Harvey: Spurs' erasure: Horry replaces a past memory

[goliath]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/c....284a5aad.html

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Robert Horry erased it all.

He erased Tim Duncan's yips. He erased a humiliating week in Detroit. He erased the troubles he'd been having with the Pistons' big men. And he erased, with one stroke, the feeling the Spurs had the last time they faced this moment.

Derek Fisher?

Today, he is Horry.

Horry wasn't the only one who changed this series. Manu Ginobili found Horry for the game-winner, though Rasheed Wallace should get equal credit. The one Spurs player who the Pistons shouldn't have left open at the 3-point line was Horry, and that's precisely what Wallace did.

Gregg Popovich gets credit for streamlining his rotation and finding ways to rest his guys. He benched Beno Udrih — who had been playing like the rookie he is — and moved Ginobili to the point for stretches.

And when the Spurs faced the press? Ginobili was the answer there, too, dribbling past the taller Tayshaun Prince.

Bruce Bowen also stuck with Rip Hamilton again, forcing him into five turnovers. And Tony Parker, despite his own six turnovers, defended Hamilton at the end, sticking his body on him and forcing the final miss.

But the Pistons were mostly themselves, tough and relentless. The Spurs countered this time, and a first-half sequence showed they'd found something after the first two games here. Ginobili took an early offensive rebound off a Duncan miss, then slipped a pass to Parker for a 20-footer.

On their next possession, the Spurs moved the ball as they rarely did here before, culminating with a Bowen 3-pointer for the lead. The Spurs' bench, cheering wildly, was the only noise in the building.

Duncan stayed active, too. But just as he found the energy he'd been lacking, he found an old problem. As free throw upon free throw came up short, was Duncan heading to the worst ending of his career?

"Absolute nightmare," Duncan said later of that stretch.

Last year, against the Lakers in a similar Game 5, Duncan was the one who threw in an improbable jumper for the lead before Fisher made his 0.4 miracle. This time, also missing a tip to end regulation, he was heading for the blame.

Enter Horry, and there is symmetry in this. Horry sagged so badly against Fisher and his other former Lakers teammates that the Spurs, last summer, wondered if Horry had much left.

So did others around the league. The Spurs, after debating whether to re-sign him, got him for $1.2 million.

There were times even Sunday when his bargain price made sense. Antonio McDyess and the Wallaces are too big and quick for him, and Horry stayed in the game partly because Nazr Mohammed was worse.

But then came the end of the third quarter, with the Spurs blowing another lead. Horry gave the Spurs an emotional lift, throwing in his first three with a second left on the clock.

He opened the fourth quarter the same way, but he did more than shoot outside. He scored off an offensive rebound, and twice he went hard to the rim, with the Wallaces waiting, trying to dunk with his left arm.

The same left arm attached to his chronically sore left shoulder.

The second time he succeeded, pulling the Spurs within two points in overtime. What followed rivals what Fisher did.

Again, Horry needed help. Chauncey Billups missed an open jumper he normally makes. Duncan continued his slide by fumbling a pass. And Billups missed another drive.

That left Horry inbounding to Ginobili, with less than 10 seconds left, and the Spurs down by two.

"As soon as I saw Rasheed coming," Ginobili said, "I gave (Horry) the ball."

If the Pistons can't recover in San Antonio, this will be the defining moment of the series. Horry needs time to wind up his 3-point stroke; had Wallace stayed with him, all odds would have changed.

"Ultimately," Larry Brown said, "it's on me."

Ultimately, it's about Horry. As Billups said afterward, "That's what he does." Horry has spent a career winning the biggest games with the lightest at ude, and perhaps none was bigger than Sunday's.

Then?

He erased everything.

[whottt]

Did no one read Phil Jackson's book?

He freaking said he wasn't going to let Horry beat him...he coached him for 5 years, he knew his spots, he knew the best way to defend him, he didn't leave him open, he didn't let him get comfortable at the 3 point line....and Horry's best game of that series was the last one.

Phil Jackson didn't win 9 rings by being stupid.