Good Defense on Bryant Isn’t Enough

Short of having him detained by the Texas Rangers--the real ones, not the baseball players--the Spurs believe they did all they could to stop Kobe Bryant in the two games in San Antonio.

Toss out the fourth quarters of Games 3 and 4, and the Spurs have done a credible job of guarding Bryant. In Game 3, he needed 31 shots to score 31 points. In Game 4, he missed 17 of 27 en route to 28 points.

Trouble is, when Bryant and the Lakers needed a big basket, he came up with one, and there didn’t seem any way for the Spurs to thwart him. Sunday, for instance, he made two three-pointers and the winning layup to rally the Lakers from an 84-79 deficit to an 87-85 victory.

Like Ruben Patterson before him, Bruce Bowen is having little success defending Bryant. Like Patterson’s Trail Blazers, Bowen’s Spurs will soon be on vacation if they don’t find a way to contain Bryant.

The Lakers hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 5 tonight at Staples Center.

Coach Gregg Popovich refused to fault Bowen, a former standout at Cal State Fullerton, saying he’s “thrilled with the way Bruce is playing.” Signed last summer as a free agent, Bowen has “made a difference,” according to Popovich.

“I don’t think anyone guarded him last year,” Popovich said, referring to the Spurs’ inability to contain Bryant during the Lakers’ four-game sweep in the 2001 playoffs.

Asked what the Spurs need to do to win tonight and force a Game 6, Popovich said flatly, “We’ve got to play even more perfect, especially in the fourth quarter.”

No part of their game needs to be “more perfect” than their defense of Bryant down the stretch.

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Reserve forward Danny Ferry has been a go-to guy for reporters, particularly after Game 4, when the San Antonio locker room emptied quickly after the Spurs’ two-point loss. He certainly pulled no punches about the Spurs’ situation heading into Game 5.

“They’re playing good defense,” he said of the Lakers. “We got into another situation where we didn’t execute down the stretch. That’s on the players. We’ve got to make the plays and execute down the stretch.”

The Lakers have outscored the Spurs by 32 points in the fourth quarters of the first four games in the series. The Lakers’ late-game effectiveness has been partly a result of their suffocating pressure on Tim Duncan.

San Antonio went the final 6:58 without a basket Sunday. Bowen’s three-pointer from the corner gave the Spurs an 82-72 lead, but they got only three free throws from Duncan the rest of the way.

“Their strategy down the stretch was to make the guys around Tim beat them,” Ferry said of the Lakers. “We didn’t get it done.”

The Spurs made three of 18 shots (16.7%) in the fourth quarter Sunday. Duncan, who missed both of his shots, Ferry (0 for 3) and Antonio Daniels (0 for 5) were among the noteworthy brick-throwers in the final quarter.