Spurs Show Pistons the Downside

SAN ANTONIO —  Not tonight, little giant-killers.

The ball went up Thursday night, the lovefest between the coaches ended, the NBA Finals started and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Detroit Pistons, all as expected.

Manu Ginobili had 26 points, 15 in the fourth quarter, perhaps half of those as spectacular as usual, as the Spurs went on a 19-4 run, turning a close, low-scoring game into a one-sided low-scoring game and beating the Pistons, 84-69.

Tim Duncan had 24 points for the Spurs. Of course, his and Ginobili’s totals were like getting 40 in the old Lively Ball Era. With the Spurs breaking out for 29 points in the fourth quarter -- after scoring 55 in the first three -- Game 1 came within eight points of becoming the lowest scoring Finals game in the shot-clock era. In 1955, the Syracuse Nationals and Fort Wayne Pistons set the record with 145.

On the other hand, the series is young. These two teams may play the right way, as Detroit Coach Larry Brown likes to say, but it’s certainly the slow way. The Pistons’ 69 points Thursday were the fourth-fewest by one team in a Finals game.

“Manu did what you saw him do and that was the difference in the game,” said Spur Coach Gregg Popovich.

”... I say Manu did this and he did that. Timmy had 24 points and 17 rebounds. ... He played wonderful D tonight. He did wonderful things and I just ignore him. He gets the same treatment David Robinson used to get, you take it for granted every night.

“Trust me, Timmy appreciates Tony [Parker] and Manu when they do what they do and tonight it was Manu.”

The Spurs had been off for eight days and the buildup to this series was getting old. Popovich, Brown’s former assistant and the best man at his wedding, had been describing their friendship since the Pistons polished off the Miami Heat on Monday.

Before Thursday’s game, when Popovich was asked what Brown meant by “playing the right way,” he said, “I think it’s a bunch of baloney. You’ll have to ask him. What’s the right way? I don’t know. If it was me playing, you know, give me the ball, I want to shoot.”

His players looked over-rested, too. Six minutes into the game they had as many turnovers (four) as points and trailed, 17-4.

By then, Popovich had gone past Plans A, B and C and was somewhere around X, Y or Z. He even put Glenn Robinson in, after earlier joking how unlikely that would be.

“Sure,” Popovich said before the game. “You know, people foul out and people get hurt. That’s about it.”

With 3:04 left in the first quarter, Detroit still led, 19-11, and Popovich took Duncan out for his usual rest. Duncan had scored seven of the Spurs’ 11 points but without him, they proceeded to cut the Pistons’ lead to 20-17 at the end of the first quarter.

For the Pistons, everything went downhill from there.

“I didn’t think, other than the first seven, eight minutes we matched their energy,” Brown said. “Their energy was phenomenal. First quarter, we had a lot of easy shots, could have had a big lead. After that, they just made hustle play after hustle play. You look, they had 58 rebounds to our 42.

“Our guards took 25 of our 40 shots the first half. Rasheed [Wallace] took three shots the first three minutes. He shot one when he had to, the clock was running down, never touched the ball after that. ... They defended us better than any team all year.”

The Pistons, an outstanding offensive rebounding team, jumped all over the Lakers in last spring’s Finals and outrebounded Miami in the East finals by 4.7 a game. They never imagined getting outrebounded by 16, so that’s another thing they have to work on.

Duncan figured to be a problem for them, and was. In Brown’s preferred style, Wallace played him without help and Duncan outscored him, 24-6.

Nevertheless, the Pistons were within 55-53 early in the fourth quarter when Ginobili got away from them. Shadowed all night by Tayshaun Prince, who even gave Kobe Bryant trouble last spring, Ginobili had four points in the first half, but went off in the fourth quarter, scoring on one of his swooping layups and then on a running hook.

Then, as the left-handed Argentine was knocked down driving to the basket by Rip Hamilton, Ginobili heaved one up right-handed, and it fell in. He then went to the free-throw line and converted the three-point play.

The Spurs led by as many as 17 before the Pistons rallied and Popovich went off.

“I asked them if it wasn’t too much trouble, if I wasn’t being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do,” he said. “And if it didn’t make them too angry if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great.”

Game 2 is Sunday. Before then, Brown may ask his players, if it isn’t too much trouble, if they could get to 80.

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Scores to settle

The fewest points by one team in an NBA Finals game since the advent of the 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season:

54 ; Utah at Chicago (96); June 7, 1998

67 ; New York at San Antonio (80); June 18, 1999

68 ; Lakers at Detroit (88); June 10, 2004

69 ; DETROIT AT SAN ANTONIO (84); JUNE 9, 2005

71 ; Syracuse vs. Fort Wayne (74)* ; April 7, 1955

71 ; Houston vs. Boston (94); May 9, 1981

73 ; Chicago at Utah (78); June 8, 1997

*

Fewest total points by both teams:

145 ; Fort Wayne (74) def. Syracuse (71); April 7, 1955

147 ; San Antonio (80) def. New York (67); June 18, 1999

150 ; Chicago (96) def. Utah (54); June 7, 1998

153 ; SAN ANTONIO (84) DEF. DETROIT (69); JUNE 9, 2005

153 ; New Jersey (77) def. San Antonio (76); June 11, 2003

155 ; San Antonio (78) def. New York (77); June 25, 1999

156 ; Detroit (88) def. Lakers (68); June 10, 2004

162 ; Detroit (87) def. Lakers (75); June 6, 2004

162 ; Chicago (87) def. Seattle (75); June 16, 1996

163 ; San Antonio (84) def. New Jersey (79); June 9, 2003

163 ; Houston (85) def. New York (78); June 8, 1994

* -- at Indianapolis.