Spurs Pick and Roll Over for Change

OK, now the Spurs are in the Lakers’ tourist trap.

The visitors from Texas or New Mexico or one of those states down there showed up in Staples Center on Sunday and were run over like road kill, or worse, like Lakers in the SBC Center.

This may not have changed the basic equation, in which the Spurs defended their home-court advantage and have one more chance Tuesday to break through on the Lakers’ floor, which would put a definite crimp in the Lakers’ chances.

However, as for momentum, with the Spurs on a 17-0 roll, including 6-0 in the playoffs without losing since March 23, with everyone saying they were the new colossus and the Lakers were history, this game did turn some things around.

“Well, Los Angeles really dismantled us tonight,” Coach Gregg Popovich said. “They were aggressive from the get-go, had a lot of players play well and just drubbed us.”

His Spurs, meanwhile, were no-shows. The great Tim Duncan, famed for his tenacity and consistency, was four for 14 from the field and scored 10 points.

Tony Parker, or as Phil Jackson named him, “Ooh-la-la Tony,” was four for 12 and scored eight points, or seven fewer than Gary Payton, whom Ooh-la-la Tony had outscored, 50-11, in Games 1 and 2.

Because everyone else in the Spurs’ starting lineup was named Bruce Bowen or Hedo Turkoglu or Rasho Nesterovic, they were in trouble.

“For our part, I thought we had one guy play well,” Popovich said, “and he’s not a starter and that was Devean George. I thought he played a good game. I can’t think of another player who had a good game.”

Devean George, of course, is a Laker.

“Did I say Devean George?” Popovich said. “He’s on the other team. Devin Brown on our team played well.

“I told you we were discombobulated.”

That’s how it goes. The Spurs won the first two in San Antonio last spring too, but the Lakers beat them twice here and turned it back into a series, before the Spurs won the series.

Last spring Popovich said he thought his players got too happy with their 2-0 lead.

Of course, as he pointed out before Sunday’s game, what else was he going to say?

“That’s the logical thing we all say because we all have to have a story, we have to say something,” Popovich said.

“Who knows [why the Lakers won]? Maybe they just played better, all right? There has to be a reason. Why don’t we just say, ‘They played better in 3 and 4. We played better in 1 and 2.’

“There’s got to be something. ‘Yes, we were full of ourselves and thought it was over. We were smoking cigars and eating pie and cookies.’

“Just silly.... We had no pie this year. No dessert last night. I know they’re serious.”

Popovich said he would be “on guard” for signs his players weren’t into Sunday’s game, of which there were about 1,000 in the first quarter.

Not only did the Lakers play with a rare passion, Jackson came up with a new scheme for defending Parker on the pick-and-roll, with Payton overplaying it, taking away Parker’s drive into the lane and pushing him down the sideline.

Payton no longer had to try to stay in front of Ooh-la-la Tony and hope for help on the pick-and-roll; now he could take one side and there would be no pick-and-roll.

This was Jackson’s defense his first season here, when everyone ran pick-and-rolls against the Lakers from the time they got off the airplane.

Jackson hasn’t used it in recent seasons, saying opponents figured it out, but it worked fine Sunday, cutting the Spurs’ bread-and-butter play out of their repertoire.

Popovich discounted the Lakers’ adjustment (“That really had not much to do with it”) while praising the Lakers’ attitude (“The aggressive team wins in the NBA, especially in the playoffs”).

Popovich, who’s so taut after victories, his news conferences are known as “Ask-and-duck time,” is more relaxed after losses, and this was a big loss.

So the hits just started happening.

Asked by the Chicago Tribune’s Sam Smith about a carry-over effect, Popovich said: “Well, we’ll sure find out, Sam. How long you been doing this, like 30 years or something?

“We can go lose by 20 again, or we can maybe win by one, or maybe we can win by 15 or 20. It’s all over the map. Always has been. Always will be. I have no idea what will happen.

“I just hope we’ll be more aggressive to start the game. Without that we’ll be in trouble. Those guys are talented. They’re pretty good.”

Q: Could you comment on Tim’s game?

Popovich: “Tim was one of the starters, and I think I mentioned that the only guy on our team that had a good day was Devin ... Brown.”

Q: What will be your plan for the next game?

Popovich: “Is that a serious question? Or you just lobbing me an easy one to say some wiseacre comment here?

“I have no clue. I’m gonna go get dinner, have a glass of wine and then we’ll watch film and see what’s going on. I don’t know. Be more aggressive. That’s for sure. That’ll be No. 1 on the board.”

Q: You didn’t take a free throw until the third quarter.

Popovich: “Why would we want to take a free throw?”

The Spurs were No. 29 in free-throw percentage in the regular season, although, aside from that, they’re usually better than they looked Sunday.

For his part, Duncan said their new motion offense, put in to keep defenses from ganging up on him, just flowed off in some other direction.

“We were just kind of going with different stuff,” Duncan said. “It was just kind of the flow of the offense. It’s been that way and it’s fine....

“No specific reason. The ball just didn’t get there.”

Whether the Spurs were too happy, or Jackson’s adjustment made a difference, the Spurs’ lead definitely was down to 2-1.

Nevertheless, they’ll be back Tuesday, assuming Popovich doesn’t find a wine glass big enough to swim in. It was just one game but for the tourists, it was a long day.