Spurs Find Foe That Won’t Quit

Pry their eyelids open, it’s showtime.

Forced by the miracle of NBC programming into starting the Western Conference finals less than 48 hours after vanquishing the Utah Jazz, the Portland Trail Blazers flew in, held a short practice, were hand-delivered to the mercy of the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday and--surprise--lost, 80-76.

However, in a development that suggested the Spurs are in for a tougher campaign than their last series, it wasn’t a blowout, one-sided or decisive. The Trail Blazers were within a Rasheed Wallace 22-footer of tying the score with five seconds to play.

Wallace, spectacular as he was volatile, torched Tim Duncan, who was considered one of the game’s immortals after the Laker series, scoring a season-high 28 points. Rasheed got an open look at making it 30 at the end but the ball bounced off the front rim as David Robinson, who was supposed to be guarding him and was trying to get back to him, breathed a sigh of relief.

“No question,” said Robinson. “The way he was playing?

“Usually you can live with a guy making tough shots, but he was jumping over Tim. You always hate to see a guy who’s rolling like that get a shot like that.”

It was remarkable that the Trail Blazers had any shot at all. They polished off the Jazz on Thursday, only to be told the Western finals would open Saturday afternoon, a day before the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks--who have both been off for days--since NBC was pitching its marquee Sunday slot to the New York market.

Nor was it lost on the Trail Blazers that after playing Games 1 and 2 at San Antonio within three days, the series will adjourn for three days before Friday’s Game 3.

By then, the Trail Blazers should be rested again. Of course, they might also be down, 0-2, by then.

On the other hand, at least they didn’t have to worry about being rusty, as the Spurs were before the game. Actually, rust was looking good to Trail Blazer Coach Mike Dunleavy. Asked if he’d rather be playing on one day’s rest or five, he replied, “Are you kidding?”

Came the game. Wallace flew into one of his rages early, quickly accumulating a goaltending, a technical foul and then exchanging angry words with Dunleavy. Arvydas Sabonis got another technical and fired his mouthpiece into the bench.

“It’s kind of different every time,” Dunleavy said. “It’s one of those things, it helps us and it hurts us. The emotion is great because we play through it. We play strong, we play 48 [minutes] and ultimately it gets us back in games.

“But some day I’m going to learn how to channel it both ways, where it’s positive. Where we take it out on the other team, as opposed to the officials. That’s my ultimate goal in coaching right now.”

The Spurs grabbed a 15-4 lead but a funny thing happened after that. The emotional Trail Blazers rallied and chased them all the way to the final wire.

With 3:42 to play, the Spurs led, 75-69, but the Trail Blazers surged one last time. With 1:25 left, Wallace hit a 10-footer over Duncan, cutting the deficit to 78-76.

The Trail Blazers got the ball twice with a chance to tie. The first time, the Spurs tipped the ball away from Greg Anthony, who picked it up and resumed his dribble but couldn’t get it to anyone before the 24-second clock ran out, as Isaiah Rider, who wanted the ball, fumed and slapped his head in dismay.

The second time was with 20 seconds left. The Spurs forced the play out high, Wallace couldn’t get deep position in the post on Robinson, who had just been switched onto him, so Anthony and Rasheed ran a pick-and-roll that ended with the ball going back to Wallace, 22 feet out. He missed and that was about that.

“He’s a monster,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said of Wallace. “With that size [7 feet, 240 pounds], length, quickness, touch, he’s a great, great player. I don’t know what else I can tell you. He’s a handful. If you really want to stop him, you might have to come after him [double-team] and make him kick it. Maybe we were a little too stubborn in that regard.”

Said Dunleavy: “I certainly wouldn’t have been comfortable giving up that shot at the end of the game. I’ll bet they weren’t that comfortable with it.”

The Spurs feel all right about it now. The series resumes Monday, after which someone will be really uncomfortable.