Somehow, Spurs Say, They’ll Rebound in Game 2 : San Antonio Players, Embarrassed After 47-Point Defeat, to Summon Pride

The San Antonio Spurs played as poorly in Thursday night’s playoff game with the Lakers as they had in dropping 21 of their final 26 regular-season games. Maybe even more poorly.

The score was 135-88, and there were too many lows for the Spurs to mention in this small space. All that it’s necessary to know is that they had six more turnovers (24) than rebounds (18).

The first thing Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said afterward was that he and his team were dutifully embarrassed. He must have used that word 10 times in less than a minute before heading out to the formal press conference.

“We have a lot to say (about the game),” Fitzsimmons said. “We’re embarrassed. We should be embarrassed. I’m embarrassed to put the team out on the floor like that. They are embarrassed to play like that.

“To use bad grammar, the Lakers played awfully good. We were embarrassing. . . . Any other questions?”

The dominant question in an eerily quiet Spurs’ locker room was this: If the Spurs couldn’t rebound Thursday night, what makes them think they can rebound Saturday afternoon and win Game 2?

The Spurs seemed in such a state of shock that answers to that question didn’t come easily. Some looked on the bright side and said it couldn’t get worse than a 47-point spread, could it? Others thought that team pride will take over any day now.

This much is certain: If the Spurs wanted to lure the Lakers into overconfidence going into Game 2, they surely must have succeeded.

“I think it’s a matter of pride now,” said center Artis Gilmore, a 16-year veteran. “This will show how much pride I have.”

Gilmore has seen a lot of wins and losses with the Spurs, so naturally he was asked if this rated as the worst.

“By far,” he said. “The worst. Yes. Yes.”

Gilmore then noted that the Denver Nuggets routed the Spurs in the first game of the Western Conference semifinal series last season, but the Spurs bounced back two days later and evened the series.

So, maybe San Antonio has the Lakers right where it wants them.

On the other hand. . . .

“I don’t know if we can win the next game,” forward Steve Johnson said. “Of course, we’re going to try. We’ve got to come back from something like this.”

All the Spurs agreed that the first step to being competitive is to stifle the Laker fast break and make the Lakers play a half-court game. Thursday night, the Lakers grabbed most of the rebounds, didn’t miss many shots and caused the 24 turnovers, all of which contributed to layup after layup.

Alvin Robertson, the Spurs’ extremely quick off-guard, spent most of the night trying to run down Laker breakaways.

“If you watch them play, they have two or three guys releasing on every play,” Robertson said. “If you miss a shot and they get the rebound, they take off. If you turn over the ball, they release and start running. They’ll take every opportunity to do that.”

The cause for most embarrassment among the Spurs’ players was the club’s second-quarter rebounding number--zero.

“Nothing,” said Johnson, when asked what he was thinking as no rebounds fell the Spurs’ way in the second quarter. “It was totally frustrating. We couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t run any plays. Couldn’t get any rebounds.”

Said David Greenwood: “There were no rebounds to be had since the Lakers hit how many shots (in the second quarter)?”

Seventeen of 20, to be exact.

“See.”

Johnson said that morale on the Spurs isn’t low despite the depressed postgame mood. He said the feisty Fitzsimmons didn’t rant or rave, at least too much.

“He just said at halftime that there are two halves in a game,” Johnson said. “But the second half turned out the same way.”

At the very least, four more halves of basketball remain for the Spurs. They no doubt hope they won’t all be like Thursday night’s.