Three Adjustments Spurs Must Make

The San Antonio Spurs head into Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers with a chip on their shoulder — and they have the right.

The final play in Game 4 involved what should have been called a foul. Spurs' sharpshooter Brent Barry caught the ball outside the 3-point circle and made a routine head fake that launched his man, Lakers guard Derek Fisher, into the air. Barry then crept under Fisher, who landed on Barry as he let off a wild shot. Strangely, no foul was called and the Spurs and their fans looked in dismay at the refs.

It was a foul under the way that contact has been refereed, but I'm glad it wasn't called. Hopefully, the small bit of controversy it generates will prompt the league to take a closer look at how these sorts of plays are called. If an offensive player goes out of his way to initiate contact, rather than take a clean look at the basket — which is exactly what Barry did — then the refs should not bail him out. If Barry had leaned away from Fisher and taken his shot, we might have a series tied at two.

Instead, the Lakers lead the series three games to one, and the Spurs have their backs to the wall, with an elimination game on the road. The Spurs have won one of these already, defeating the New Orleans Hornets in a Game 7 on the Bayou last week. But these circumstances are dire. The Spurs will have to win twice at Staples Center in Los Angeles, or their title defense will end short of the NBA Finals — and San Antonio has won only twice on the road during the entire postseason.

Although the Spurs' situation is grim, there are three key improvements that coach Gregg Popovich can make to improve his team's chances tonight.

The first thing Pop should do is bench Robert Horry. He's been a liability for the last two seasons, and a more ruthlessly run franchise might have bought him out of the final year of his contract last summer. But it's understandable that the Spurs didn't want Big Shot Bob's legacy to conclude with a dirty foul on Steve Nash that changed the tone of the Phoenix-San Antonio playoff series last year. Also, with Horry's reputation for hitting so many clutch 3-pointers, he would be nice to have on the floor at crunch time, even as a decoy. This all overlooks that at 37, though, Big Shot can't shoot anymore. He knows it: He's passing up shots that Ben Wallace can make with ease. And what's worse, the Lakers know it, too, and are choosing not to guard him, forcing the Spurs to play four against five on offense. Is it any wonder that the Spurs are struggling to score points?

The solution to San Antonio's scoring woes is so simple that many Knicks fans must have been yelling it at their televisions: Play Kurt Thomas. Thomas's game has slipped a little, but there are few big men in the game as reliable as him with a midrange jump shot, a skill in desperately short supply these days for the Spurs. Thomas fell out of the rotation after struggling to guard David West during the Spurs-Hornets series. But in some of those games, West was unstoppable; Spurs' pivotman Tim Duncan, one of the best defensive players in NBA history, even struggled to slow West. Thomas might be hard-pressed to guard L.A. power forward Lamar Odom, but Horry isn't doing a good job, either. Thomas will at least add some offensive punch to a team that badly needs it.

The second tactic Pop needs is to remember Tony Parker's game. Parker isn't a spot-up shooter: He's a slasher who can get to the hoop in a blink of an eye. Yet, for almost every second half in this series, San Antonio's half-court offense has been built around plays with Duncan in the low post. The Spurs' playbook features a number of plays where Duncan starts in the high post and moves to the elbow, creating driving lanes for Parker to exploit. The swift guard's penetration usually result in baskets for him, dishes to his teammates for easy hoops, or fouls on the Lakers' big men — all very good things from the Spurs' perspective. Yet with almost all of the offense starting with Duncan near the basket, Parker gets reduced to being a spot-up shooter, which isn't the strong suit of his game.

Lastly, the Spurs should push the tempo. San Antonio's offense is doing itself no favors by letting the Lakers' defense get set up each trip down the court. In Parker, they have one of the fastest point guards in the NBA: Let him run. The defense is more spread out when defending fast-breaking teams, and this will create more opportunities for swingman Manu Ginobili and perhaps some open looks for struggling guard Michael Finley. The cost of this tactic is that the Popovich may have to go deeper into his bench — but not doing this means trying to beat the Lakers while scoring only 89 points a game.

Even with these changes, the Spurs may not come back from this deficit. But making them will be the difference between going down fighting and going down meekly — which, sadly, is what San Antonio usually does against the Lakers.

mjohnson@nysun.com