Spurs Might Not Be Jazzy, but They Hit Winning Notes

The San Antonio Spurs were rusty after nine days off before Game 1, but they had only one day off before Game 2, so why did they play so badly on offense?

“We’ve done this a lot this season,” Coach Gregg Popovich said. “We have good runs, then offensively for two, three minutes, we don’t look very efficient.

“That’s one of the things we’ve tried to do. At the beginning of the year, we said we wanted to try to be like Utah offensively. I said that a lot during the season, as far as execution goes.

“Well, we’re not there yet. That’s all I can tell you.”

*

What’s a guy to do when his knee is sore, he tops out at 6 feet 5 and he’s guarding 7-footers?

“I’ve been in this game eight years now and I’ve got some tricks,” the New York Knicks’ Larry Johnson said before going two for 12 from the floor in Game 2. “But those cats got tricks too. You can’t teach height. I think the majority of the time, those cats just shot over me and there’s not a lot I can do about that.”

*

Several teams have played two 7-foot centers together, but none have had as much success as the “Texas Towers” of Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Popovich thinks there’s a good reason for that.

“Well, it’s not twin towers,” Popovich says. “They’re just tall, but everybody calls them twin towers.

“These guys are basically forwards. They can both play down on the block. They can both play out on the free-throw line, shoot out to 20 feet. They can face up and drive out of a rocker step. They’re not two centers or twin towers. They can play inside and outside. They complement each other and they can both pass.”

Duncan, on playing with Robinson: “We came in here our first couple games in our first year and clashed a little bit, got in each other’s way a little bit. But we found ways to use each other to make each other better. . . . We both accepted what we do. We both know we make each other better.”

*

Robinson, on the Spurs’ outside shooting, before they added Mario Elie and Steve Kerr this season:

“It was a pitch-and-guess kind of a thing. You know, you kick it to the shooters and you just hope they’re going to make their shot. And it was nothing against our shooters last year but I just don’t think they were as confident last year. Even Jaren [Jackson] wasn’t the same player last year as he is this year.

“We had Vinny [Del Negro] and Chuck Person out there on the perimeter. They weren’t rolling, they weren’t flowing. The confidence level wasn’t the same. Now you kick it to a Steve Kerr. If there’s a glimpse of an opportunity, that boy’s going to knock it down. He hasn’t shot well in the playoffs but boy, I’ll give it to him any day of the week at any time.”