Only Blazing Is Done by Spurs

Who are these guys, anyway?

The San Antonio Spurs, a sub-.500 team whose coach was in trouble as recently as March, won their 10th playoff game in a row Sunday, disposing of the Portland Trail Blazers, 94-80, sweeping the Western Conference finals, 4-0, and becoming the first of the old ABA teams to reach the NBA finals.

Not that the Trail Blazers were outclassed or anything, but the Spurs held them to an average of 76 points a game in the series, and beat them on their home court in Games 3 and 4 by 22 and 14 points, respectively.

“It was really more what they did, as opposed to what we didn’t do,” Trail Blazer Coach Mike Dunleavy said.

“If you’re going to end it, that’s the way to end it. I told the fellas that they played their hearts out. They played well. We got beat. We didn’t lose today’s game, they beat us . . .

“That team is a better team, that’s all there is to it.”

It was like the Laker series, all over. The Spurs won Game 1, got a break in Game 2 at home (the Lakers didn’t take the foul they had to give, Sean Elliott made a game-winning three-point basket tiptoeing the out-of-bounds line), went on the road with a 2-0 lead and cracked the series open in Game 3.

In the Game 3 at the Great Western Forum, Tim Duncan hit the Lakers with 37 points. In Game 3 in the Rose Garden, David Robinson blocked seven shots and the Spurs held the Trail Blazers to 24.7% shooting from the floor.

In both Game 4s, the Spurs came out with their confidence sky-high, shot the ball well from the outside--why not, the pressure was off--and toyed with their opponents.

The Trail Blazers started Sunday’s game by actually making a few shots, for a change. Five of their first seven dropped, en route to a 10-2 lead.

Not that the Spurs cared. They tightened up their defense and took control again, going up by as many as seven points before the quarter ended, and 11 by halftime.

The Trail Blazers mounted a last rally in the third quarter, taking back the lead--once--on Damon Stoudamire’s short jumper, not that it lasted long. At the other end of the floor, Duncan put back Robinson’s miss, was fouled and made the free throw, putting the Spurs back ahead to stay.

Sparing the Trail Blazers any illusions, the Spurs ran a clinic to start the fourth quarter, scoring on their first eight possessions in a 17-4 run that effectively ended the NBA season in the Pacific Northwest. Duncan had five points and an assist in that stretch as the Spurs threw the ball to him in the low post time after time, forcing the Trail Blazers to double-team, whereupon Duncan threw the ball out for open shots or drives.

“I think they’re the best team in the NBA right now,” said Stoudamire. “For as hard as we played, they were still beating us at halftime. They just have so much confidence right now, you can tell. When a team has as much confidence in themselves as they have right now, I think it’s going to be hard for any team to beat them . . .

“When you have David Robinson and Tim Duncan sitting there in the middle, it’s very hard. When you rely on your big men as much as we do and they get neutralized, so to speak, it makes it very difficult.”

The Spurs are now 11-1 in the postseason, 6-0 on the road. For all their reliance on their own big men, as opposed to their relatively anonymous role players, Laker fans, who watched Duncan average 29 points in the last series, might not have recognized him in this one, in which he averaged 16.3 against the Trail Blazers’ double-teams. Not that it slowed the Spurs any.

Cue the fiesta. The Spurs entered the NBA with the Pacers, Nets and Nuggets in 1976, and now, only 23 years later, here they are.

“I’m not looking forward to this week,” Robinson said. “They’re crazy. They’ve been dancing since the first round. I’ve told people, ‘They don’t give you wings for winning in the first round.’ ”

“It’s a great thing for our city,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’re a small town. The fans there are wild, just like they’re wild here and in Utah. Maybe it’s a small-town thing, I don’t know.

“The Spurs fans go back to the old ABA days. They’ve lived through that. They lived through the golden years with Ice [George Gervin]. So this is a thrill. Everybody is part of the family thing. Everybody is close to the players. I know there are an awful lot of happy people. It’s a real thrill for us to be able to deliver, so to speak. They’ve been waiting for an awful long time.”