including March 20 in Detroit, when he was on the floor for less than two minutes, Duncan didn't play in seven of the team's 20 losses on the road. Coach Gregg Popovich also rested players when the Spurs lost in Memphis and Minnesota last week.
But it's also true the Nuggets have turned the Pepsi Center into a house of horrors for visiting teams the past three months. Since George Karl became coach on Jan. 27, Denver has lost only once in 20 home games.
The Nuggets enter tonight with an 11-game winning streak at the Pepsi Center. During that time, they've averaged 116.4 points.
"Denver's a team that plays a lot on emotion," Horry said. "If they get some dunks, that fires them up. We've got to keep their lobs down and keep them from getting those easy buckets. That's the only way they can kill our team, with transition points.
"If we cut that down, we're good."
The Spurs did that in their 104-76 victory Wednesday when they limited Denver to a single fast-break basket. The Nuggets' 76 points also were their fewest under Karl.
"There's nothing magic to it," Popovich said. "We ran back."
Opposing teams have had more trouble keeping pace with the Nuggets in the Pepsi Center, where, depending on whom you ask, the Mile High City's altitude wears on players.
"You feel like you swallowed a match," Bruce Bowen said. "Your chest is hot."
Many of Bowen's teammates have said the same. Even Karl, whose team is accustomed to playing in the thin air, accounts for the change.
"We'll probably shorten the first two rotations, shorten the minutes and try to keep the burn from coming," he said. "If the burn comes, psychologically they think they're tired, even though they supposedly recoup it. As a player, when you get the burn, it's sort of like, 'Whoa!'"
While Denver is allowing 4.4 fewer points per game at home than on the road, coaches have long thought the impact of the thin air is more psychological. And it's probably not a coincidence complaints about the altitude decreased significantly when the Nuggets failed to make the playoffs from 1995-2003.
"There are teams where it definitely affects them more," said former Denver coach Doug Moe, whose teams also played at a fast pace, "because they think about it so much."
Provided tonight's game isn't extended to double-overtime, Popovich thinks any impact the thin air might have on the Spurs should be negated by the longer — and more frequent — timeouts required by the ESPN broadcast. Some of the Nuggets also aren't counting on much of an advantage.
"Tim Duncan is Tim Duncan, man," Denver forward Carmelo Anthony said. "Altitude or no altitude, he's still going to give you what he's going to give you."
The Spurs hope the same holds true, home or away.
Web Posted: 04/30/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA043005.1C.BKNspurs.game3.adv.2285440cc.html
DENVER — The Spurs arrived here early Friday evening to find snow on the ground and a 30-degree chill in the air, not exactly the muggy springtime weather they left behind in South Texas.
Not that they should have been surprised. Nearly every time the Spurs have stepped outside the SBC Center this season, they have encountered less-than-hospitable conditions. As comforting as they've found their own confines, life on the road certainly hasn't been all sun, sand and palm trees.
Having surrendered home-court advantage by losing the opening game of their first-round playoff series against Denver, the Spurs need to win at least once at the Nuggets' Pepsi Center to advance to the Western Conference semifinals. With the best-of-seven series now tied 1-1, Games 3 and 4 will be played here tonight and Monday.
In past years, the Spurs have welcomed their time away from home, even using their month-long sabbatical from the SBC Center during the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo as an opportunity to build chemistry. This season's travels, however, have proved more treacherous than usual: The team's 21-20 road record was its worst in Tim Duncan's eight years.
"We wipe that clean," Robert Horry said. "We were a whole different team then. Tim had his ankle injury, Manu (Ginobili) was hurt, nobody was really out there. Some of that was because we didn't have our total crew out there. We're fine now."
It's true some of the Spurs' struggles are self-explanatory: Including March 20 in Detroit, when he was on the floor for less than two minutes, Duncan didn't play in seven of the team's 20 losses on the road. Coach Gregg Popovich also rested players when the Spurs lost in Memphis and Minnesota last week.
But it's also true the Nuggets have turned the Pepsi Center into a house of horrors for visiting teams the past three months. Since George Karl became coach on Jan. 27, Denver has lost only once in 20 home games.
The Nuggets enter tonight with an 11-game winning streak at the Pepsi Center. During that time, they've averaged 116.4 points.
"Denver's a team that plays a lot on emotion," Horry said. "If they get some dunks, that fires them up. We've got to keep their lobs down and keep them from getting those easy buckets. That's the only way they can kill our team, with transition points.
"If we cut that down, we're good."
The Spurs did that in their 104-76 victory Wednesday when they limited Denver to a single fast-break basket. The Nuggets' 76 points also were their fewest under Karl.
"There's nothing magic to it," Popovich said. "We ran back."
Opposing teams have had more trouble keeping pace with the Nuggets in the Pepsi Center, where, depending on whom you ask, the Mile High City's altitude wears on players.
"You feel like you swallowed a match," Bruce Bowen said. "Your chest is hot."
Many of Bowen's teammates have said the same. Even Karl, whose team is accustomed to playing in the thin air, accounts for the change.
"We'll probably shorten the first two rotations, shorten the minutes and try to keep the burn from coming," he said. "If the burn comes, psychologically they think they're tired, even though they supposedly recoup it. As a player, when you get the burn, it's sort of like, 'Whoa!'"
While Denver is allowing 4.4 fewer points per game at home than on the road, coaches have long thought the impact of the thin air is more psychological. And it's probably not a coincidence complaints about the altitude decreased significantly when the Nuggets failed to make the playoffs from 1995-2003.
"There are teams where it definitely affects them more," said former Denver coach Doug Moe, whose teams also played at a fast pace, "because they think about it so much."
Provided tonight's game isn't extended to double-overtime, Popovich thinks any impact the thin air might have on the Spurs should be negated by the longer — and more frequent — timeouts required by the ESPN broadcast. Some of the Nuggets also aren't counting on much of an advantage.
"Tim Duncan is Tim Duncan, man," Denver forward Carmelo Anthony said. "Altitude or no altitude, he's still going to give you what he's going to give you."
The Spurs hope the same holds true, home or away.