Houston Gives Spurs a Problem in Game 3

Darned if it didn’t happen again.

The same lightning that struck the hated Heat, the lame Hawks and the astonished Pacers just jolted the Spurs, pride of this NBA season, such as it is.

The cowpokes thought they were just in town for a couple of days to do some shopping and mop up the Knicks, but their schedule just changed. Now it’s going to be more like a weeklong New York Pizza commercial, the one in which Spike Lee spends 60 seconds screaming about how New Yorkers have big mouths.

“Our true character was tested tonight,” Coach Jeff Van Gundy said Monday night after the Knicks’ 89-81 victory, “because this was the first time in the playoffs, one, that we’ve been down in the series after Game 1. And Game 2 was the first time we lost two in a row.

“And I think you saw the true character of the Knicks tonight.”

Not to mention, the true characters of the Knicks, starting with Larry Johnson, who scored 16 points after totaling 10 in the first two games.

Perhaps forgetting Isiah Thomas’ advice--to make sure he had a good time because so few players ever reach the finals--LJ blew off Sunday’s media session. Then when NBA publicist Teri Washington asked him to take questions, he directed a long string of curses at her. The league socked him another $25,000, to go with the $10,000 it hit him for in the last series.

Anyway, now we know what that “L” sign he’s always making stands for: Lewd. Or Loud.

Then there was Van Gundy, who decided to make a lineup change--just not the one everyone was telling him to, with Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston in the backcourt. The New York Post said to counter the Texas Towers with their Giant Guards of Gotham.

In case you haven’t noticed, Van Gundy doesn’t like there to be any doubt who’s running his team, and, besides, he’s doing a better job of it than anyone else would. Monday he sent out his usual lineup, but with Marcus Camby instead of Chris Dudley at center, eliciting a thunderous roar from the crowd and many layups from the Spurs, especially Avery Johnson, who proceeded to drive through the abandoned heart of the Knick defense for easy layups.

Not that the Knicks were the ones in trouble, defensive breakdowns or no.

The Spurs, who like to talk about that “appropriate bit of fear” they always feel, came in fat and happy after 12 wins in a row, with a 6-0 postseason road record, and a habit of breaking series open with great performances in Game 3, the first on their opponents’ floor.

Mario Elie said he “really can’t see” the Spurs losing this series. Robinson conceded the poetic injustice (“There is no sense to this thing at all”) of Duncan’s winning a title in his second season, after David waited so long.

What was missing? Oh yeah, the actual championship.

The Knicks, who weren’t one of your high-scoring outfits when they were injury-free, rolled up 32 points in the first quarter and jumped to an 11-point lead, as Johnson outscored a tentative Duncan, 4-2.

After that, the Spurs kept catching up, and the Knicks kept pulling away.

Camby wound up with a nothing line--five points, four rebounds, six fouls--but Johnson, brave if wobbly, kept charging into the middle of the Spurs’ defense, tying it up. Sprewell played one of his few lucid games, in which he doesn’t take bad shots. Houston, who had settled for a combined 38 points and 37 shots in Games 1 and 2, when he was supposed to be their No. 1 option, was a superstar for a night.

Someone asked Robinson later if they’d lost that “appropriate bit of fear.”

“Yeah, a little bit,” he said. “I think the concentration wasn’t as high as it should have been . . .

“I mean, you hear a lot of hype, hear a lot of things in the papers or on TV. I don’t think our team really pays attention to that.

“I think it was a little bit of a lapse, and we can’t afford those lapses. Our strength has been, we play 48 minutes and make the other team beat us. We did not play 48 minutes of basketball.”

Some didn’t come close. Their outside shooters launched bricks, one after another, on wide-open looks. In Game 2, Elie, Sean Elliott and Jaren Jackson went a combined nine for 26 and missed 10 of 12 three-point attempts. Monday, they were five for 18 and two for nine from the arc.

Gotham still believes. The Knicks still believe.

The Spurs better believe this: There’ll be a wild-eyed Knick team coming at them Wednesday night. One more miracle and the Spurs could be in real trouble.