Spurs not sweating collapse

SAN ANTONIO -- The sun came out here Wednesday. Honest, it really did. People went to work. Kids went to school. The San Antonio Spurs reported to the Piedmont Hawthorne terminal at the international airport for a trip to Dallas that never should have been necessary.

No one knows that more than the fellows who boarded the reconfigured Northwest jet for the short trip upstate. The Spurs should have been relaxing, resting, even luxuriating Wednesday. Instead, they were back to work, having blown a big lead -- again -- and losing a game they should have won -- again -- and now having to go to Dallas -- again -- to play Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the Mavericks.

The theme du jour: Forget about the results from the night before when the Spurs, up 3-1 in the series and playing at home, blew leads of 19 points (second quarter) and 17 points (third quarter) in dropping a 103-91 decision to the Mavericks. But the players also were told not to forget how and why they allowed the Mavericks to come back (poor shot selection, poor decision-making, poor defense and poor free-throw shooting) and also the fact that they still are leading this series.

"Sure, we'd rather it be over, but we're still up, 3-2. We're thrilled to be up 3-2," coach Gregg Popovich said Wednesday. Popovich thought all the gloom-and-doom stories that followed Tuesday's shattering defeat were "comical." He reminded everyone, "Dallas is a really good team. They won 60 games. That's not some Joe Blow team off the street."

But it was a team without its best player (Dirk Nowitzki, who's not expected to play in Game 6), playing on the road, facing elimination, and looking like a team ready for vacation until the Spurs gave them a reason to believe. As San Antonio columnist Ken Rodriguez noted Wednesday, "Now you know why the Spurs win all those Good Samaritan awards."

San Antonio is well experienced in what Malik Rose Wednesday termed "bounce-back ability." During this playoff season, the Spurs have lost games with late, double-digit leads on five occasions, including twice in this series. They've come back to win the next game every time.

"We've had some tough losses in the playoffs," center David Robinson reminded everyone. "That loss to Phoenix was as disappointing a loss as you can possibly imagine. It's only one game. "

Players and coaches live in such a here-and-now existence that we can actually believe the Admiral. Those of us on the outside wonder how the Spurs could possibly recover from such a devastating loss, when all they had to do was play a decent fourth quarter and they would have the series. Won't it still be lingering in the recesses somewhere? Rose shook his head.

"We have to put it aside," he said. "We can't afford to dwell on it."

Don't believe him? All you have to do is go back to last year's Nets after Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals. Their collapse against the Celtics was even greater and more embarrassing. They were down, 2-1, in the series. They had to win Game 4, on the road, just to even the series, with all the memories of their historic breakdown still fresh. They not only won that game, but they went on to win Games 5 and 6 as well.

San Antonio only recently was thought to be a dead team walking after nearly blowing a 25-point lead against the Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. No one outside the Spurs' immediate team family expected them to win Game 6, in Los Angeles. Many thought LA's inspired rally in Game 5 signaled that the Lakers would win Game 6 and then squeeze the life out of the helpless Spurs in Game 7. Instead, the Spurs went into the Staples Center and pounded the three-time defending champions.

The lesson from all this: There really is no mental carryover from game to game. Each game is an identity unto itself. Adjustments beget adjustments. Sure, the Spurs blow leads. But having a double-digit lead against Dallas is nothing. When Dallas gets behind by 10-20 points, it's simply called "the manageable teens" in the Mavericks' lexicon. They have real "bounce-back ability."

Said the Admiral, "I don't think it (the loss) created anything unusual. We just got stung."

The Spurs have been a terrific road team all season and in the playoffs as well. But they've already won twice in Dallas, and it may asking a little too much to expect them go 3 for 3 in what should be a rocking American Airlines Center. But if they don't, they face a winner-take-all game back here Saturday night.

The Spurs will have to defend a little better, make their free throws, and get Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili back into the game. They feel they can do that and if they do, there won't be a Game 7. But if they don't, rest assured it won't be because of anything that happened here Tuesday night.

As the kids today say, that's so old school.

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