NBA

Pressure will peak as winner takes all

The NBA title comes down to tonight and the first Game 7 since Houston-New York in 1994.

SAN ANTONIO - One of the most vivid memories Robert Horry has from the last Game 7 in NBA Finals history was Knicks guard John Starks firing up shot after shot after shot after shot - almost none going in.

It was a meltdown of epic proportions that to this day brings a cringe to the face of any Knicks fan.

Eleven shots went up from 3-point range, each one missing. Overall, Starks made 2 of 18 shots.

"From my end, I loved seeing it," said Horry, who played for the Rockets in 1994, when they defeated the Knicks 90-84 to win the first of consecutive titles. "I'm hoping John Starks' spirit will go into Chauncey (Billups) or one of them."

The pressure of Game 7 will be equal for both Horry's Spurs and Billups' Pistons tonight.

There hasn't been a winner-take-all game in the Finals since June22, 1994, and San Antonio hasn't been involved in one since the West semifinals in 1990, David Robinson's rookie season.

But the Spurs do have Horry, who has won his past five Game 7s. He was with the Rockets in their championship seasons of 1994 and 1995 and was a Laker when Los Angeles won the 2000 and 2002 titles.

"I remember the feeling after all five of them," Horry said. "That's one of the most joyous experiences in your life, right up there with having kids. It's candy.

"It's sweet to you. You just want to keep going and have more."

Playing in a Game 7 will be nothing new for the Pistons, who knocked off the Heat in Game 7 of the East final 21/2 weeks ago and dispatched the Nets in Game 7 of the East semifinals last season.

The Pistons trailed 3-2 in both series, as they did in this one, and another clutch performance would mean consecutive titles.

Most of the Spurs will be experiencing a Game 7 for the first time. Tim Duncan has never played in one, nor have starters Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Nazr Mohammed.

"You have a lot of pressure, and sometimes the pressure will burst the pipes. Sometimes the pressure will make diamonds," Horry said. "You have to have a cocky confidence. We developed it in the Phoenix series (in the West final), and I think it'll come out."

Of the previous 15 Game 7s, the road team has won three. Also, no team has won the final two games on the road since the 2-3-2 format was adopted in 1985. And no team has won two Game 7s on the road during one postseason. Detroit will try to do that against a team that hasn't lost consecutive home games all season.

"I love it," Billups said. "I think so many players just get a little too excited and get a little too impatient. That's where I come in with that calm demeanor, just staying poised out there and playing this Game 7 like it's Game 1."

Starks was similarly confident on the eve of Game 7. But while his night was dreadful, fewer people remember the play that ultimately doomed the Knicks, a late fullcourt baseball pass by Charles Oakley that sailed past everyone and into the stands.

Rasheed Wallace, who had his own lapse by leaving Horry open at the 3-point line at the end of Game 5, showed in Game 6 that he has already overcome his moment of mental atrophy.

"You can't look at it like a do-or-die situation. You've just got to go out there and hoop," Wallace said. "No pressure for us. Pressure busts pipes. We don't bust pipes."

In an admission not often made by athletes, Ginobili and Duncan said they'd be nervous in the hours before the game.

"Against them, anything can happen," Ginobili said.

"But I think we're going to be fine."

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 00:46:08]