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MARK HEISLER / ON THE NBA

Losing the lead to Lakers is what hurts Spurs the most
'We had a great opportunity and didn't take advantage of it,' San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich says of loss in Game 1 of Western Conference finals. The team had endured a bumpy trip to reach L.A.
By Mark Heisler, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 22, 2008
On the plus side for the San Antonio Spurs, they got to sleep in beds Wednesday night.

On the minus side, there's everything else.

 
Forced to sleep on their airplane on the ground in New Orleans on Monday night, the Spurs flew here early Tuesday morning, surprised the Lakers by going up by 20 points midway through the third quarter, then saw the Lakers zoom past them as if they weren't there to win the opener of the Western Conference finals, 89-85.

"We had a great opportunity and didn't take advantage of it," said Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, "and it hurts like hell. . . .

"That's what hurts so much, to go up like that and let it dissipate. That will hang in there for a while so it'll take some good mental toughness to let that go, I think, and do what we have to do to come back and focus on the task at hand."

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Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 27 points -- 25 in the second half.

In the first half, Bryant played decoy by design, taking only three shots -- although it wasn't clear if the design was San Antonio's, Phil Jackson's or Bryant's

Jackson said after the game that Bryant had passed up some shots in the first half

That was the polite version. During the game, Jackson told TNT's Craig Sager that Bryant was running the Bermuda triangle instead of their triangle.

"Kobe was doing the trust-his-teammates thing," said Popovich, "checking out what his territory would be.

"In the second half, he went to work."

As if things weren't hard enough for the Spurs, they not only had to open the conference finals within 48 hours of winning Game 7 of their previous series in New Orleans, but their plan to fly here late Monday night was scratched when their plane had mechanical problems.

Instead, they slept on the plane before finally taking off at 6:30 Tuesday morning and landing here, 11 hours after they boarded.

"Whenever you see Pop in the players' section, you know it's not a good sign," said the Spurs' Brent Barry before the game.

"He just made the announcement, we were going to be bunking on the plane. And some guys knew he was serious and some guys thought he was joking around.

"And he said, 'No, really, we're going to spent the night on the plane. . . .

"We're not roughing it by any stretch of the imagination but having won a seventh game on the road and having to get to another city to start the Western Conference finals, it was just an odd way to spend the night, I can tell you.

"And Matt Bonner likes to sleep naked, so that was really a bad thing."

Popovich, asked before the game about preparation, laughed.

"Preparation?" he said.

"We just got here. Preparation comes after tonight."

Or therapy, one or the other.

mark.heisler@latimes.com




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