NBA

So the game's slow? Blame the show

SAN ANTONIO - Any viewers who thought the festivities and musical numbers before Game 1 of the NBA Finals ran a bit long weren't alone. Players from both clubs were a bit surprised by the snail's pace of the series opener.

Thursday's pregame production included Alanis Morissette singing the national anthem and Will Smith performing his new single, Switch, with a group of dancers. With everything happening on and off the court, the game didn't begin until about 9:23 p.m.

"I was amazed when I heard that Will Smith was performing," Spurs forward Robert Horry said. "I thought it would be at halftime. ... It takes a while to get that much stuff on and off the court. I guess that's part of how they sell the games these days."

The NBA has featured musical acts for several years before and during games, and teams took it in stride. What's more, Smith's appearance allowed the Spurs to crack jokes at the expense of Horry, who bears a striking resemblance to the rapper/actor.

"We thought he was doing double duty last night," Brent Barry said. "He did the opening rap, and then he was going to play 25 minutes for us."

The defensive-minded clubs tend to have long possessions, keeping things moving despite the extra-long timeouts of Finals games plus a long halftime show featuring Canadian pop singer Bryan Adams.

Game 2 on Sunday will feature Kelly Clarkson singing the national anthem by satellite from the Persian Gulf, where she's on a USO tour. Stevie Wonder will perform before Game 3 in Detroit.

FROSTY WALLACE: A day after his technical foul preceded the Spurs' decisive fourth-quarter run in Game 1, Detroit's Ben Wallace was doing his best to forget it.

Wallace was called for a blocking foul on Manu Ginobili with 10:23 left. The technical for throwing his headband helped spark San Antonio's 19-4 run.

Though the NBA's defensive player of the year had seven rebounds and three blocked shots, everybody wanted to know Friday whether Wallace felt his frustration hurt the Pistons.

"We never got frustrated," Wallace said. "We got outworked before that, and we got outworked after that."

When asked if the foul was a turning point, Wallace replied: "Next question."

RATINGS: ABC's ratings for Thursday's game were 27 percent lower than for Game 1 a year ago. The game was watched by an average of 7.2 percent of the 109.6-million U.S. households with televisions, according to Nielsen Media Research. Last year's Pistons-Lakers opener drew a 9.8 rating.

[Last modified June 11, 2005, 00:26:12]