Kori Ellis
06-17-2005, 02:59 AM
Time for Tim Duncan to be Tim Duncan again
BY MITCH LAWRENCE
New York Daily News
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - (KRT) - It's not that Tim Duncan didn't dominate Thursday night. He didn't even show up.
All you heard after Game 3 of the Finals was that Duncan would roar back off a stinkeroo game and remind you why he'll be in the Hall of Fame one day.
But Duncan and the Spurs had their heads handed to them, 102-71, so now we've got a real series.
Too bad we still haven't had a competitive game.
San Antonio is now in bad shape, even if the Finals is technically tied at 2-2. The Spurs have to spend two days in god-forsaken Auburn Hills, the land that time forgot, explaining why they've been so rotten in two games here. Then they get to make amends on Sunday. If they don't go crazy before that point.
At halftime, ABC reported that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had called his team's performance "the worst half he had seen by an NBA playoff team."
Afterward, he was asked if the report was accurate.
"It was right on the money," he said.
Then he had to sit and watch an equally awful second half.
"I don't think we're back to square one," Popovich said. "But it's disappointing that we played two games the same way, and did not learn from Game 3. Those were two bad performances."
This isn't to take anything away from the Pistons. They were magnificent. Larry Brown has coached about a million games in his life, but he came away from this one saying that it was the best game one of his teams had ever played.
"We were phenomenal," he said after his team committed only four turnovers, an all-time Finals low.
While San Antonio has regressed over the last four days, the Pistons have raised their defensive intensity and overall play. They're a totally different team than the one that didn't compete in Game 2 last Sunday in San Antonio.
"We're starting to play the way we need to play and the way we're accustomed to playing," said Detroit's Chauncey Billups, one of seven Pistons who scored in double figures. "It starts with our effort. When our effort is there, then our execution will come."
Detroit ran away with this game in the second quarter, when the Spurs couldn't even get the ball up the floor without a Piston stealing it and heading the other way for an easy transition basket. In the third quarter, the Spurs cut the lead to 13, but Lindsey Hunter did an Isiah Thomas imitation, pouring in jumper after jumper, for nine points, as the Pistons went up by 74-57 entering the final period.
All Duncan could do was watch. He started out going hard to the basket, but once he got challenged by the Wallaces, Rasheed and Ben, he backed down.
"I can think of about five shots I should have made," Duncan said after missing 12 of 17 shots and scoring only 16 points. "Not that it would have changed the game drastically. But they were momentum swingers."
Everyone expected that Duncan would personally get the pendulum swinging back to the Spurs. He's always done it after an off night. After Game 3, the Spurs went out to dinner. Seated near Duncan was Sean Elliott, the former small forward who is now the team's radio analyst. From the time they got there until it broke up at 3 a.m., Duncan smoldered.
"The other night at dinner, he did not say one word," Elliott said. "He was royally p.o.'d, to say the least. But that's the thing about this team. Out of all the teams I've been around, even the one that won it all in `99, this one hates to lose more than all the others. It starts with the coaches and goes right to the players."
It starts with Duncan, who was approached by Popovich before Thursday night's game.
"I sat next to him and said, `Do I need to say anything or do you already know what I'm going to say?' " Popovich said. He might as well as have been talking to the great Sphinx.
Duncan sat stone-faced, never offering a reply.
"I said, `It's been great talking to you.' " Popovich said. "And I went the other way. And that was our meeting."
Now, Popovich may need to remind his superstar exactly what he needs to do. Go strong to the basket. Take charge. Be a monster on the defensive end. Stop getting outplayed by Detroit's big men.
But most of all, start being Tim Duncan again.
BY MITCH LAWRENCE
New York Daily News
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - (KRT) - It's not that Tim Duncan didn't dominate Thursday night. He didn't even show up.
All you heard after Game 3 of the Finals was that Duncan would roar back off a stinkeroo game and remind you why he'll be in the Hall of Fame one day.
But Duncan and the Spurs had their heads handed to them, 102-71, so now we've got a real series.
Too bad we still haven't had a competitive game.
San Antonio is now in bad shape, even if the Finals is technically tied at 2-2. The Spurs have to spend two days in god-forsaken Auburn Hills, the land that time forgot, explaining why they've been so rotten in two games here. Then they get to make amends on Sunday. If they don't go crazy before that point.
At halftime, ABC reported that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had called his team's performance "the worst half he had seen by an NBA playoff team."
Afterward, he was asked if the report was accurate.
"It was right on the money," he said.
Then he had to sit and watch an equally awful second half.
"I don't think we're back to square one," Popovich said. "But it's disappointing that we played two games the same way, and did not learn from Game 3. Those were two bad performances."
This isn't to take anything away from the Pistons. They were magnificent. Larry Brown has coached about a million games in his life, but he came away from this one saying that it was the best game one of his teams had ever played.
"We were phenomenal," he said after his team committed only four turnovers, an all-time Finals low.
While San Antonio has regressed over the last four days, the Pistons have raised their defensive intensity and overall play. They're a totally different team than the one that didn't compete in Game 2 last Sunday in San Antonio.
"We're starting to play the way we need to play and the way we're accustomed to playing," said Detroit's Chauncey Billups, one of seven Pistons who scored in double figures. "It starts with our effort. When our effort is there, then our execution will come."
Detroit ran away with this game in the second quarter, when the Spurs couldn't even get the ball up the floor without a Piston stealing it and heading the other way for an easy transition basket. In the third quarter, the Spurs cut the lead to 13, but Lindsey Hunter did an Isiah Thomas imitation, pouring in jumper after jumper, for nine points, as the Pistons went up by 74-57 entering the final period.
All Duncan could do was watch. He started out going hard to the basket, but once he got challenged by the Wallaces, Rasheed and Ben, he backed down.
"I can think of about five shots I should have made," Duncan said after missing 12 of 17 shots and scoring only 16 points. "Not that it would have changed the game drastically. But they were momentum swingers."
Everyone expected that Duncan would personally get the pendulum swinging back to the Spurs. He's always done it after an off night. After Game 3, the Spurs went out to dinner. Seated near Duncan was Sean Elliott, the former small forward who is now the team's radio analyst. From the time they got there until it broke up at 3 a.m., Duncan smoldered.
"The other night at dinner, he did not say one word," Elliott said. "He was royally p.o.'d, to say the least. But that's the thing about this team. Out of all the teams I've been around, even the one that won it all in `99, this one hates to lose more than all the others. It starts with the coaches and goes right to the players."
It starts with Duncan, who was approached by Popovich before Thursday night's game.
"I sat next to him and said, `Do I need to say anything or do you already know what I'm going to say?' " Popovich said. He might as well as have been talking to the great Sphinx.
Duncan sat stone-faced, never offering a reply.
"I said, `It's been great talking to you.' " Popovich said. "And I went the other way. And that was our meeting."
Now, Popovich may need to remind his superstar exactly what he needs to do. Go strong to the basket. Take charge. Be a monster on the defensive end. Stop getting outplayed by Detroit's big men.
But most of all, start being Tim Duncan again.