Down 25, the Jordan-less Wizards make a bit of a game of it in the fourth quarter before losing their third in a row.

Tim Duncan denies Jahidi White's dunk attempt.

by Fred Schiebel, Head Writer


SAN ANTONIO -- So this is what a real basketball team looks like.

The Wizards had their first run-in with an elite squad (i.e. one of the upper echelon teams in the West) and the results were about what anyone could expect, as the San Antonio Spurs defeated them 95-82 in front of a massive home crowd of 35,052 who had come to see Michael Jordan, who didn't exactly dazzle as hoped from the bench dressed in street clothes due to a hyperextended left knee.

Robinson said he hoped some of the fans were there to watch the Spurs, but he understood their applause for the prominent visitor. "I'm sure a lot of the fans think this might be their last chance to see Michael Jordan," he said. "They still got to see him, but I'm sure it wasn't the same."

The game was actually close in the first quarter. While the Spurs hit 7 of their first 11 shots, Washington hit 7 of 8 -- an 88 percent clip. Wizard power forward Christian Laettner was outplaying Tim Duncan, at one point cutting to the hoop and faking him out of his shoes for a basket. The jubilation didn't last long. Behind Steve Smith's 16 points in the period the Spurs took a 32-23 lead by the quarter's end, despite the Wizards still shooting 59 percent from the field. Their seven turnovers may have had something to do with it.

"Stupid mistakes really did us in," Chris Whitney said, who had 13 points and 8 assists (and one turnover) in only 21 minutes of work. "You can't make a whole lot of those against a team like this."

Early in the second the Spurs went on a 11-2 to blow the game open. By halftime they were ahead 63-40.

"They just out-execute you to death," coach Doug Collins said. "They're a better team, a 60-win team. If Michael had played, they still would have beat our (butt)."

The Wizards didn't roll over and die, however. Despite San Antonio upping their lead to 25, Washington kept working, and it began to pay off. After two successful drives by Courtney Alexander (13 points) the deficit was cut to fifteen, 71-56. Which would have been what they would have trailed by at the start of the fourth quarter... if Spurs rookie Tony Parker hadn't swished a jumper at the buzzer.

"I have a theory that most players feel that they can come back from being down fifteen in the fourth," Collins said. "Maybe sixteen. But seventeen? That's a number where things start to get too psychologically demoralizing."

The Wizards didn't appear too broken. Still they fought, a Tyronn Lue baseline jumper cutting the lead down to thirteen, followed by a fifteen footer from Richard Hamilton making the score 87-76. A Laettner dunk and Lue drive later, suddenly the deficit was a mere seven points, with 3:44 left to go.

San Antonio put its starters back in at that point, which effectively quelled the uprising. Washington didn't score afterwards, and the Spurs needed only six more points to again regain their cruise control the rest of the way.

"I guess it was a moral victory that we forced them to make Tim Duncan get off the bench again," Collins laughed. "I was very proud of our guys, how they refused to lose. We'll need that kind of fight when we play these types of teams."

To save face?

Tim Duncan had a quiet 26 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists. Steve Smith finished with 20 points. Richard Hamilton led the Wizards with 17 points.