duncan228
05-16-2008, 01:29 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mfinger/stories/MYSA051608.05D.COL.BKNfinger.spurs.10539535a.html
Mike Finger: Hornets have not felt pressure of a Game 7
The wait will be unendurable. So will four days of relentless, nails-on-the-chalkboard over-analysis. Then there will be an arena rocking harder than Bourbon Street, and memories of three recent third-quarter meltdowns, and a determined, well-rested David West greeting them inside.
So how will the Spurs overcome all of this?
The same way they made it through Thursday night.
“The only thing you can do,” Bruce Bowen said, shrugging his shoulders, “is will your way through the madness.”
That, more than even Tim Duncan’s toughness, Manu Ginobili’s magic and Tony Parker’s quickness, has always been these Spurs’ biggest strength. They weathered bad crème brûlée in Dallas in 2003 and near-disaster in Detroit in 2005 and the mayhem that was the Phoenix series in 2007, and every time they put their head down and forged on.
The madness never stood a chance.
So it was no surprise that on Thursday, when things started getting chippy and the season hung in the balance, it was the Spurs who looked like they’d been there before. West would say later that he thought the New Orleans Hornets “lost our cool,” and he was including himself in that summation. After he was charged with three fouls in the span of a minute, he reacted like Gregg Popovich getting a delay-of-game warning.
Popovich, for his part, was cooler on this night, and watching his team get a few calls probably helped. But even before the game, he appeared as relaxed as he had all series, and that was at least partly because he knew the pressure of an elimination game was something his team was almost certain to thrive on.
“It’s a little bit different than golf,” Popovich said. “In golf, I can visibly see my hands shake when I’m trying to make that 2-footer for a Budweiser.”
Someone asked Popovich if the Spurs felt more pressure on the brink of a second-round elimination than they did before Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and he laughed the question off.
“In that locker room,” Popovich said, “pressure is a good thing.”
We still don’t know what kind of thing pressure is in the Hornets locker room. Their storybook run, up to this point, has been largely madness-free, with the possible exception of a flaming ring of fire and a court covered in fire-extinguisher dust. The Dallas Mavericks never pushed them in the first round, and each victory against the Spurs in New Orleans came with the knowledge that they were assured of at least another chance the next time out.
Given that, it’s no wonder they’ve been so loose.
But now?
Maybe the Hornets will discover that they love pressure as much as the Spurs do. But there’s one major difference.
“We know what we’re facing,” Duncan said.
The Hornets don’t. Byron Scott said before Game 5 in New Orleans that his young team didn’t fully understand the situation they were in, and Scott saw that as a good thing. But in a Game 7, wouldn’t a little institutional knowledge be an advantage.
The Spurs hope it is, even if the topic of experience makes some of them chuckle.
“So far,” Parker said, “it hasn’t helped us that much.”
It could be that it won’t fully reveal itself until Monday night, with the crowd screaming and Chris Paul darting through traffic and West swishing jumpers and Super Hugo flicking his lighter.
There will be madness, and there will be the Spurs, shrugging their shoulders.
The only thing they can do is will their way through it.
Mike Finger: Hornets have not felt pressure of a Game 7
The wait will be unendurable. So will four days of relentless, nails-on-the-chalkboard over-analysis. Then there will be an arena rocking harder than Bourbon Street, and memories of three recent third-quarter meltdowns, and a determined, well-rested David West greeting them inside.
So how will the Spurs overcome all of this?
The same way they made it through Thursday night.
“The only thing you can do,” Bruce Bowen said, shrugging his shoulders, “is will your way through the madness.”
That, more than even Tim Duncan’s toughness, Manu Ginobili’s magic and Tony Parker’s quickness, has always been these Spurs’ biggest strength. They weathered bad crème brûlée in Dallas in 2003 and near-disaster in Detroit in 2005 and the mayhem that was the Phoenix series in 2007, and every time they put their head down and forged on.
The madness never stood a chance.
So it was no surprise that on Thursday, when things started getting chippy and the season hung in the balance, it was the Spurs who looked like they’d been there before. West would say later that he thought the New Orleans Hornets “lost our cool,” and he was including himself in that summation. After he was charged with three fouls in the span of a minute, he reacted like Gregg Popovich getting a delay-of-game warning.
Popovich, for his part, was cooler on this night, and watching his team get a few calls probably helped. But even before the game, he appeared as relaxed as he had all series, and that was at least partly because he knew the pressure of an elimination game was something his team was almost certain to thrive on.
“It’s a little bit different than golf,” Popovich said. “In golf, I can visibly see my hands shake when I’m trying to make that 2-footer for a Budweiser.”
Someone asked Popovich if the Spurs felt more pressure on the brink of a second-round elimination than they did before Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and he laughed the question off.
“In that locker room,” Popovich said, “pressure is a good thing.”
We still don’t know what kind of thing pressure is in the Hornets locker room. Their storybook run, up to this point, has been largely madness-free, with the possible exception of a flaming ring of fire and a court covered in fire-extinguisher dust. The Dallas Mavericks never pushed them in the first round, and each victory against the Spurs in New Orleans came with the knowledge that they were assured of at least another chance the next time out.
Given that, it’s no wonder they’ve been so loose.
But now?
Maybe the Hornets will discover that they love pressure as much as the Spurs do. But there’s one major difference.
“We know what we’re facing,” Duncan said.
The Hornets don’t. Byron Scott said before Game 5 in New Orleans that his young team didn’t fully understand the situation they were in, and Scott saw that as a good thing. But in a Game 7, wouldn’t a little institutional knowledge be an advantage.
The Spurs hope it is, even if the topic of experience makes some of them chuckle.
“So far,” Parker said, “it hasn’t helped us that much.”
It could be that it won’t fully reveal itself until Monday night, with the crowd screaming and Chris Paul darting through traffic and West swishing jumpers and Super Hugo flicking his lighter.
There will be madness, and there will be the Spurs, shrugging their shoulders.
The only thing they can do is will their way through it.