Bruised, Battered but Home

Safely back in the land of conventioneers and tourists, the San Antonio Spurs didn’t return home with anything of note, other than a few silver-dollar sized welts courtesy of Karl Malone’s elbows.

With the series tied at 2-2, the Spurs are looking inward after the reawakening of the Lakers, the reemergence of Kobe Bryant, and the reestablishment of the triangle, or whatever offense it is the Lakers are running these days.

The Spurs’ main talking point, no surprise, has been Bryant, who went from a mid-morning court appearance Tuesday in Colorado to a 42-point, five-assist game against first-team NBA all-defensive selection Bruce Bowen.

“I’m a competitor, just like he is, and he got the best of me,” Bowen said. “Great players tend to focus for games like this when there are other things going on.

“You look at all the great players in this game, and when there’s something going on on the outside, this is their place of freedom. And he was really free.”

Bowen scored only two points Tuesday, his lowest output in eight playoff games, one of many problems for the Spurs, suddenly the team trying to figure out how to score.

The Spurs enter tonight’s Game 5 with only Devin Brown having made more shots than he missed while in Los Angeles. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker were a combined 20 for 57. Robert Horry has only one basket in the series, a three-point basket in the first quarter of Game 2.

All of which leaves the Spurs in the position of defending their home court, not much of a problem in recent months. The Spurs have won 17 consecutive home games, among them two 10-point victories last week against the Lakers.

As Parker said: “Back to even. Basically, we did our job, they did their job. So now it’s back to even.”

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The Spurs have been getting crushed in the third quarter, outscored by a combined 119-75 in the series and 31-16 on Tuesday as the Lakers surged ahead after a 10-point halftime deficit.

“We usually have a lead and we just let them back into it,” Duncan said. “I really can’t answer that. I don’t know what happens.”

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Duncan’s missed shots are starting to mount, as are his injuries.

He took a wicked elbow from Malone in the upper chest Tuesday, two days after absorbing a knee-to-knee hit in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

Duncan, who made nine of 27 shots the last two games, did not miss any playing time because of either injury.

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Horry’s loss has been Malik Rose’s gain.

Horry has five points in four games and played only seven minutes Tuesday, while Rose, who had been buried in Coach Gregg Popovich’s doghouse, played 11 minutes, logging more time than Horry for a second game in a row.