Reality of Spurs’ Athleticism Settles In

SAN ANTONIO — You don’t need to wait until the end of the game to see why the fourth quarter is the domain of the San Antonio Spurs and not the Los Angeles Lakers.

Check the dateline, glance at the championship banners and examine the dates. Glance at the rosters, see who has the most athletic players.

All of the advantages belong to the Spurs. As a result they have owned crunch time and possess a 2-0 lead over the Lakers in their Western Conference semifinal series.

As Darth Vader would say, the circle is now complete. What started in the Spurs’ closeout victory against the Lakers last season continued in Game 1 of this series and became a certifiable trend after the Spurs executed and shot better down the stretch Wednesday in Game 2 to win, 95-85.

When the Lakers took eight of nine playoff games from San Antonio en route to their parades down Figueroa in 2001 and 2002 they dominated the fourth quarters. The Spurs would turn all too predictably to Tim Duncan, the Lakers would break from their norm and start sending double-teams his way and the Spurs folded like rented chairs in a barrage of turnovers and missed shots.

Perhaps those Lakers had the memory of that Game 7 comeback against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2000 Western Conference finals fresh in their minds. They expected to win, perhaps even felt entitled to it.

These days, whatever the Lakers might do to put themselves in position to win, it never feels as if they’re about to put the Spurs away.

“They’re the defending champions,” Laker guard Derek Fisher said. “Although we have guys that have won championships, this particular team is not a championship team yet. We haven’t won.”

And they don’t have home-court advantage, which the Spurs secured for this round thanks to a late-season winning streak that has extended to 17 games in the playoffs.

“On your home court, a lot of times in second halves, in fourth quarters, late in the game things tend to bounce your way,” Fisher said.

Especially when you have the quicker players. The Spurs have them. Their names are Tony Parker, who might be the fastest player with the ball in the league, and Manu Ginobili, who must be the fastest to the ball.

“Athleticism,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said. “We can get the ball up the court, quicker. Penetrate here and there from different spots on the court just like they can.

“For a couple of years there, we weren’t able to do that. It was Duncan and the guys spotting up for three-point shots. We didn’t really have that penetration. We’ve had that for the last couple of years.”

The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant sounded a similar theme.

“They have a player in Tony who is able to break teams down and get into the paint,” Bryant said. “In the fourth quarter that’s what you need in close ballgames. You need somebody who can penetrate and create.”

Usually Bryant can handle that just fine. And in the past, he loved the fourth. It was his ice-cold three-point basket that started the Lakers on their way to a sweep in 2001. His offensive rebound and putback won Game 4 in 2002.

These days, Bruce Bowen forces him to dribble, dribble and dribble some more. When Bryant finally does get into the lane there’s usually a whole posse of Spurs waiting for him and he has to pass.

With Gary Payton out of the offensive flow when he isn’t out of the game completely, there aren’t any other Lakers who can pick up the penetration slack. Karl Malone tried it a couple of times and got to the hoop or the free-throw line, but the Lakers won’t win many games with him dribbling for 20 feet on a regular basis.

They won’t win games with 11 fourth-quarter turnovers, as they had on Sunday. And they won’t win by shooting 37.5% in the fourth, as they did Wednesday.

“It took another big effort for us to get back in the ballgame,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “It looked to me like we ran out of gas again tonight getting back in the ballgame and didn’t have enough left for the last four minutes of the game.”

When asked what went wrong in crunch time, he said: “Our execution failed us in the fourth quarter. Some of that’s [the Spurs’] elevated play. We had some miscommunication. That’s my fault.”

The miscommunication applied at both ends of the court, he said. In one stretch the Laker possessions resulted in a missed three-point shot by Devean George, who rushed a shot off a low pass from Malone, a bad shot by Fisher and a quick three-point try by Payton. Not the shots the Lakers were looking for.

The Spurs seemed to get whatever they wanted. That’s because they aren’t picky. As Duncan said the other day, he’s perfectly happy whether it’s himself, Parker, Ginobili or anyone else with the ball in crunch time. He left the court a winner Wednesday night despite taking only two shots -- and missing both -- in the fourth quarter.

He did handle the ball on the swing play of the game, midway through the fourth. The Lakers had cut a 19-point deficit to two. Duncan had the ball on the left block. Bryant left Turkoglu to double-team Duncan, who passed out to Turkoglu for a three-point basket.

Ballgame, and halfway to clinching the series. These Spurs have shown that they aren’t going to choke, no matter how much pressure the Lakers apply.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.