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 MVP! MVP! Tim Duncan? Give it to the Spurs' whole defense
Posted: Saturday June 19, 1999 02:31 AM
By John Donovan, CNN/SI SAN ANTONIO -- You can talk about Tim Duncan all you want -- and, when you get right down to it, the good folks at the NBA trophy shop might as well engrave his name on that NBA Finals MVP award already -- but if you really want to talk about most valuable, you have to talk defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Spurs’ defense starts with Duncan and David Robinson, the Twin Towers. But the guys out front -- Mario Elie and Sean Elliott and Avery Johnson -- those guys are putting a hurting on the New York Knicks’ shooters, too. “They need that third scorer,” Elie said after an awfully un-aesthetic 80-67 win over the Knicks on Friday night, a victory that enabled the Spurs to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Finals. “Spree and Allan [New York’s Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell] have a lot on their shoulders.” Too much, it seems, from the results of the first two games. Sprewell broke out for 26 points in Game 2, but he made only eight of his 22 shots. Houston got 19 points on a much more-respectable 9-of-20. The Knicks, overall, shot a miserable 32.9 percent -- 27-of-82 -- to get their 67 points, the second-lowest output in Finals history. The problem? Well, first off, the Knicks have no low post threat, with Patrick Ewing out and Larry Johnson, primarily an outside shooter anyway, hobbled. Secondly, outside of Houston, the Knicks aren’t that good of a jump-shooting team. And if Houston is played fairly well -- which he has been in this series, primarily by Elie -- what are the Knicks’ scorers to do? Drive it against the Twin Towers? “They’ve done a good job,” Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said of the perimeter defense of the Spurs. “But it’s more about team defense. When our guys got by them, I thought Latrell and Allan, against most teams, would have had good looks at the basket. And I didn’t think they had good looks tonight. The shot blocking presence really affects the quality of shot.” Whatever it is, it’s starting to get to the Knicks, whether they will admit it or not. After shooting less than 33 percent Friday, and less than 39 percent in Game 1, the New Yorkers are starting to get a little frustrated. Johnson was 2-for-12. Kurt Thomas was 1-for-6. Marcus Camby was 3-for-9, and Chris Childs 2-for-8. The Knicks climbed within three at one point late in the third quarter, only to go scoreless for the next 3:52. Then, it the fourth quarter, they went dry for 5:34. “They’re thinking about it, no question,” Robinson said. “The understanding is, it’s not going to be easy to get to the rim.” The Knicks did attack the basket better Friday. In Game 1, Sprewell didn’t even attempt a free throw. He made all 10 of his tries in Game 2. And it still wasn’t enough. “Offensively, all night, we weren’t really in sync,” Sprewell said. “They have the size inside that’s definitely affecting us. We just need to buckle down and find a way to get it done offensively.”
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