http://www.dallasbasketball.com/fullColumn.php?id=1568
Duncan's Dirty Play: A Game 4 Game-Changer
When The Refs Denied SA's 'Undercut' Trick, They Set A Tone
By David Lord -- DB.com
It was a little play. But it was a huge play.
It was subtle. But the refs saw it.
It was dirty – a trademark trick of the Spurs. But if you are a Mavs follower, you examine the result of Tim Duncan’s little, huge, subtle, dirty, illegal, dangerous action on Josh Howard … and you think maybe there’s a little justice in the NBA world.
And I think it was a key to Howard’s Mavs beating Duncan’s Spurs in Game 4.
You probably recall the play from Saturday afternoon at the AAC. First minute of the third, and the sequence went like this:
Josh Howard makes a 3. The Spurs respond with a score to stay ahead, 57-54. Then J-Ho shoots another 3 – but there’s a whistle.
The refs charge Duncan with a foul. And they send Josh Howard to the free-throw line for 1, 2, 3 attempts.
Naturally, the camera flashes to Duncan. And naturally, Duncan plays his infamous "How-is-that-a-foul?" card with the refs, going full-throttle “Palms-Up.’’ Additionally, Pop engages a ref in a long discourse as Josh goes to the line.
And indeed, there was a lot of space between Duncan and Josh. So where was the foul?
I watched the replay, and looking carefully, one could see what the foul was called for (even though the announcers didn't see it and didn’t comment on it). And one could see it was the right call and that it had to be made.
And, I feel, that it was significant.
So what happened? Duncan ran and waved at J-Ho as the Mav shot. But Timmy was so far away that he had no chance to alter the shot. Still, well after the shot was gone from Howard’s hands, Duncan kept moving at Josh. Duncan could have stopped rushing the shooter post-shot; there was no benefit to getting closer to Josh, and in fact, it took the Spurs’ best rebounder further from the boards and a potential carom.
But Tim Duncan didn't stop moving toward Howard until Timmy had his feet positioned where the airborne J-Ho was about to land.
Sure enough, Josh landed on Duncan's feet. And Josh went down to the floor in a heap.
It's the kind of move that Duncan teammate Bruce Bowen has used as a career-making trick. Bowen’s developed it into an art form – but it’s not pretty. And it is dirty. It’s a technique designed to frighten shooter and to injure ankles. (Try it it sometime down at your rec-center game; if your potential victim understands basketball, he is likely to respond with a less subtle fist to your face.)
But maybe because Josh didn't come up limping, or maybe because it was the “clean’’ Duncan and not the notorious Bowen doing the dirty deed, the undercutting with the feet went unnoticed.
Except by the refs.
The significance? With that whistle, the refs sent a signal. They were aware of such dangerous chicanery, they were watching for that sort of dirty play, and they weren't going to let it slide. (A sidebar: Remember on the afternoon of Game 3, when DallasBasketball.com broke the news that the night’s officiating crew would include Joey Crawford, who traditionally takes no guff from Duncan, and Eddie Rush, who traditional keeps a tight rein on Bowen’s chippy habits? Some dismissed the news as insignificant. But I can promise you, the Spurs themselves didn’t dismiss it that way.)
The whistle cost the Spurs some points (Josh made two of the three FTs), but more importantly it removed from the San Antonio toolbox a device that SA (especially Bowen) has crafted and made effective over the years: the "accidental" injury to the opponent's ankles.
And uninjured and maybe even secure with the knowledge that the refs were vigilant, Howard went on to have a sensational 14-point third quarter, one in which the Spurs went from holding a four-point lead to having a nine-point deficit from which they never recovered.
It was a little play, and one that went generally unnoticed. But in my opinion, it was also a huge play – and one that set the tone and changed the game.
