ploto
04-29-2006, 08:25 AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tim Duncan stretched for what he couldn't touch. But he reached something anyway.
He couldn't get to Kevin Martin's game-winner, the ball just arcing over all fingertips. But even as this series is extended — even if Friday rearranges the order of things — don't the Spurs have to celebrate the return of Duncan?
Gregg Popovich didn't take that tone afterward. After his Euro-backcourt flinched — with Manu Ginobili committing what he called the "worst turnover of my career" — Popovich looked at Duncan's statistical line and groaned.
"I feel like we wasted it," Popovich said.
Popovich used to say the same at the end of David Robinson's career, and that fits. Duncan has looked, at times, as if he's on a downward slide.
It seems to be going around. Shaquille O'Neal wobbled the night before in Chicago, playing perhaps the worst playoff game of his career. He looked like a man who knows he will earn $20 million a year until 2010 no matter what he does, though he didn't sound that way later. "I'm very, very humiliated," O'Neal said.
Friday night was supposed to be Duncan's turn. He's on the same pay scale, after all.
The Spurs have never believed any of it, even as Duncan went through a series of 14-point scoring nights this season. They say his foot is not a problem now, nor is his age.
They say it's still about the mysterious doubt inside of him, and they point to last year as an example. Then he wobbled worse, returning from a severely sprained ankle, and he struggled in the opener against Denver.
But his game came back just in time. In Game 4 in Denver, when the Spurs all but clinched the series, Duncan scored 39 points. That also came against big men, Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby, who are more athletic and defensive-oriented than Sacramento's big men.
Given that, why had Duncan looked so human in the first two games? Partly because looks are deceiving. Duncan was fine in the first game, playing about 24 minutes in a blowout. But his 11 points also made him just one of seven Spurs in double figures, and that's not a role he's known for.
He struggled in Game 2, scoring 14 points. But he rebounded and stayed in the game with five fouls, culminating with the back pick that freed Brent Barry for his three.
Still, he stumbled with his own footwork, and seemingly lost all confidence in his jumper. Other superstars have the arrogant belief that they are the best. Shaq does, for example, a reason he took the night off in Chicago.
But Duncan? After all the years, after all his success, he still goes through these crises, then comes out the other side.
The same happened Friday, and this happened partly because the Kings threw fewer double teams at him. Allowed to work in the low block, he did what he's done for a decade, which is put opposing big men in foul trouble.
Another vision of the past came from teammates. They didn't keep up. Outside of Rasho Nesterovic and Beno Udrih — the Croatian Couple :wtf — Duncan was mostly by himself in the first half. He stopped Bonzi Wells' assault of the rim, blocking him at least three times. And once, with a Kings' double team coming at him, Duncan turned to the baseline for a smooth jump hook that looked like something out of 2003.
If the Spurs are to defend their title, if they are to go deeper than this first round, they need this from Duncan.
He stayed at it, defending on one end, posting on the other. He threw in two free throws in the final minutes, then ducked between a double team to tie the game at 90. When other Spurs joined him, most notably Michael Finley with a clutch 3-pointer, it should have been enough to win.
Then Ginobili was stripped. Duncan took off to make one final save, only to have Martin throw in a layup as improbable as Barry's 3-pointer on Tuesday. "I don't even know how he got it off," Duncan said afterward.
He lost, all right. As he found his game.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA042906.1C.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.398a64e.html
While it is nice to finally have Buck say anything nice about Rasho and Beno, does he have any clue at all about just what a huge faux pas he made here?
He couldn't get to Kevin Martin's game-winner, the ball just arcing over all fingertips. But even as this series is extended — even if Friday rearranges the order of things — don't the Spurs have to celebrate the return of Duncan?
Gregg Popovich didn't take that tone afterward. After his Euro-backcourt flinched — with Manu Ginobili committing what he called the "worst turnover of my career" — Popovich looked at Duncan's statistical line and groaned.
"I feel like we wasted it," Popovich said.
Popovich used to say the same at the end of David Robinson's career, and that fits. Duncan has looked, at times, as if he's on a downward slide.
It seems to be going around. Shaquille O'Neal wobbled the night before in Chicago, playing perhaps the worst playoff game of his career. He looked like a man who knows he will earn $20 million a year until 2010 no matter what he does, though he didn't sound that way later. "I'm very, very humiliated," O'Neal said.
Friday night was supposed to be Duncan's turn. He's on the same pay scale, after all.
The Spurs have never believed any of it, even as Duncan went through a series of 14-point scoring nights this season. They say his foot is not a problem now, nor is his age.
They say it's still about the mysterious doubt inside of him, and they point to last year as an example. Then he wobbled worse, returning from a severely sprained ankle, and he struggled in the opener against Denver.
But his game came back just in time. In Game 4 in Denver, when the Spurs all but clinched the series, Duncan scored 39 points. That also came against big men, Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby, who are more athletic and defensive-oriented than Sacramento's big men.
Given that, why had Duncan looked so human in the first two games? Partly because looks are deceiving. Duncan was fine in the first game, playing about 24 minutes in a blowout. But his 11 points also made him just one of seven Spurs in double figures, and that's not a role he's known for.
He struggled in Game 2, scoring 14 points. But he rebounded and stayed in the game with five fouls, culminating with the back pick that freed Brent Barry for his three.
Still, he stumbled with his own footwork, and seemingly lost all confidence in his jumper. Other superstars have the arrogant belief that they are the best. Shaq does, for example, a reason he took the night off in Chicago.
But Duncan? After all the years, after all his success, he still goes through these crises, then comes out the other side.
The same happened Friday, and this happened partly because the Kings threw fewer double teams at him. Allowed to work in the low block, he did what he's done for a decade, which is put opposing big men in foul trouble.
Another vision of the past came from teammates. They didn't keep up. Outside of Rasho Nesterovic and Beno Udrih — the Croatian Couple :wtf — Duncan was mostly by himself in the first half. He stopped Bonzi Wells' assault of the rim, blocking him at least three times. And once, with a Kings' double team coming at him, Duncan turned to the baseline for a smooth jump hook that looked like something out of 2003.
If the Spurs are to defend their title, if they are to go deeper than this first round, they need this from Duncan.
He stayed at it, defending on one end, posting on the other. He threw in two free throws in the final minutes, then ducked between a double team to tie the game at 90. When other Spurs joined him, most notably Michael Finley with a clutch 3-pointer, it should have been enough to win.
Then Ginobili was stripped. Duncan took off to make one final save, only to have Martin throw in a layup as improbable as Barry's 3-pointer on Tuesday. "I don't even know how he got it off," Duncan said afterward.
He lost, all right. As he found his game.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA042906.1C.COL.BKNharvey.spurs.398a64e.html
While it is nice to finally have Buck say anything nice about Rasho and Beno, does he have any clue at all about just what a huge faux pas he made here?