Buck Harvey: Horry and small stuff: Nellie lesson
Web Posted: 05/01/2007 01:27 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
DENVER — Gregg Popovich went small to start the fourth quarter, and that meant one thing.
He’s been watching a lot of the Dallas-Golden State series.
But he took more from Don Nelson than that one trick. He took a lot from Nelson when Popovich worked for him, and he took even more when Nelson upset the Spurs in 1991.
What did Popovich take from that?
That the right personality means as much as talent.
Popovich needed talent, too, Monday night. That was on full display with about 30 seconds left. Then, Robert Horry stepped back and did what Robert Horry does.
“It wasn’t designed for me,” Horry said. “It was designed for Tony Parker, but we play team basketball.”
That brings up the personality angle and how this team is built on players who get along and understand the power of the locker room. Popovich understood this long ago; playing for Air Force likely taught him about teamwork. But this was reinforced on the pro level when Popovich was just starting.
The 1991 season is prehistoric for this franchise, but Sean Elliott says he’s been thinking about it. When he watches the Mavericks and Warriors, he remembers the only time he felt embarrassed after losing a series.
There had never been a bigger playoff upset at the time. The Spurs were the No. 2 seed, with speed and height and Larry Brown, and the year before, they had lost a classic seventh game to Portland.
Nelson coached the Warriors then, just as he does now. And he unleashed a small lineup on the Spurs just as he does on the Mavericks now. Tom Tolbert, better at TV now than he was as a player then, defended David Robinson, and Mario Elie got a surprise start against Terry Cummings.
Another similarity between these Mavericks and those Spurs: Nellie got away with going small because Robinson, like Dirk Nowitzki, was never best at posting deep. Cummings added to the Golden State strategy with an injury.
Someone else observing that series: George Karl was on hand as an unpaid assistant to Nelson.
But that’s where the parallels end. The Spurs weren’t a 67-win power as Dallas was this regular season, and they weren’t coming off a Finals appearance. Too many Spurs were going in different directions, and Elliott remembers that group as a “fake team.”
So Nelson didn’t take advantage of mismatches as much as he exposed the Spurs. They were fractured, without a sense of what was necessary, and Brown apparently understood as much. He wouldn’t last through the next season.
Working as Spurs assistants then — and not saying much — were Popovich and R.C. Buford. They would leave San Antonio, both going their own ways. And when they returned several years later, they built a different kind of roster.
They were lucky, of course. Building around Robinson and Tim Duncan would be a joy for any franchise.
But they’ve been careful to add the right people. From Jacque Vaughn, the consummate locker-room guy. To Brent Barry, who could sit on the bench through most of this series before getting a chance in Game 4. To Michael Finley, once a star and now happy to contribute. To Fab Oberto, who fits as seamlessly as Manu Ginobili has.
All five were together to start the fourth quarter, and that small combination was a playoff first. Then Vaughn threw in a jumper, Ginobili followed with a couple of free throws and a 3-pointer, and Karl called a timeout.
“I know they are small,” Karl told his guys. “I see that. Get out, and guard them.”
Popovich would play Nellie ball only for a few minutes. Going back to Duncan always makes sense, and then Duncan showed the personality that works through adversity. He’d been frustrated by the lack of calls, but none of it mattered without about a minute left. Then, he stepped through Nenê for a score.
“Guys got frustrated,” Horry said. “But tough times are going to happen, and tough people get going.”
Popovich saw the other side of that, and he learned from it.
