Popovich may have been outcoached by Don Nelson in Game 1, but he turned the tables in Thursday’s series-clincher. With his team trailing at halftime, he wondered at that point whether a lead would be something his team needed. And late in the third, with a frenzied American Airlines Center throng cheering Dallas into a Game 7, Pop’s switch to Kerr forced Nelson’s hand.
Tim Duncan’s shooting had grown cold, as had Stephen Jackson’s from the 3-point line. Enter little-used Kerr, who took the load off Duncan’s back and freed up Jackson. After a 10-0 Spurs run early in the fourth quarter, Nelson was forced into a man defense that couldn’t stop San Antonio. Although Kerr’s never been known for his defense, he fell to the floor swatting an errant Dallas ball into a turnover the Spurs turned into a basket on the other end.
While the Spurs still trailed with eight minutes left, in my book it was over. The Spurs kept hitting, hitting and hitting — which Dallas had done to come back from a 19-point deficit in Game 5 — and never looked back. It was payback, and then some.
Now the eyes of Texas turn toward New Jersey. Some folks believe the Nets’ guard play — e.g. one Jason Kidd — will give San Antonio fits as Phoenix’s Stephon Marbury did during the first round. True, Tony Parker ain’t no Kidd, but as a kid he’s grown with every playoff game. He will get schooled, no doubt, but there are others to take up his slack.
See, the thing is that the Spurs have grown into a team that’s not dependent on one player. Kerr said after the West trophy presentation he had felt every bit like Ted Williams during the season. No doubt he’ll come out of the deep freeze for the Finals, which begin Wednesday in the Alamo City.
With Kerr, 37, and others off the Spurs bench — a cast of improbables, really — it’ll be depth, pure and simple, that will win it for the Spurs. I’ll be a true home boy and take San Antonio in five games. Remembering what the Nets did to my boys in the 1975 ABA semifinals (winning 4-3 for the second-to-last red-white-and-blue-ball title), I hope it happens in four.
When it does, there won’t be any kind of asterisk attached to it, like there was when the Spurs swept the New York Knicks for the title during the abbreviated 1998-99 season. They enter this year’s finals having survived the Suns, flat-out thrashed the Lakers and gotten past the Mavericks.
And though I say five, the Nets may even push the series to six. But after that, San Antonio will have beaten all comers — thereby earning what’s coming its way.
