San Antonio – In the 48 minutes it took to play Game 1 of their opening round NBA playoff series against the Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs not only lost their home-court advantage but also went from a savvy, veteran team and overwhelming favorites to a run-down, creaky bunch of old-timers on the verge of being overwhelmed by the upstarts from Colorado.
“I’ve been in the situation those guys are – hungry and wanting to make some noise in the playoffs,” Spurs guard Michael Finley said today after the team’s practice. “That’s how they played in the first game. Now it’s up to us to raise our intensity.”
How to best go about that seemed a very individualistic process today. On one half-court, some San Antonio players engaged in a heated two-on-two contest, while on the opposite side of the floor, all-star center Tim Duncan worked alone, his only companions a headset and a machine that continually fed him the basketball as he worked on his low-post moves.
Meanwhile, guard Tony Parker, who, like Duncan, suffered through a subpar effort in the Spurs’ 95-89 loss Sunday, seemed ready to call the Nuggets over to the AT&T Center to get an early start on Wednesday’s proceedings.
“I can’t wait to go back at it, to play a lot better with a lot more energy and a lot more intensity,” Parker said. “It’s been too long.”
Parker said part of his anxiousness was because Game 1 was his first contest in a week, having been on the inactive list for the Spurs’ final two regular-season games. As a result, his 8-for-20 shooting performance may have been due to some lingering rust.
That idea was uttered out of earshot from his coach, Gregg Popovich, which probably was a good thing.
“If you want to say we were rusty, then go ahead. That’s your opinion, and that’s fine,” Popovich said. “I don’t care about rust and what happened then. All I care about is now and what we have to do to win this next game.”
From that standpoint, the Spurs’ collective experience is a very beneficial thing, according to the coach.
“One of the good things about this team is that we’re never very impressed with wins, and we’re never very depressed with losses,” Popovich said. “In either case, all we really do is focus in on what we did poorly and then trying to get better.”
Which was why, Parker said, he was confident that he and his teammates would have a positive response to Sunday’s upset.
“I don’t feel any pressure about this game,” Parker said. “We’ve been in this situation before, and we’ve always reacted well to tough losses.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
