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Spurs Looking for Revenge
By Robert Doyen May 14, 2004
 If you thought that Derek Fisher’s miracle basket was the final nail in the Spurs coffin, think again.
Don’t forget that the Spurs were four tenths of a second away from their own miracle ending.
The Spurs outplayed the Lakers in the last 12 minutes of Thursday in a way that was reminiscent of their play during their franchise record 17 game winning streak. Their defense was much more energetic than it had been, and offensively they seemed to finally be coming out of their funk.
Tony Parker found his confidence again at the end of the game. If he plays the pick and rolls more aggressively and creatively and gets the ball back into the heart of Los Angeles’ defense, he can resurrect his playoff fame.
Tim Duncan would have made the shot of his life on Thursday if not for Derek Fisher’s nullifying heroics. Perhaps his injury is still slowing him down, but those two shots he made in the last minute of the game showed that his mental health is back where it needs to be. If Duncan can protect the ball and make quicker decisions on offense he can break down the defense of Karl Malone and his crew.
Basically the Spurs just need to get back to their game. Back to utilizing their deep bench, speed, youth, and outside shooting. But mainly back to the defense that set them apart from the rest of the league during the regular season.
The Spurs Held their opponents to 41% shooting for 82 games. Suddenly they are giving up 50% games to their opponents on a regular basis in the playoffs. Maybe they were spoiled by their new motion offense, which allowed them to outscore their opponents and slack a bit on defense at the end of the season. Perhaps it gave them a false sense of security. Well, this is the playoffs. Even the Sacramento Kings can’t break 90 points against the Dallas Mavericks. It’s time to buckle down and play Spurs basketball.
That means in your face, on your toes, in your jersey, possession by possession defense. They must get back to the style of play that had Mark Cuban offering to pay the fine for any player that threw a basketball at Bruce Bowen’s face. They need to make L.A. hate them.
San Antonio cannot win on Saturday if they shoot a lower percentage than the Lakers. L.A. has been scoring easily lately, but some of that can be attributed simply to the sub-par defense played during the playoffs by the Spurs. San Antonio needs to send a few Laker bodies to the floor. They know they’ll lose a few ticky tack foul calls on the Lakers’ home court anyway. Might as well earn those fouls, and in doing so, send the Lakers a message.
The message: This is a seven game series, and we’re not done with you yet.
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