Just to be fair...
Just to be fair...
One who is on the Spurs.......
Spurs aren't great, but good enough to beat Nets
May 30, 2003
The San Antonio Spurs squander comfortable leads. Their streak shooters go long periods between streaks. They rely too much on one spectacular player. They have a young point guard from France, and if his game speaks for itself, it is alternately eloquent and unintelligible. They have an aging center who is about to retire.
In barroom debates about The Greatest Team Ever, these Spurs would be an afterthought over warm beer at 2 a.m.
Alas, the good people of San Antonio will just have to settle for winning the 2003 NBA championship.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not dumping on the New Jersey Nets. This edition of the NBA Finals should be a ripsnorter. It won't be anything like last year's finals, when the Nets resembled something that Tony Soprano wrapped in weights and dumped off his boat. Nor will it look like the two contestants before that, the Philadelphia 76ers (in 2001) and Indiana Pacers (in 2000). There was as much chance of those clubs beating the Lakers as there is now of Joumana Kidd seeking out Bob Ryan for broadcasting tips.
But this just feels like the year of the Spurs. They have a well-balanced team, they're studly when it comes to the mental game, they're hungry, they're poised, and after slogging their way through the talent-laden West, they're afraid of no team.
On Thursday, in the fourth quarter of Game 6 against Dallas, they showed why they're the best team in the league. Sure, it's alarming that they keep making it brutal on themselves, falling behind by double digits and making necessary a stirring rally, like the 23-0 shocker that eliminated the Mavs. If, however, you focus too intensely on the Spurs' shortcomings, you overlook their greatest attribute: resiliency. They won't fade. They won't succumb. That which does not kill them makes them favorites for the NBA title.
The Spurs are so low-profile they are almost no-profile. They have a superstar in Tim Duncan, who has zero charisma but plenty of game.
They have two energetic foreigners in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, living proof that the rest of the world has not only caught up to American basketball but is threatening to invade it and then set up an interim government.
They have David Robinson, a shell of his former self who nevertheless can still score a little, rebound a little, play defense a good deal and inspire a lot.
They have role players like Malik Rose, Bruce Bowen, Stephen Jackson and Danny Ferry, all of whom have bought into the program of defense, teamwork and the hoisting of well-timed treys. And don't forget Steve Kerr. I know it was tempting before Thursday. But 4-for-4 from the three-point stripe, at crunch time of a closeout game, in a sudden and inspirational appearance, is practically Jordanesque.
The Spurs survived a tiny scare in the first round. They split the first four games against the No. 8 Phoenix Suns before prevailing in six. At the time, it was not viewed as the performance of an eventual NBA finalist. But maybe the Spurs were just steeling themselves for the frights they would face next against the Lakers.
In the Western Conference semifinals, against the three-time defending champions, the Spurs burst to a 2-0 series lead, played flat-footed and lost Game 3, collapsed in Game 4 and came within a Robert Horry rim-rattler in Game 5 of going back to L.A. down, 3-2. To their credit, the Spurs gathered themselves and then scattered the Lakers.
In the wild and woolly West finals, the Spurs outgunned the trigger-happy Mavericks. In the first game of that series, there were 427 free throws shot. In the second game, almost that many technical fouls. What a weird confrontation it was, yet the Spurs handled the wacky pace and officiating mayhem with aplomb.
So what does it all mean?
From a skeptical point of view: The Spurs took six games to beat an opening-round opponent they should have swept. Then they defeated a rag-tag Lakers club was Rick Fox absent, Devean George lame and Horry impotent, all the while threatening to swallow the gas pipe. Next, they beat a Dallas team that did not have the services of its best player, Dirk Nowitzki.
From a more open-minded stance: The Spurs have slain all comers, of different styles, in different circumstances. In each case, they found a way to win. And they did so against three teams that would have a fantastic chance of finishing ahead of the Nets if they were placed in the Eastern Conference. The mental hurdle alone of knocking out the Lakers was a watershed moment for their franchise and for this particular group of guys.
The Nets? They're to be congratulated on a phenomenal season. They'll make this a doozy of a series, perhaps going the maximum. In the end, after seven slugfests, they'll fall just a little short.
Look who the Nets last beat. The Detroit Pistons overachieved to rate No. 1 in the East seedings. When the playoffs began, they couldn't raise their game another notch, because they didn't have another notch. It was OK against Orlando and Philadelphia, who are to basketball what the sledgehammer is to sculpture. Against the Nets, the Pistons were dust, cat hair, crumbs and lint -- in other words, fodder for sweeping.
The Nets could sweep the Pistons, and the Celtics before them. They could struggle a bit to find their game against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. But the glowing reviews afterward can't obscure the fact that if any of those teams were in the West, they would have spent the past few weeks trying to determine which person in the organization would get to go to Secaucus for the draft lottery.
The Spurs played the tougher schedule and won 60 games. The Nets played the weaker one and won 49. You do the math.
Again, I like the Nets. I love Jason Kidd and the flair he brings to the game. He's a table-setter who is not averse to scoring when he needs to, much like Magic Johnson. Kenyon Martin is a beast, and a talented one. Richard Jefferson is a reliable scorer and rebounder. Kerry Kittles is shooting 48 percent from three-point land in the playoffs. They have nice role players in Lucious Harris, Rodney Rogers and Aaron Williams, and a pretty fair center in Jason Collins.
What they don't have is an answer for Tim Duncan.
They also don't have that intangible that the Spurs possess, which has made all the difference, and will again.
Michael Ventre
NBCSports contributor
