No Spur of the Moment as Suns Pull Out a Win

SAN ANTONIO — Win or go home?

In this series, it seems like half the guys are already home, or sitting on their benches in civilian clothes.

With Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd, Tom Gugliotta and Rex Chapman all out, the surviving Suns and Spurs began their mutual last stand Saturday, the Suns taking Game 1 by an appropriately deflated score of 72-70.

Duncan, who sat out the last four games of the season because of a cartilage tear in his left knee, is expected to return, possibly as early as Tuesday’s Game 2, now that his teammates couldn’t buy him any more time than that. As bad as they were without him, it looked as though he would have helped if he’d gone out there on crutches and hopped around.

David Robinson, the remaining tower, shot three for 12. He didn’t have a field goal until dunking an offensive rebound in the third quarter and didn’t actually make a shot from the field until only 3:45 remained.

Robinson has a sore right knee (and a sore back and a sore right shoulder; that’s what happens when you’re going on 35) but Coach Gregg Popovich said he was fine.

“David was slowed in the first half by other factors,” Popovich said.

What other factors?

“You’ll just have to read my mind,” the coach said.

In this case, it’s like reading a blinking neon sign. Robinson played only 10 minutes in the first half after picking up three quick fouls, two of them borderline calls.

He sat down for good in the half with 5:09 left and the Spurs ahead, 30-27. At the intermission, it was Phoenix, 41-35, and the Suns kept going in the third quarter, moving ahead by as many as nine points.

A fourth-quarter rally, led by Sean Elliott--yes, the Spur with the kidney transplant, who was their high scorer with 15 points--moved them into the lead in the fourth quarter, just not enough of a lead.

With 1:49 left, Malik Rose scored on a rebound to put San Antonio ahead for the last time, 68-67. At the other end, 6-foot-7, 250-pound Rodney Rogers knocked Elliott out of the way to rebound Penny Hardaway’s miss and laid it in, putting the Suns ahead to stay.

“David went to cut off the baseline,” Elliott said. “My job is to go down and get David’s man. At that point, my job is to get Corie Blount off the boards. The shot went up and I pushed him under. Rodney Rogers came in and got the ball.”

Said Rogers, a candidate for the NBA’s sixth-man award, on his triumphant return to the postseason after missing it the last two seasons as a Clipper: “It means a lot just being in a situation like this. . . . Ain’t nobody giving us a chance to win but we came out and played hard.”

The Spurs had a last shot at the lead in the closing seconds but Elliott, ducking under Cliff Robinson, airballed a lean-in 17-foot shot. Popovich said Elliott had been bopped on the head by Robinson, but Elliott said it was “no big deal” and the referees didn’t notice, either.

Hardaway and Cliff Robinson led all scorers with 17. David Robinson had to score five points in the fourth quarter just to get to 11.

Of course, even if you have to watch most of the first half, there’s no rule against scoring a lot of points in the second, but that’s not the way his day went.

“You only play eight to 10 minutes in the first half, it’s kind of tough,” Robinson said. “You come out in the second half and you want to get rolling really quickly. . . .”

Well, that’s what No. 1 options do, although David hasn’t really been one for a while.

Popovich, who has long since tired of questions about Duncan, says he’ll be back as soon as he’s ready, regardless of how the Spurs are doing. For the sake of San Antonio’s season, that had better be Tuesday, or this might be a short series, with the underdog doing the sweeping.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Low Points

Fewest points, both teams, in an NBA playoff game:

*--*

142 Phoenix (72) at San Antonio (70) April 22, 2000

142 Atlanta (63) at Detroit (79) May 12, 1999

143 Miami (68) at Chicago (75) May 22, 1997

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

145 Atlanta (66) at New York (79) May 24, 1999

*--*

* at Indianapolis