duncan228
04-28-2008, 10:48 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA042808.01D.COL.BKNspurs.harvey.a82f678f.html
Buck Harvey: Horry's last act: Boos for a reboot
San Antonio Express-News
PHOENIX — Robert Horry grabbed the final rebound, took the final dribbles and gave the Phoenix fans no choice.
The crowd had to boo during the last seconds of a 19-point win for the home team.
“That’s why I kept the ball,” Horry said, smiling.
No one will be suspended for this. But it was a gesture that revealed how the Spurs took their beating and how they had begun to reboot their heads before the beating was even over.
Or, as Horry said, “We don’t need to lose the next game.”
The end is coming for Horry. He knows that. He wouldn’t mind playing another season, but he also has joked about the prospects.
“Who is going to want a 38-year-old power forward who doesn’t score in the paint?” he has said.
That’s Horry. Nothing bothers him short of the death threat he got last spring, and this past weekend in Phoenix was nothing like that. He was booed, sure, but that was it.
“I don’t mind being public enemy No. 1 here,” he said.
By the fourth quarter, he’d become the last form of entertainment for Phoenix fans. The Suns had routed the Spurs so quickly that Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili sat down for good with almost four minutes left in the third.
They would have been on a jet heading back to San Antonio in the fourth if the Spurs had an extra plane.
Ginobili feared this might happen Friday night. Usually, that’s the pattern of a playoff series.
But the energy of the teams didn’t switch until Sunday, and that suggests the Suns were reacting out of embarrassment. After Friday, they had to do something.
So Raja Bell couldn’t miss, and Shaquille O’Neal got a double-double in half of a game. The Suns threw in nine 3-pointers, and Boris Diaw became the solution for Tony Parker. You fight French with French, right?
But as the Spurs did everything but untie their laces, the Suns were still on edge. Amare Stoudemire got a technical foul early in the fourth quarter, long after the Spurs’ starters had been pulled, and he returned later after the Suns’ lead had dropped.
From 32 points to 21. Did Mike D’Antoni think Jacque Vaughn and Damon Stoudamire were threatening?
Bell played 40 minutes when there was no reason for him to, and Diaw went further. He stayed in the game until he fouled out — after playing almost 45 minutes.
Then there’s D’Antoni. How many coaches have ever been ejected in the final minutes of a playoff game with a 24-point lead?
Meanwhile, Horry was running around doing something he hadn’t been able to do on the court this spring — run around. He said afterward he needed this to get closer to the rhythm of a game.
“Big time,” is how he summed up the opportunity.
Brent Barry took advantage of that, too. But mostly, the Spurs sat back and absorbed their punishment. They listened to the crowd, and they watched three Suns starters stay on the court in the fourth, and they began to get ready for Tuesday.
Bell, trying to explain how the Suns reversed Friday’s rout by the Spurs, settled on an emotional answer. “When guys beat you like that,” he said of the Spurs’ win in Game 3, “you take it to heart.”
Horry, after the series loss to the Mavericks in 2006, told the team the same before they left for the summer. “Now we have the fuel,” he said.
Now it is the Spurs’ turn to find some fuel. Gregg Popovich didn’t say much to the players afterward. “Because he didn’t have to,” Horry said.
Horry has gone through this before. If the Spurs advance, he will have gone through more than anyone; he likely will pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most games played in NBA playoff history.
So he took the final dribbles, and he heard the boos. Afterward, he was asked what he was thinking at that moment, and he smiled again. He said he would keep that to himself.
And then came the realization. Given that this series could end Tuesday, was this Horry’s last game in the city that loves to hate him?
“I hope so,” he said.
Buck Harvey: Horry's last act: Boos for a reboot
San Antonio Express-News
PHOENIX — Robert Horry grabbed the final rebound, took the final dribbles and gave the Phoenix fans no choice.
The crowd had to boo during the last seconds of a 19-point win for the home team.
“That’s why I kept the ball,” Horry said, smiling.
No one will be suspended for this. But it was a gesture that revealed how the Spurs took their beating and how they had begun to reboot their heads before the beating was even over.
Or, as Horry said, “We don’t need to lose the next game.”
The end is coming for Horry. He knows that. He wouldn’t mind playing another season, but he also has joked about the prospects.
“Who is going to want a 38-year-old power forward who doesn’t score in the paint?” he has said.
That’s Horry. Nothing bothers him short of the death threat he got last spring, and this past weekend in Phoenix was nothing like that. He was booed, sure, but that was it.
“I don’t mind being public enemy No. 1 here,” he said.
By the fourth quarter, he’d become the last form of entertainment for Phoenix fans. The Suns had routed the Spurs so quickly that Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili sat down for good with almost four minutes left in the third.
They would have been on a jet heading back to San Antonio in the fourth if the Spurs had an extra plane.
Ginobili feared this might happen Friday night. Usually, that’s the pattern of a playoff series.
But the energy of the teams didn’t switch until Sunday, and that suggests the Suns were reacting out of embarrassment. After Friday, they had to do something.
So Raja Bell couldn’t miss, and Shaquille O’Neal got a double-double in half of a game. The Suns threw in nine 3-pointers, and Boris Diaw became the solution for Tony Parker. You fight French with French, right?
But as the Spurs did everything but untie their laces, the Suns were still on edge. Amare Stoudemire got a technical foul early in the fourth quarter, long after the Spurs’ starters had been pulled, and he returned later after the Suns’ lead had dropped.
From 32 points to 21. Did Mike D’Antoni think Jacque Vaughn and Damon Stoudamire were threatening?
Bell played 40 minutes when there was no reason for him to, and Diaw went further. He stayed in the game until he fouled out — after playing almost 45 minutes.
Then there’s D’Antoni. How many coaches have ever been ejected in the final minutes of a playoff game with a 24-point lead?
Meanwhile, Horry was running around doing something he hadn’t been able to do on the court this spring — run around. He said afterward he needed this to get closer to the rhythm of a game.
“Big time,” is how he summed up the opportunity.
Brent Barry took advantage of that, too. But mostly, the Spurs sat back and absorbed their punishment. They listened to the crowd, and they watched three Suns starters stay on the court in the fourth, and they began to get ready for Tuesday.
Bell, trying to explain how the Suns reversed Friday’s rout by the Spurs, settled on an emotional answer. “When guys beat you like that,” he said of the Spurs’ win in Game 3, “you take it to heart.”
Horry, after the series loss to the Mavericks in 2006, told the team the same before they left for the summer. “Now we have the fuel,” he said.
Now it is the Spurs’ turn to find some fuel. Gregg Popovich didn’t say much to the players afterward. “Because he didn’t have to,” Horry said.
Horry has gone through this before. If the Spurs advance, he will have gone through more than anyone; he likely will pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most games played in NBA playoff history.
So he took the final dribbles, and he heard the boos. Afterward, he was asked what he was thinking at that moment, and he smiled again. He said he would keep that to himself.
And then came the realization. Given that this series could end Tuesday, was this Horry’s last game in the city that loves to hate him?
“I hope so,” he said.