Emanuel20
05-24-2008, 10:58 AM
Spurs return trailing 0-2 just like they did to Hornets
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA052408.1D.BKNspurs.lakers.gamer2.22d39ae5.html
Web Posted: 05/24/2008 12:35 AM CDT
By Jeff McDonald
[email protected]
LOS ANGELES — The Spurs left the Staples Center late Friday night assured of this much: At least there was a better-than-normal chance they wouldn’t have to spend seven hours on an airport tarmac.
That was the good news.
Flying home on a borrowed plane and — after a brutal 101-71 loss to the Lakers in Game 2 — on borrowed time in the Western Conference finals, the Spurs returned from Los Angeles to face a familiar crisis.
They are behind 0-2 in a playoff series. Again.
“We are going to go home and one of two things are going to happen,” the Spurs’ Tim Duncan said. “We are either going to make this a series, or not.”
Kobe Bryant had 22 points, Lamar Odom added 20 points and 12 rebounds, and the Lakers’ defense harried the Spurs into a second sorry shooting night, pushing the reigning NBA champs halfway to elimination.
The series, and the Spurs’ latest attempt at resurrection, resumes with Game 3 on Sunday at the AT&T Center.
This isn’t a new predicament for the Spurs. They began their conference semifinal series against New Orleans in a 0-2 hole, and rebounded to win in seven games.
“Still, this isn’t a situation you want to be in,” Spurs reserve Ime Udoka noted.
Not since Clark Griswold’s ill-fated vacation to Wally World has a trip to California been so fraught with misadventure.
The Spurs slept on an airport runway in New Orleans the night before arriving in Los Angeles, wasted a 20-point lead in Game 1, then got blown out in Game 2.
Friday’s loss was the Spurs’ most lopsided in the playoffs since a 102-71 beating at Detroit in Game 4 of the 2005 NBA Finals.
Energy, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, was an issue for his team in Game 2.
“We knew it would catch up with us this game, not last game,” Popovich said. “We thought last game was our best shot to get something here, to just dig down and go after it. Obviously, we didn’t get that done.”
The Spurs “Big Three” of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili — the second-most prolific trio of scorers remaining in the playoffs next to the Lakers’ Bryant-Odom-Pau Gasol triumvirate — combined for just 32 points before taking a seat early in the fourth.
Parker had 13 points, Duncan had 12 to go with 16 rebounds and Ginobili, in his second-straight subpar night, finished with just seven points.
Battling a sore ankle and torn fingernail, Ginobili was hobbled enough that Popovich considered holding him out of the game. He finished 2 of 8 from the field and, afterward, announced he felt personally responsible for the Spurs’ 0-2 series deficit.
“That’s how I’m built,” Ginobili said. “I blame myself.”
The Lakers have as much to do with the Spurs’ plight as anybody.
Trapping every angle, Los Angeles bothered the Spurs into 34.5 percent shooting, including a 6-of-23 night from the 3-point line.
Key stat of the night: The Lakers needed just 71 shots to get 101 points. The Spurs took 87 field goal attempts and scored substantially less.
“We figured out the rhythm and tempo and some of the things we wanted to do defensively,” Bryant said. “And tonight we were kind of able to put it on them in the third quarter.”
The Spurs hung tight for the first 22 minutes. When Duncan knocked down a game-tying 18-footer to make it 37-all with 2:14 to play in the first half, it marked the first time the Spurs had not trailed since 0-0.
It would also be the final tie of the game.
The Lakers closed the second quarter on a 9-0 run, taking into the half their largest lead of the game to that point. Then they hit the gas in the third quarter.
With 7:15 left in the third, the Lakers found themselves where the Spurs were at about the same point in Game 1. They were ahead by 17 and in complete control of the game.
Unlike the Spurs in Game 1, the Lakers had the firepower to make it hold up. They outscored the Spurs 64-34 over the game’s final 26 minutes.
Twice beaten, the Spurs headed home late Friday night, on a wing and — with their playoff lives flashing before their eyes again — on a prayer.
“You hate to put yourself in a position where you are down 0-2,” Duncan said. “It is what it is, and we are going to go home and try to change the tide of it.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA052408.1D.BKNspurs.lakers.gamer2.22d39ae5.html
Web Posted: 05/24/2008 12:35 AM CDT
By Jeff McDonald
[email protected]
LOS ANGELES — The Spurs left the Staples Center late Friday night assured of this much: At least there was a better-than-normal chance they wouldn’t have to spend seven hours on an airport tarmac.
That was the good news.
Flying home on a borrowed plane and — after a brutal 101-71 loss to the Lakers in Game 2 — on borrowed time in the Western Conference finals, the Spurs returned from Los Angeles to face a familiar crisis.
They are behind 0-2 in a playoff series. Again.
“We are going to go home and one of two things are going to happen,” the Spurs’ Tim Duncan said. “We are either going to make this a series, or not.”
Kobe Bryant had 22 points, Lamar Odom added 20 points and 12 rebounds, and the Lakers’ defense harried the Spurs into a second sorry shooting night, pushing the reigning NBA champs halfway to elimination.
The series, and the Spurs’ latest attempt at resurrection, resumes with Game 3 on Sunday at the AT&T Center.
This isn’t a new predicament for the Spurs. They began their conference semifinal series against New Orleans in a 0-2 hole, and rebounded to win in seven games.
“Still, this isn’t a situation you want to be in,” Spurs reserve Ime Udoka noted.
Not since Clark Griswold’s ill-fated vacation to Wally World has a trip to California been so fraught with misadventure.
The Spurs slept on an airport runway in New Orleans the night before arriving in Los Angeles, wasted a 20-point lead in Game 1, then got blown out in Game 2.
Friday’s loss was the Spurs’ most lopsided in the playoffs since a 102-71 beating at Detroit in Game 4 of the 2005 NBA Finals.
Energy, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, was an issue for his team in Game 2.
“We knew it would catch up with us this game, not last game,” Popovich said. “We thought last game was our best shot to get something here, to just dig down and go after it. Obviously, we didn’t get that done.”
The Spurs “Big Three” of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili — the second-most prolific trio of scorers remaining in the playoffs next to the Lakers’ Bryant-Odom-Pau Gasol triumvirate — combined for just 32 points before taking a seat early in the fourth.
Parker had 13 points, Duncan had 12 to go with 16 rebounds and Ginobili, in his second-straight subpar night, finished with just seven points.
Battling a sore ankle and torn fingernail, Ginobili was hobbled enough that Popovich considered holding him out of the game. He finished 2 of 8 from the field and, afterward, announced he felt personally responsible for the Spurs’ 0-2 series deficit.
“That’s how I’m built,” Ginobili said. “I blame myself.”
The Lakers have as much to do with the Spurs’ plight as anybody.
Trapping every angle, Los Angeles bothered the Spurs into 34.5 percent shooting, including a 6-of-23 night from the 3-point line.
Key stat of the night: The Lakers needed just 71 shots to get 101 points. The Spurs took 87 field goal attempts and scored substantially less.
“We figured out the rhythm and tempo and some of the things we wanted to do defensively,” Bryant said. “And tonight we were kind of able to put it on them in the third quarter.”
The Spurs hung tight for the first 22 minutes. When Duncan knocked down a game-tying 18-footer to make it 37-all with 2:14 to play in the first half, it marked the first time the Spurs had not trailed since 0-0.
It would also be the final tie of the game.
The Lakers closed the second quarter on a 9-0 run, taking into the half their largest lead of the game to that point. Then they hit the gas in the third quarter.
With 7:15 left in the third, the Lakers found themselves where the Spurs were at about the same point in Game 1. They were ahead by 17 and in complete control of the game.
Unlike the Spurs in Game 1, the Lakers had the firepower to make it hold up. They outscored the Spurs 64-34 over the game’s final 26 minutes.
Twice beaten, the Spurs headed home late Friday night, on a wing and — with their playoff lives flashing before their eyes again — on a prayer.
“You hate to put yourself in a position where you are down 0-2,” Duncan said. “It is what it is, and we are going to go home and try to change the tide of it.”