Missed opportunities
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Tim Duncan did everything the San Antonio Spurs needed their All-Star power forward to do Sunday night. He collided with the Detroit Pistons' physical play head on and provided the inside presence the Spurs had lacked while getting routed in Games 3 and 4.
But for all Duncan did in the Spurs' dramatic 96-95 victory at The Palace – a performance that included 26 points and 19 rebounds (eight offensive), two assists and two blocks in 48 minutes – he came perilously close to being remembered for what he didn't do.
Make crunch-time shots.
Duncan missed six straight free throws in the fourth quarter to enable the Pistons to forge leads in the final seven minutes. He finally ended his drought from the line with 33.8 seconds remaining to tie the game at 89-89, but he failed to convert a game-winning putback – despite getting both hands on the ball – as regulation time expired.
The two-time league MVP called the string of misses an "absolute nightmare."
"I had the chance and it didn't go down," Duncan said of his last-second, point-blank miss on Manu Ginobili's errant layup attempt.
Duncan had shot pretty well from the line in the Finals (22 of 27, 81.5 percent) and the postseason (133 of 178, 74.7 percent). But the 69.2-percent career free thrower has suffered untimely droughts before in the postseason, even during the Spurs' last title run in 2003.
On Sunday, Duncan's shooting woes began after he tied the game at 71-71 by muscling in his own miss. He missed two free throws and then failed to complete a three-point play to leave San Antonio trailing 77-76 with 4:46 left in regulation.
After Robert Horry's third three-pointer of the fourth quarter put the Spurs up 88-87, Duncan was sent to the line again only to miss his fourth and fifth consecutive free throws. Chauncey Billups' layup gave Detroit the lead at 89-88 with 51.3 seconds remaining, but Duncan had a chance to grab it back after getting hacked down low with 33.8 seconds left. Duncan's sixth straight miss prompted the sellout crowd of 22,076 to crash their Thunder Stix even louder.
Duncan ended up shooting 4-for-11 from the line and 11-of-24 from the field. He also missed both of his field-goal attempts in OT.
"We told ourselves it doesn't matter," Brent Barry said. "Even in the timeouts, when he came off the court missing free throws, we said it doesn't matter what happens on the offensive end. Sure, there were opportunities to make free throws to put us up, but we didn't get it done. We needed to get stops and we did that.
"Tim kept focused and kept his head in the game. The contributions he made up to that point were huge for us. Otherwise, we wouldn't have had a chance."
Before overtime began, Ginobili gave Duncan a quick pep talk on the bench.
"I was very upset that we could not finish in regulation," said Ginobili, who was kicking himself for his own miss on a floating layup attempt over Tayshaun Prince and Ben Wallace. "But still, you've got to forget things."
All the Spurs need to remember is that they pulled out the victory in overtime thanks to Horry's heroics, which included the game-winning three-pointer with 5.8 seconds left. San Antonio stands just one victory away from capturing the franchise's third NBA championship in seven years.
The Spurs will tell you their 3-2 series lead over Detroit wasn't possible without Duncan, even though the Big Fundamental was hardly textbook when he came to free-throw shooting.
"It's a team effort," said Horry, who scored all 21 of his points well after halftime. "Guys miss free throws – I missed a free throw. … You just can't label and point out one aspect of the game."
"Tim was huge," Barry said. "He stepped in there and he was physical and provided us with a presence inside.
"I know he's a little upset with his free throws down the stretch, but the stops that he made, the rotations that he made and just being in the lane – all those things added up to everybody contributing."
