By DAVE KRIEGER
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Tim Duncan insisted it didn't matter.
"We won the game," the San Antonio Spurs star said. "That's all that matters."
To the veteran Spurs, maybe this is true. Then again, maybe it's what they had to say Wednesday night after watching a 17-point fourth-quarter lead melt to three in the final minute before holding off the Denver Nuggets with the obligatory late free-throw show to even their playoff series at a game apiece.
It certainly mattered to the Nuggets. The feeling in the visitors' locker room was vastly different from two years ago, when they felt like victims of an aggravated assault.
The series was tied at a game apiece then, too, but it also was over. The Spurs' 31-point halftime lead two years ago told the Nuggets they didn't belong, and they played like it in surrendering the rest of the series.
Two years later, the Nuggets proved _ to themselves more than anyone else _ that now they belong. They can play with the Spurs. In fact, make a layup or a dunk here or there and they could be up 2-0.
"I just feel good about our situation," Denver's Allen Iverson said.
Maybe it was a compliment that the Spurs were not disappointed to have allowed a comfortable lead to disappear down the stretch. Maybe it was a compliment that they were happy just to get out with a victory.
The surprise so far is not that Iverson and Carmelo Anthony can keep the Nuggets close even on a night when their shots aren't falling the way they did in Game 1.
The surprise is that the Nuggets defense has been basically the equal of the vaunted Spurs defense. Through two games, the difference between the teams is three points.
"Denver's defense has been rugged, it's been physical," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They've packed it in and made driving lanes tough. They're playing great team defense, and that makes it tough for people who penetrate."
He was talking about Manu Ginobili's difficulties getting to the basket, but he could have been talking about Tony Parker, 14-for-35 in the first two games, or even Duncan, who managed 22 points in Game 2 but had to earn every one.
"Marcus (Camby) and Nene are very good in there at contesting and changing shots," Duncan said.
The X factor in the series so far is Nene, who has given the Nuggets toughness, power and athleticism at both ends of the court.
"He's a different player than when I saw him during the season," Duncan said.
"I think he was still favoring that knee a little bit during the season. I don't think he was 100 percent. He's a lot different now. He's very mobile, he's moving great, he's very aggressive to the basket, finishing great around the basket, and defensively he's real solid. He's doing a great job. I don't get any easy looks against him."
The Spurs finished first in the NBA in points allowed and fourth in defensive field-goal percentage. The Nuggets ranked 26th and 15th in those categories. Part of that is a function of pace _ the Nuggets played faster, producing more possessions and higher-scoring games _ but for much of the season the Nuggets simply weren't very good defensively.
Somehow, they have come together at exactly the right time with a team defense that made remarkably few mistakes here, considering the handicaps it was facing.
Nuggets coach George Karl has said the Spurs have eight or 10 years together while his team has eight or 10 weeks. That might be a slight exaggeration, but not much.
Considering the December trade for Iverson, the 15-game suspension of Anthony and Nene's recovery from reconstructive knee surgery, the fact they can execute their defensive rotations as well as they did in the first two games is a testament to Karl's staff.
At midseason, all you had to do was make the extra pass against them to get a wide-open shot. They might cover one rotation, maybe two, but that was it. In fact, ex-Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik was moved to observe, all the way from his office at the Air Force Academy, that Camby could use a little help from his friends.
That seems like a long time ago. The Nuggets gave up some easy layups early in Game 2, but when they needed to close down the lane in the second half, they did it with an aggressive, tenacious defense that forced the Spurs to earn every basket.
"It's a tough loss, but it's a playoff loss," Karl said. "It's a one-possession game in a game that they had to win. In a lot of ways, I'm very proud of how my team fought."
It's still an uphill battle. The difference in time together is likely to reveal itself at the most inconvenient moments. But the Nuggets have showed they have the will and the skill to make the Spurs fight for the right to move on.
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