San Antonio Spurs | SAN ANTONIO SPURS TICKETS

When the NBA stars align

1 of 8 | Share

When the NBA stars align

Express-News staff writer Dan McCarney takes a look at signature playoff performances over the years from the NBA’s best.

LeBron James played arguably the finest game of his career in Miami’s Game 6 victory over Boston on Thursday night, becoming the first player to record 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a playoff contest since Wilt Chamberlain in 1964.

That 98-79 win set the stage for Saturday’s Game 7 win, which sent the Heat to the NBA Finals for the second straight season. With James about to lead Miami to Oklahoma City for a much-anticipated matchup, Express-News staff writer Dan McCarney takes a look at other signature playoff performances over the years from the NBA’s best. (Charles Krupa / Associated Press)

CHARLES BARKLEY, SUNS
Stat line: 44 points, 24 rebounds
Result: 123-110 over SuperSonics
When: Game 7, 1993 West finals
Details: Sir Charles had struggled in Game 6, scoring just 13 points on 4-for-14 shooting two days after recording a monster triple-double. He bounced back in a huge way with the season on the line, setting a career playoff high for rebounds and coming within three of his postseason scoring best to lead the Suns to the Finals. (Vince Bucci / AFP/Getty Images)

TIM DUNCAN, SPURS
Stat line: 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, eight blocked shots
Result: 88-77 over Nets
When: Game 6, 2003 NBA Finals
Details: Duncan saved the best of his remarkable 2003 playoffs for last with perhaps the greatest closeout performance in NBA history. The near quadruple-double — which would have been the first in postseason annals — brought his gaudy playoff averages to 25 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and 3.3 blocks. (Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News)

MAGIC JOHNSON, LAKERS
Stat line: 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists
Result: 123-107 over 76ers
When: Game 6, 1980 NBA Finals
Details: A misnomer about this legendary performance: Johnson jumped the opening tip, but did not actually replace the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center. He more than made up for the reigning MVP’s production, however, leading the Lakers to a road victory with a quintessentially magical display of versatility. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

MICHAEL JORDAN, BULLS
Stat line: 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists
Result: 90-88 over Jazz
When: Game 5, 1997 NBA Finals
Details: For all his majesty, what made Jordan truly great was his relentless competitive drive. That was the only thing that kept him going during the famous “Flu Game,” carrying Chicago to a two-point road victory despite a debilitating intestinal virus. Scottie Pippen helped his teammate walk off the court at game’s end in one of the more indelible images in NBA history. (Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)

DIRK NOWITZKI, MAVERICKS
Stat line: 48 points, 12 of 15 field goals, 24 of 24 free throws, six rebounds, four assists, four blocks
Result: 121-112 over Thunder
When: Game 1, 2011 West finals
Details: There have been more than 2,500 playoff outings with at least 25 true shot attempts (field goals and free throws) in the shot-clock era. None were more efficient than the one registered by Nowitzki, whose 93.9 true shooting percentage broke the previous record by more than 10 points. (Eric Gay / Associated Press)

HAKEEM OLAJUWON, ROCKETS
Stat line: 39 points, 17 rebounds, five blocked shots
Result: 100-95 over Spurs
When: Game 6, 1995 West finals
Details: The Dream had plenty of gaudier performances, including one of four quadruple-doubles on record and six “five-by-fives” (at least five in the five major statistical categories). But on the postseason stage, he put the finishing touch on a legendary series in which he averaged 35.3 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.2 blocks against David Robinson and the Spurs. (Jeff Haynes / AFP/Getty Images)

BILL RUSSELL, CELTICS
Stat line: 30 points, 40 rebounds
Result: 110-107 (OT) over Lakers
When: Game 7, 1962 NBA Finals
Details: Russell’s teams were 10 for 10 in Game 7s, and performances like this were a big reason why. Russell, the most prolific winner in the history of United States professional sports, simply refused to let Boston lose with a Finals single-game record for rebounds. He likely would have had more than a few blocks had they been recorded at the time. (Associated Press file photo)

By Dan McCarney

dmccarney@express-news.net

Thunder’s Fisher gives another lesson during Game 1

It would be easy, and not inaccurate, to say Derek Fisher gave Oklahoma City experience and wisdom. But Royal Ivey said those words do Fisher a disservice.

The Thunder had been around old guys before, and they’d received plenty of advice from well-intentioned elders trying to prepare them for big moments. And yet until Fisher arrived in March, they’d never seen the past’s relevance to the present with such clarity.

Not only was Fisher a player who they’d watched lifting trophies, slipping on rings and beating the Spurs in four slivers of a second, he’s a guy who understands why the young Oklahoma City players’ current situation was different. And when he speaks, Ivey said, even Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook marvel at the details.

“He can dissect auras,” Ivey said.

The specific details of Fisher’s daily lectures in the Oklahoma City locker room remain a guarded secret. What is more readily evident to outsiders about Fisher’s role in the Western Conference finals — which the Thunder trail 1-0 heading into tonight’s Game 2 at the ATT Center — is that Fisher isn’t yet too old to create a little on-court aura of his own.

Sunday in Game 1, the 37-year-old guard tormented Spurs fans for what seemed like the hundredth time, swishing each of his first six shots and lifting the Thunder to a nine-point fourth-quarter lead. And even though Oklahoma City couldn’t finish it off, Fisher had more material for another lesson.

Even though everyone has talked about this series being about one Big Three against another, isn’t there a chance everything can be decided by the guys from which no one expects greatness?

“Always does,” Fisher said, smiling.

Even though they’d heard similar things before, when Fisher says it, the Thunder players nod their heads. Ivey, a little-used veteran guard and one of Durant’s closest friends, said Fisher filled a void no one else could step into.

Durant and Westbrook, Ivey said, are capable leaders, but disinclined to make big speeches. Fisher was hesitant at first to speak up in front of players who he didn’t know well but soon discovered the Thunder were aching for a vocal leader.

“He’s been to the pinnacle and back,” Ivey said. “He’s had all those big moments in his career that guys like Kevin and Russ want. You want that manuscript.”

Part of the manuscript, Fisher said, is not stressing over every mistake. As he explained Monday, “it’s tough to put together a perfect game,” and the Thunder don’t need one to beat the Spurs.

Instead, they just need to rely primarily on their young legs and occasionally on his old ones. And if the aura of a team on a 19-game winning streak stands in their way?

They at least can take some solace in having experience and wisdom, and the knowledge that they can dissect it.

mfinger@express-news.net

Twitter: @mikefinger

Spurs’ Duncan faces summer of decision

By Jeff McDonald

Gregg Popovich’s first order of business, in those heady days after the 1997 NBA draft, was to go to the beach.

He boarded a flight to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands to meet 21-year-old Tim Duncan, the life-altering big man the Spurs had just made the No. 1 pick.

Duncan was already a luminary in his own right, a consensus national player of the year at Wake Forest. Popovich was an anonymous grunt, already under fire as he prepared to open his first full season as an NBA head coach.

Instinctively, Popovich knew the best sales gimmick, when it came to dealing with his new star player, was no gimmick at all.

“Players have a b.s. antenna,” Popovich said. “They know real quick if you’re for real or not.”

Popovich’s no-nonsense personality immediately endeared him to Duncan, setting the foundation for a 15-season, long-term relationship between coach and franchise player.

It is that relationship, in large part, that kept Duncan from fleeing to Orlando via free agency in 2000. It will come into play again in the coming days or weeks, when Popovich and Duncan reconvene, their connection at a crossroads once more.

The question, hanging in the air thick as island humidity: Does Duncan, now 36, want to keep playing or not?

SPUR FOR LIFE

Duncan’s contract is set to expire July 1, making him an unrestricted free agent. He and the team both acknowledge his impending free agency to be but a technicality.

If Duncan, the centerpiece of four NBA championship teams, chooses to continue his Hall of Fame-bound career, it will be in San Antonio.

“I don’t see him not having a future with the franchise,” Popovich said.

In the wake of the Spurs’ Game 6 ouster by Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals, Duncan said he had not yet begun the process that will lead to a decision about his future.

“I haven’t even thought about it, and I really don’t care,” Duncan said. “I’ll figure it out when it happens.”

In considering his options, Duncan is sure to draw advice from across the league, some public and some private, some solicited and some not.

Hall of Famer Charles Barkley offered his two cents on national television, during TNT’s coverage of Game 6 from Oklahoma City.

“I hope Tim Duncan retires,” Barkley said. “He is the greatest power forward ever, but he is obviously slowing down. I want to remember him as a great player.”

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Those close to him say Duncan is unlikely to take Barkley’s counsel seriously.

Duncan is coming off a season of rejuvenation, in which he averaged 15.4 points, nine rebounds and 1.5 blocks in a carefully monitored, career-low 28.2 minutes per game.

In terms of efficiency, Duncan’s numbers were nearly identical to those from his 2005-06 campaign, when he was 29.

One longtime league executive who saw Duncan play in February said he thought the Spurs’ big man had two or three more productive seasons left in him.

“He’s moving like he did seven years ago,” said Spurs forward Stephen Jackson, who won a title with Duncan in 2003, perhaps with some hyperbole.

Not all aging big men are created equal.

Shaquille O’Neal (17.8 and 8.4) and Hakeem Olajuwon (18.9 and 9.6) made significant point and rebound contributions for Phoenix and Houston, respectively, at 36.

However, David Robinson (12.2 and 8.3) had clearly slowed down in 2001-02 because of back trouble and he retired the following year.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a player whose game — like Duncan’s — was not predicated on dizzying athleticism, averaged 21.5 points as a 36-year-old in 1983-84, and would see his scoring increase for two seasons after that.

“The good thing about Tim, his love for the game doesn’t go anywhere,” Jackson said. “The older he gets, the more he dedicates himself to the game.”

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

In the weeks to come, Duncan — who was on the salary books for $21.1 million last season — must decide whether an inevitable pay cut will make the wear-and-tear of another 82-game NBA campaign worth his while.

Robinson, for example, made $20 million total in his final two seasons in San Antonio, albeit in a different era.

After playing at least the past three seasons with chronic knee soreness, Duncan must also decide if the rigorous workout program and stringent dietary regimen necessary to keep his body in fighting shape is worth the effort.

As Duncan’s 15th NBA season was winding down, Popovich was often asked to reminisce about their time together.

He often answered by flashing back to a day on the beach in St. Croix, 15 years earlier.

“I wanted to know who he was,” Popovich said. “I wanted to know who I was going to be coaching, what the positive and negatives are going to be. I wanted him to know what I was thinking, and how I wanted to run things, and if we were going to have any discussions about it, let’s start now.

“I didn’t want to waste any time.”

As an unheralded coach of a 20-win team, Popovich knew the future of a franchise — and perhaps his own career — was riding on that meeting.

“You just have to be yourself,” Popovich said he told himself then. “If he doesn’t like you, screw it, he doesn’t like you. But you can’t fake it and do something to make somebody like you.”

Even now, Popovich remains grateful for the outcome of that first introduction with Duncan, and the professional lifetime the two have shared because of it.

“Every time I walk around the house, once a month, I tell my wife, ‘Say thank you, Tim,’?” Popovich said.

In the weeks to come, after proper pause for reflection, the Spurs’ coach and franchise player will meet for another no-nonsense conversation.

Once again, the future of a franchise will be riding on it.

No matter what Duncan decides, Popovich’s reaction is likely to be the same:

Thank you, Tim.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN