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Duncan pounds Pacers: Spurs stop two-game slide with big second quarter
Web Posted: 03/22/2007 12:15 AM CDT
Johnny Ludden
Express-News
Two days of practice and another day of rest seemed to have done the Spurs little good. By the time Wednesday's first quarter ended, they looked much like they did four nights earlier.
They lacked edge, they couldn't generate any consistent scoring, and Indiana was overpowering them on the boards. Their first losing streak in more than a month seemed capable of extending another night.
And then Tim Duncan returned to the court. Five bank shots later, the Spurs were on their way to a 90-72 victory.
"Whether you play with Tim or against Tim," Brent Barry said, "you know when he starts making that shot, his game is starting to get back on track."
As a result, so did the Spurs. With Duncan scoring 27 points and Francisco Elson adding a season-high 14, they trampled the Pacers for their first victory in three games.
Sluggish to start, the Spurs extended their defense by pressuring Indiana in the backcourt. With starting point guard Jamaal Tinsley ejected late in the first half, the Pacers withered in the third quarter.
Indiana shot 35.4 percent, and its 72 points were the second-fewest the Spurs have allowed this season.
"The first quarter, we just didn't have any energy," said Duncan, who made 11 of 16 shots and grabbed seven rebounds. "We just weren't reacting. I thought we were kind of letting things happen.
"The second and third quarter, I thought we did a much better job of pushing the tempo ... and getting a little energy to get the game going in our direction."
Indiana, meanwhile, continued its slide down the Eastern Conference standings, trying to stay in playoff contention while also coping with a wave of injuries.
Jermaine O'Neal initially wasn't expected to play after hyperextending his already sore left knee during Tuesday's loss in Houston. O'Neal was able to start before foul trouble forced him to the bench for the final 7 minutes, 55 seconds of the first half.
Though he returned to start the third quarter, he continued to favor his leg.
"My explosion is just zapped," said O'Neal, who finished with 10 points and six turnovers while missing 10 of 15 shots. "I'm not at a level that I need to be at to help this team right now."
O'Neal at least was able to stay and watch; Tinsley decided to spend the rest of the evening in the locker room.
After Tony Parker threw away a pass, triggering a break for the Pacers, Tinsley drove into Duncan on the right wing and was called for a charge.
Duncan later joked it was just the second charge he'd taken in his career. Tinsley thought it was one too many: He chucked the ball into the stands, then barely waited to be ejected before turning and walking off the court.
Tinsley "is one of our leaders, and he is too important to our team to have that happen," Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. "And it happened at a time when San Antonio was showing some frustration and coming at us so hard."
Duncan applied much of that force.
After a pair of free throws from Ike Diogu put the Pacers ahead 26-17 with 10:15 left in the first half, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich put Duncan back on the floor. Duncan quickly drew a foul on Troy Murphy as he made a short bank shot. He followed with a 7-foot bank while spinning by Diogu, then made another lunging attempt off the glass, this time drawing a foul on Jeff Foster.
The Spurs scored 11 unanswered points with Duncan accounting for all but one of them. The next time down the floor, he banked in a 13-footer for good measure.
"It was that kind of game where everything was dead, and I had an opportunity to be a little aggressive, to see if some shots would go down," Duncan said. "One went down, two went down, and I just kind of played it from there."
While the bank shot has long been Duncan's signature method of attack, he rarely attempted it last season as his confidence dropped.
Over the past month, he has shot it with increasing frequency, slowly regaining confidence with each one that goes in.
"Sometimes, with all the responsibilities he has to run everything, you can get kind of cluttered (in the head) and forget some of your weapons," Bruce Bowen said. "But he was in control of everything tonight."
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