Spurs will nix Knicks in six
By Mike Kahn
SportsLine Executive Editor
Most NBA insiders say the heir apparent in the years to come for the Most Valuable Award is Tim Duncan. To put things in perspective, he wasn't even the most effective big man on his own team in the Western Conference Finals.
The Spurs have won 10 playoff games in a row, the first team to do that since the 1989 Lakers. They are 42-6 since a horrid 6-8 start that had everybody shaking their heads.
"We are the team of destiny ... I've never been on a team with so much confidence," Robinson said. "Then, I guess everybody feels that way when they make it to the NBA Finals."
THIS IS ROBINSON'S FIRST TRIP THERE. The league's MVP in 1995, he was the only MVP ever to not play in an NBA Finals, so that stigma is now gone. Now we'll watch Robinson and Duncan dominate the New York Knicks.
The Spurs will win in six.
There are those who believe it will be easier than that. Needless to say the Knicks have quite a bit of fate hanging around them as well. After all, they withstood a 21-21 start and slipped into the playoffs as the eighth seed in the East. They upset Miami in the first round, swept Atlanta in the second, and upset Indiana in six games to win the Eastern Conference Finals -- despite losing Patrick Ewing after Game 2 and Larry Johnson in Game 6.
It's really too bad this didn't come down to a Robinson-Ewing classic. Both guys deserve a shot at the ring against each other. But Ewing's torn Achilles' won't allow it. Johnson's sprained knee ligament remains a day-to-day thing.
That means the basket will be Mr. Robinson's neighborhood, if not Mr. Duncan's, too.
Marcus Camby was spectacular in Games 3-6 for the Knicks. But he weighs all of about 225 pounds on his 6-foot-11 frame. Playing against Duncan and Robinson is a lot different than Indiana's Rik Smits and the Davises.
When the Spurs put their defensive chokehold on in the paint, eyes roll back into heads and tongues are swallowed. The Blazers set an NBA record for fewest field goals in an NBA playoff game in their Game 4 loss -- and it could have been worse if bad officiating had not resulted in two extra field goals.
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| David Robinson is ready for his first appearance in the NBA Finals.(AP) |
THE ONLY HOPE FOR THE KNICKS IS SPEED and the perimeter game. Well, they also have this wacky sense of figuring out how to hang around in games, then somehow winning. This strange ability grew in strength throughout the East finals against the Pacers, who looked more and more like a team playing in quicksand against the Knicks.
Nonetheless, should Johnson be out for the Knicks, they will have nine players. Ewing won't play. Herb Williams is looking at his 41st birthday in the rear-view mirror, Chris Dudley has the touch of an elephant gun, Kurt Thomas has ability but it is dwarfed by his temper tantrums.
That is the trio that is supposed to support Camby?
Against Duncan and Robinson? Forget it.
The bigger debate comes in the backcourt. Chris Childs, Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell are far more athletic and explosive offensively than Avery Johnson, Mario Elie and Sean Elliott. Elliott has had his moments, but he is erratic. Johnson is a playmaker who has been scoring at a much greater clip in the playoffs than expected. Elie is a defensive stopper who used to be a good 3-point shooter.
The difference in this series, however, is Childs, Houston and Sprewell have to carry the load. Camby can not dominate these guys like he did the Pacers' interior defense.
Even more obvious is the synergy with which the Spurs have been playing with while winning 42 of the past 48 games, and particularly in the playoffs, during which they are 11-1.
THAT IS WHY THE SPURS WILL WIN THIS SERIES. Indeed, the NBA over the past decade has been predicated by the game played out on the floor. But think about it, the only time there hasn't been a dominant guard on a championship team was during the 1994 NBA Finals, when Michael Jordan was playing baseball and Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon dominated the league for two titles. Sure, he had Clyde Drexler the second season, but Olajuwon was the reason the Rockets won.
Now with Jordan retired, the two consistently dominant players of this playoff season have been Duncan and Robinson. That's not to diminish what the Knicks have accomplished, particularly with the injuries to Ewing and now Johnson. To have gone from being an eighth seed to the NBA Finals is an astonishing run, and it is obvious why it has never been done before.
But they've reached the end of the line.
This is a series for San Antonio. This is the last chance to save the only big-time pro franchise for this predominantly poor Texas city. Even if they do win, there's no guarantee of a new arena and without a new arena, they are gone anyway.
So New Yorkers will exult in this stunning race to the Finals, and fantasize of the 1970 and 1973 NBA titles. But this one belongs to the Spurs and their fans, the first ABA holdovers to ever win a title in the NBA.
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