They’re fearful, focused, forceful.
And they’re out of a @#%&+$! dome.
Add all those factors together and you come up with some of the reasons proposed on why the Spurs have been so downright tough on the road this year. At 16-9, they were the best road team in the NBA in the regular season and in the playoffs, they’re a perfect 6-0.
One pervading theory is that the Alamodome is about as much fun to shoot in as the back of a garbage truck. The dome may be home but it stinks for depth perception.
“It’s a DOME,” stressed Jaren Jackson, a .402 playoff shooter who shows a staggering discrepancy: .455 on the road and just .326 at home. “The ‘dome is very tough. It reminds me when I was playing college [for Georgetown] at Syracuse. It reminds me when I played in the Superdome in New Orleans. There’s a lot of space. You got the background and when it’s closed up in an arena like this [the Garden], a smaller arena, it’s a better place to get your shot off, it’s a better shooting facility.”
And so the Spurs admit they feel real comfy when they go on the road. The Garden is cozy compared to the Alamodome. Actually, Long Island is cozy compared to the Alamodome.
“We always talk about, when we get to an arena, how big the baskets look because at the ‘dome, it’s not conducive to playing basketball. Period,” assessed Sean Elliott.
“We were joking this morning saying the goals look 9 feet coming out of practice,” agreed Avery Johnson. “It’s just different coming from the Alamodome to an arena. but no matter what we still have a terrific record there mainly because of our defense, not the way we shot the ball. But it’s home for us. The depth perception is different. That’s a fact. These facilities are more contained. It’s more of a gym-like atmosphere.”
But it’s not like the Spurs go out and nail 100 straight shots in all the other gyms they invade. There are other reasons for their road success, some intangible like emotions, some concrete, like two 7-footers.
“We’re just a little more fearful of the road and we have a little more of an edge and when you play that way you’re a little more dangerous,” offered Steve Kerr. “We tend to get a little too comfortable at home and I think during the playoffs playing at home is somewhat tougher in some ways. You’ve got all the distractions, tickets, family staying with you, people wanting to talk to you all the time.”
Fear is a nice weapon. But so are the 7-footers. Tim Duncan and David Robinson have dominated the Patrick Ewing-less Knicks in every way. They’ve blocked shots. They’ve altered shots. They made shots. They rebounded missed shots. And they’ve taken the Knicks best shots. They did it at home, and Duncan says they’re equipped to do it on the road.
“It’s just our focus,” Duncan said as a way of explaining the Spurs’ success on foreign floors.”I can’t really explain. We just come in more focused. The crowd’s not behind us and we have our backs to the wall. We’re better that way.”