Nets get even with Spurs

Posted 1:50PM on Thursday 12th June 2003 ( 21 years ago )

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - In one impossibly fluid motion, Manu Ginobili stole a New Jersey pass and dribbled the ball behind his back while hurdling the intended receiver. He raced up the floor for a layup - and he somehow missed the entire rim. Almost every moment of beauty so far in the NBA Finals has been obscured by something hideous. The Nets and the San Antonio Spurs are crossing new frontiers of offensive ineptitude while embarrassing their high-scoring ABA forefathers. But when Ginobili launched a 3-pointer that could have tied the game with 3 seconds left, the struggles of the previous 48 minutes were forgotten for a moment. Strangely enough, these teams' relatively equal awfulness has produced a tense series with the promise of genuine drama - or at least more tragi-comedy. Kenyon Martin had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Ginobili badly missed the next-to-last shot in the Nets' bruising 77-76 victory over the Spurs in Game 4 Wednesday night. New Jersey's first home finals victory evened the series at 2-2, with Game 5 set for Friday night at the Meadowlands. Martin personified the Nets' ragged determination on a play that probably determined the game. New Jersey trailed by a point with 1:16 left when Richard Jefferson drove the lane and passed to Martin, whose shot was blocked by Tim Duncan. Martin grabbed the ball and went up again, and Duncan blocked it again. Martin snarled as he grabbed the ball again; the third time up, he drew a foul, and his two free throws put New Jersey ahead for good. It was ugly, it was messy - but it got the job done. "We're not satisfied," Martin said. "I wasn't satisfied when he blocked the first one and got it back and blocked the second one. I was going to make something happen. ... That's the attitude of this team. We are never going to quit until it's over." Jefferson added 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Jason Kidd had 16 points, nine assists and eight rebounds despite another horrible shooting performance. The Nets survived an 11-point third quarter that was just the start of their troubles. They shot 36 percent. They blew a 15-point lead. They didn't have a basket in the final four minutes. They allowed Ginobili to get open on the final inbounds play. But their woes were nothing compared to the Spurs' miserable offensive performance. San Antonio shot 29.8 percent (26-of-90) - the third-worst shooting game in NBA Finals history. Duncan had 23 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks, but Tony Parker's 1-for-12 performance lowlighted an erratic team effort. Put them together, and it's no wonder Martin left the court shrugging his shoulders and grinning sheepishly. There have been only three lower-scoring games in the finals since the advent of the shot clock in 1954. "Shooting was a little bit of a problem," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Added Nets coach Byron Scott: "We struggled offensively, but the good thing is, so did they, the whole game." After Martin won his low-post battle with Duncan, New Jersey stayed ahead by controlling the ball for 45 straight seconds during the final minute. The Nets got two offensive rebounds before Kidd made two free throws with 9.1 seconds left for a three-point lead. After a quick jumper by Duncan and two more free throws by Kidd in the hushed arena, the Spurs executed a pretty cross-court inbounds pass. Ginobili got a clear look at the basket after a pump-fake, but the Argentine guard barely got it to the rim, where Kidd swatted it away. Duncan made a jumper as time expired - but San Antonio needed three points to tie, not two. The Nets and the Spurs have played two of the seven lowest-scoring finals games since the invention of the shot clock. Those games have included two of the lowest-scoring quarters in finals history, both by the Nets - and they've still made it halfway to the franchise's first NBA title. "This was a big-time win," Scott said. "It ties the series - a series a lot of people thought wasn't going to be a series. Now, it's just the best two-out-of-three." The Spurs got dreadful performances from four key players. Parker, Stephen Jackson (1-for-9), Bruce Bowen (2-for-9) and Malik Rose (0-for-9) combined to go 4-for-39 (10.2 percent). David Robinson had 14 points and seven rebounds - and also had strong words for Parker, the 21-year-old point guard who had three points after getting 26 in Game 3. "Tony has to do a better job of staying involved in the game and choosing his moments," Robinson said. "I don't think Tony did a very good job of that tonight. He's got to understand he plays a big role for us, so he has to come in there and make good things happen. You don't make good things happen by necessarily standing out there and taking ill-advised jump shots." In the two days between games in New Jersey, the Nets' coaches and top brass complained vehemently about the free-throw disparity favoring the Spurs. It seemed to work: Duncan, Parker, Rose and Robinson had 11 total fouls in the first half, while Jefferson and Martin were able to attack the basket with a passion rarely seen from them in this series. With its fast break finally in high gear, New Jersey led by 15 in the third quarter after closing the first half with a 14-2 run. But the Nets then missed 11 straight shots as the Spurs made a 16-0 run spanning the third and fourth. NOTES: Popovich got a technical foul in the third quarter for charging onto the court to protest a no-call on a play involving Duncan. ... Most of the New Jersey Devils took the court during a second-half timeout, taking turns raising the Stanley Cup.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/6/177663