The San Antonio Spurs are reeling, and they don't seem to know why. Some of them say it's the offense. Some say it's the defense. Some say it's the Jazz. They only have one more chance to figure it out as Tuesday's 105-72 loss in the Delta Center to Utah left them a game from playoff extinction. Utah leads the best-of-five series 2-1 with Game Four Thursday in the Delta Center.
"I don't really feel like going fishing yet," said reserve forward Antoine Carr, the one San Antonio player to have a good game. Carr's 16 points were his best of the season, and he was the only Spur with a respectable shooting night, 5-for-9 from the field and 6-for-7 in free throws."We're not going to just roll over," declared David Robinson (8-for-21 shooting, 16 points, 11 rebounds). "I have a lot of confidence in this team, and I really believe that we can win," Robinson said. "We haven't had any games like this all year."
"I honestly believe we can turn it around," said Dale Ellis, whose shooting slump is one of the biggest of Spurs' problems.
"We've been trying to get Dale going, but we haven't been able to establish him," said Spurs' coach John Lucas.
Carr and guard Willie Anderson agreed the Spur defense isn't doing enough to create easy scoring chances that would elevate the confidence of the shooters.
But the Spurs' real problem may be a fatalistic atmosphere.
"What you see right now is a frustrated team," said Lucas. "I don't think we threw in the towel, but when you don't make shots, it's hard to keep going, and for two nights in a row, we haven't shot well."
The Spurs shot 32 percent from the field and barely escaped tying the NBA playoff record-low points, 71, on J.R. Reid's dunk with :00 left. On Saturday in San Antonio, they'd shot 35 percent.
"We got a good old-fashioned whipping two nights in a row," said Lucas. "Their intensity is a lot higher than ours, and they just took us out back and beat us. We've got to raise our level up if we're going to win a game."
"We need to have more pride than this," said Robinson.
"If we play (Thursday) with the emotion of tonight, the same thing's going to happen," said Anderson.
"I shook my head the whole game," said forward Terry Cummings, who started in place of the suspended Dennis Rodman and had 11 rebounds but six points. "You don't want to see yourself play that way on national television."
Carr said he thought the Spurs made a good effort for a long time Tuesday, though they fell 37 points down. "To a certain point, I thought we were still trying," he said. "I can't say about the other guys, but I know I wasn't about to give up."
The Spurs had seemed disheartened on Monday after Rodman's suspension was announced by the NBA, frustrated that the league would do it and that Rodman had given the NBA probable cause. Carr, however, said he didn't think that emotional pall had carried over to Tuesday's game.
As is becoming a fad in the NBA, the Jazz handed out the long, skinny balloons that clowns use to make balloon animals to fans sitting behind the baskets to wave when the Spurs shot free throws. San Antonio made two of its first eight.
The Jazz PR office said it was coincidental - not at all a takeoff on Rodman - that the white balloons looked like thousands of blond worms.
One-fourth of the Philadelphia 76ers (Shawn Bradley, Jeff Malone and Ike Austin) and about half of the San Francisco 49er payroll (Steve Young) sat courtside Tuesday night.