They were supposed to be the Twin Flowers, that duo of David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
They were not supposed to be the stuff of champions. Heck, they didn’t even stuff the ball much, these Twin Towers. Everyone knows you don’t win NBA championships that way.
But Duncan and Robinson again Friday were Twin Glowers as they stared down the New York Knicks with a vicious defensive effort to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals with an 80-67 victory.
The series shifts to New York for Game 3 on Monday, since NBC elected to skip a Sunday game in favor of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Even NBA-happy NBC didn’t respect Duncan and Robinson.
But the Knicks do now.
Duncan had 25 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks while Robinson added 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Meanwhile the Knicks produced the second fewest points in a game in Finals history and the teams combined for the second fewest points in a Finals game.
Latrell Sprewell led the Knicks with 26 points.
The last team to overcome an 0-2 deficit in the Finals was the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers.
“It takes four to win a series,” San Antonio’s Mario Elie said, “but the good thing about us is we’re one of the better road teams in the league. We seem to play better on the road and our focus seems to pick up a little bit.”
The Spurs, in fact, are undefeated on the road in the playoffs after concluding sweeps in Los Angeles and Portland, but they were beginning to look at road-game victories as necessary early in Game 2.
Even though the Knicks missed 18-of-19 shots in the second quarter, the Spurs were unable to take advantage.
“The Knicks come at you,” Elie said. “They don’t quit.”
And so it was Friday after the Spurs broke out to a 10-5 lead. The Knicks came back behind the one-on-one play of Allan Houston and Sprewell and went ahead 13-12.
“Same thing,” Chris Childs said. “Back against the wall. Come out swinging.”
But the Knicks would get just one field goal the rest of the quarter as the Spurs moved ahead 20-15 after one quarter.
That was mostly because of the defense of Duncan and Robinson, who blocked two shots each in the quarter and upset several others.
“I was attacking them,” said Sprewell, who missed 6-of-8 shots in the quarter. “But those big guys make it difficult inside for me.”
The Knicks shot just 29.8 percent at the half as Robinson had four blocks. They had just four first-half assists, after dishing off 12 in Game 1.
The Spurs led 39-34 at halftime.
Earlier in the second quarter, the Knicks closed within 29-28 with about four minutes left in the half, the Spurs put together their best sustained offensive stretch of the half as Duncan scored on back-to-back spin moves to give the Spurs a nine-point lead.
“The way Duncan’s playing now,” said Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who didn’t double-team Duncan much harder than in Game 1, “there’s not one man on the planet who can stop him.
“I’ve been watching this year. He’s the best player in the NBA.”
