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Spurs' Duncan falls for Avery Johnson's trick

Mike Monroe
Express-News

Tim Duncan heard the voice, screaming demands during his first four seasons with the Spurs.

There is no mistaking Avery Johnson's high-pitched, nasal intonation and his New Orleans accent, and Duncan grew accustomed to following Johnson's commands when the two were teammates on the Spurs.


Now the coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Johnson used that familiar voice on Friday to confuse the Spurs' All-Star power forward in the fourth quarter of the Mavericks' 90-85 victory.

As the Spurs ran their offense in front of the Mavericks' bench in the second half, Duncan was well within earshot of Johnson's unique inflection. So the Mavericks coach instructed his defenders to double-team Duncan every time he caught the ball in the low post.

Turns out it was a ploy, a wrinkle that perhaps only Johnson could have executed against his old teammate. Johnson had privately ordered his defenders not to follow his directive.

Johnson had set up the tactic by aggressively double-teaming Duncan nearly every time he caught the ball in the post in the first three quarters. Duncan grew wary of the double teams and did a good job of finding open teammates.

"They came (at me) just about every time in the beginning," Duncan said. "In the fourth quarter, Avery just stood over there on the bench and yelled like they were coming, but they didn't."

It was a masterful mind game won by his old teammate, and it rankled Duncan to admit it.

"A very bad (mind game)," Duncan said, "but yeah."

The Mavericks held the Spurs scoreless for 4:59 in the fourth period, squandering an opportunity to extend the 76-73 lead Manu Ginobili gave them with an end-to-end drive that resulted in a three-point play 8:37 remaining.

Their next score came on Ginobili's 3-pointer with 3:38 to play, and Duncan owned up to his role in the critical stretch.

"Honestly, I'll take full and total blame for that situation right there," Duncan said. "It was just bad reason my part.

"(The Mavericks) were half-and-half (on defense). They weren't double-teaming. They weren't doing anything, and I wasn't drawing anybody to me and wasn't taking the shots when they were there. Just bad reads on my part."

Duncan always is candid when he makes mistakes, often more critical of himself than need be. He seemed angrier with himself for falling for Johnson's mind game than for allowing the Mavericks seven offensive rebounds in the second half, most of them critical to Dallas' comeback.

Those offensive rebounds, Duncan said, were by happenstance, rather than lack of effort or execution by the Spurs. The most critical was Jason Terry's grab of Dirk Nowitzki's air ball on a 3-point attempt. Terry flipped it in the basket just before the 24-second shot clock expired.

"Yeah," Duncan said on his way out the door of the Spurs' locker room. "That's great offensive rebounding.

"It just happened," Duncan said of the Mavericks' 41-33 edge in rebounding. "I can't say one thing or the other. I can't say they were just legitimately pounding the offensive glass. I think they got a couple bounces and were in the right place at the right time. That's not taking anything away from what they did. It's just how it went."

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Dragnsmke1

I think I just lost a lot of respect for Duncan...thats a real loser attitude there...

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t1no

He's always been like that.

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sdn13

I'm not a big fan of the Spurs for a few reasons:

1. Manu Ginobili; can't stand to watch the guy flinch way before contact and then flop around on the floor like a fish out of water.

2. Tim Duncan's constant whining; I like him as a player, but I get sick of seeing his face everytime there's a foul called against him. Looks like he can't get a turd out.

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xray

Duncan's played a lot of ball since he came into league in '98, not to mention 4 years at WF. I wonder if he would admit that he may be slowing...

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Ninjatune

What a pansy. Duncan can't even admit to being outplayed.

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The Future7

I'm impressed to hear about the mind game that Avery played on Duncan.

croco

I don't think he has lost a step, it's the supporting cast that is not playing well and you can obviously collapse on him if Horry or Bowen can't hit a shot.