So how about those 24-second violations, offensive fouls, box-outs, help rotations and inside switches?
Yes, it was defensive basketball as promised–if not universally coveted–Thursday night from the NBA’s two best defensive teams when the NBA Finals opened with the San Antonio Spurs defeating the Detroit Pistons 84-69.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday in the SBC Center–if everyone can stand the excitement.
Manu Ginobili led the Spurs with 26 points, while Tim Duncan chipped in 24 and Tony Parker 15. Chauncey Billups led the Pistons with 25 points.
“Both teams predicate what they do on defense,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They [both] are pretty demanding in that sense.”
If the artistry of Spurs vs. Suns in the Western Conference finals was missing with the Pistons cutting off the lane to every penetration, and if the power and finesse of Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade were home with the Spurs going over screens as if they were mountain climbers, it still was a game worth fighting for.
“True basketball enthusiasts who know how the game should be played will love [this],” Piston Lindsey Hunter said. “Other people who want stars, all the underlying stories and all that, they probably won’t be too intrigued. But ultimately everyone will be entertained.”
The Spurs’ anxious-to-celebrate home fans couldn’t early as the Pistons jumped on the Spurs with a 17-4 start. Ginobili made a quick exit after three turnovers, Parker saw the middle blocked and Duncan struggled with his shot.
No one is saying the Spurs were rusty after an eight-day layoff following their quick dispatching of the Suns, but they were giving tetanus shots to the crowd.
The Pistons are a true joy to watch for defensive enthusiasts because they are relentless on defense. They close on shooters, cover the lane and don’t yield easy shots.
Playing the right way, is what coach Larry Brown calls it.
“It has been patented,” Popovich said of Brown’s mantra. “Larry loves the pure part of the game. The things most people think are selfish, he doesn’t think in those terms, like somebody shoots too much. If I was supposed to be the weak side helping and I didn’t come to help my teammates, I’m selfish. Those sorts of things, the purity of the game. His whole game is predicated on players playing for each other, feeling the responsibility for each other and performing.”
The Spurs don’t have a name for what they do. Maybe it’s just stubbornness and hard work–and refusing to yield.
Midway through the first quarter, they started pushing back. Oh, right, the Finals started.
And with Ginobili and Parker initially thwarted, it fell to Duncan, who dug for deep position, found his hook shot and even a few free throws to help cut the Spurs’ deficit to 20-17 after one.
“Tim is Tim,” teammate Bruce Bowen said. “He’s what makes us go. The media try to come up with something new and improved to say about Tim, but he is a wonderful player, and that’s who he is.”
With Duncan totaling 13 points and 13 rebounds by halftime, more than half of the Spurs’ rebounding total, the Spurs closed to 37-35 at intermission. Parker, who is quicker than the Pistons’ guards, finally found his way around the basket. Although he couldn’t finish with easy floaters like he did against the Suns, he probed and found the basket for eight second-quarter points.
“It’s not like Phoenix,” Parker said. “It’s a halfcourt game and every possession is important. It won’t be a lot of points.”
But the Spurs began to score more of them.
With Ginobili finding the range and the basket after going 1 of 6 in the first half, the Spurs crept ahead 55-51 after three quarters even though their shooting was below 40 percent.
Billups held up the Pistons’ offense, what little of it there was. But the Spurs began piling it on to stretch their lead in the fourth quarter as Ginobili finally was able to drive through the Pistons’ defensive fortress.
“We’ve pulled ourselves out of holes so many times that, at some point, if we don’t we’re going to be wondering what happened,” Billups said. “We’re so good under pressure and with our backs to the wall and when it seems we’re down and out, we never are.”
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sasmith@tribune.com
