All Even and Not Close

Too crazy to live, too tough to die.

Even for a Larry Brown team, the Detroit Pistons have a lot of issues, but giving up isn’t one of them. They came from 3-2 down in the Eastern Conference fiinals, winning Game 7 in Miami, and they just came from 2-0 behind in the NBA Finals, bombing the San Antonio Spurs, 102-71, Thursday night to tie the series, 2-2.

The Spurs had never even given up 90 points in three trips to the Finals before the Pistons did it in Game 3. Game 4 made it two times.

Piston Coach Larry Brown said it was the best game any of his teams had ever played under similar circumstances. Because he has won NBA and NCAA championships and this is his ninth team, that means something.

For his part, Spur Coach Gregg Popovich was overheard at halftime telling his players it was the worst half of basketball he had ever seen in the playoffs.

“Who told you that?” Popovich said when asked about it afterward, looking displeased.

It was reported on the broadcast, he was told.

“It’s right on the money,” Popovich said, laughing.

It might be a close series, but none of the games has been close, All have been decided by at least 15 points. The Spurs won the first two by a combined score of 181-145. The Pistons won the next two, 198-150.

This represents a turnaround few expected and it really displeases Popovich.

“It’s disappointing their physical play and their defense has taken us away from everything that we normally do in these last two games,” he said. “I think they’re the same guys who played in San Antonio, last time I checked.

“To see the flip-flop like that is disappointing because it’s obvious why it did that.”

He means his players aren’t fighting back. By everything, he means everything.

Manu Ginobili was a budding superstar when he got off the plane here, but the Pistons have shut him down.

With the Pistons giving him the outside shot and zoning off the middle of the floor in case he gets by Tayshaun Prince, Ginobili scored 12 points Thursday night. In the two games here, he has a total of 19. He has taken only 15 shots.

Then there was Tim Duncan, who scored 14 points in Game 3, who always bounces back, at least until Thursday night. Against single coverage by either Ben Wallace or Rasheed Wallace, Duncan scored 16 points and made five of 17 shots.

After the Spurs turned the ball over 18 times in Game 3, Popovich’s priority was to take care of the ball. Imagine how he felt when he watched his team turn it over five times Thursday night -- in the first 10 possessions -- and 17 altogether.

It was like treating a shark to a hamburger.

The Pistons, who had only four turnovers, got their rarely seen running game going and started dropping one hard shot after another too.

They were up, 14-10, when Ben Wallace, the noted offensive non-factor, was caught with the ball in his hands at the end of the 24-second clock and knocked in a 17-footer.

The next time down, Chauncey Billups was pinned in the corner by Tony Parker with the shot clock running down. Billups then pump-faked Parker into the air, leaned in and made a 20-footer.

The Pistons got so hot, reserve Lindsey Hunter, who was a Laker for a season and might not have made an outside shot after the All-Star break, had 17 points and five assists off the bench.

For Brown, who preaches balance and unselfishness, the box score was a thing of beauty. All seven Pistons who played 10 or more minutes scored in double figures. All of them got at least 10 shots and no one took more than 16.

“I think they showed they wanted the game, and there was no minute in the whole game we were close,” Ginobili said. “So it was a really ugly loss....

“Rebounds, turnovers, passing the ball, in every part of the game, they just killed us.”

By then, it seemed a long time since the Pistons got back from San Antonio amid reports that the guards and the big men were upset at each other and everyone was upset at Brown and Brown moaned about the referees after losing Game 2 by 19.

He’s Larry Brown. They’re the Pistons.

They might not be long for each other, but it’s certainly exciting while it lasts.