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No bright spots for Warriors
Poor performance rates as team effort in lopsided loss to Spurs

By Ric Bucher
Mercury News Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The Warriors, in their continual search for
togetherness, did something as a team against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday
night.

They all played lousy.

Usually, there are a few bright spots in every loss, even those as lopsided as
the 113-95 trouncing the Spurs laid on the Warriors at the Alamodome, but not
this time. The Warriors tied their season high for turnovers with 25 and were
beaten in every other statistical category except in three-pointers, making 8
of 23 to the Spurs' 2-for-13 effort.

``It was a game,'' said Coach Rick Adelman, ``where really nothing went too
good.''

Box-score watchers will be quick to point out Chris Gatling's third
double-double of the season (18 points, 10 rebounds), but it's hard to give
that much credence when David Robinson and Will Perdue were scoring over him
at will at the other end.

There wasn't even room for argument with anyone else:

-- Rookie Joe Smith went 2 for 9 for six points and had eight rebounds in 31
minutes, his misses including two air balls and a jump hook blocked by Charles
Smith.

-- Latrell Sprewell had more turnovers (five) than baskets (four) and finished
with eight points.

-- Tim Hardaway had as many turnovers (six) as baskets.

-- Spurs forward Sean Elliott spun Jerome Kersey driving for layups so many
times, Kersey nearly was bored into the hardwood.

-- Rony Seikaly was 1 for 7 for two points in 21 minutes.

-- Jon Barry, a 55 percent shooter from beyond the arc, missed 4 of 5
three-point tries.

-- Chris Mullin, a 41 percent shooter from three-point range, missed 5 of 6.

``It was just one of those games,'' Sprewell said. ``You've got 82 games,
you're going to have some where everybody is off.''

The strange part is that the Warriors were very much on at the start, shooting
a blistering 55 percent in the first quarter. Hardaway banked in a
three-pointer at the buzzer to put them within one entering the second
quarter.

That the Warriors were behind despite shooting that well was a troubling sign
for Adelman.

``In the first quarter we seemed to score almost every trip,'' Adelman said,
``but even though we were scoring . . . we didn't offer any resistance to
them. They got a lot of open looks, and you just can't do that against this
team.''

The Warriors appeared poised to make their third consecutive comeback from a
huge third-quarter deficit, falling behind by 21 but trimming the difference
to 11 with 57 seconds left in the third period. But baskets by Perdue and
Elliott pushed the lead to 15 before the period ended. The Warriors didn't
threaten again.

Granted, they played the second-best team in the Midwest Division (32-16)
eager to end a two-game losing streak and energized by newly acquired power
forward Charles Smith making his first start. But the Warriors (23-27) also
arrived with some momentum, having won five of six games. A win would have
moved them to within two games of .500 for the first time since they were 2-4.

Apparently, the Spurs' excellence weighed heavier on the Warriors' minds than
their recent resurgence.

``You can't look at this game and say we should win the game in San Antonio on
their home floor,'' Barry said. ``The good thing is, it seems like we always
bounce back when we have a bad outing.''

The discouraging element of the loss, though, was that the Spurs didn't lean
on their All-Stars, Robinson and Elliott. Robinson had 18 rebounds but scored
only 17 points -- eight below his average -- and Elliott needed 14 shots to
score 16 points.

Instead, shooting guard Vinny Del Negro, Charles Smith and Perdue led the way.
Del Negro took Barry off the dribble twice and nailed jumpers over Sprewell
for a game-high 20 points. Charles Smith had a season-high five blocked shots,
15 points, seven rebounds and completely confounded Joe Smith. And Perdue had
11 points in 15 minutes.

The Warriors chose to compliment the Spurs' effort rather than criticize
themselves.

``He can shoot, you have to give him credit,'' Sprewell said of Del Negro.

``He contested every shot, every time, and he got up and down the floor
well,'' Joe Smith said of Charles Smith.

But Mullin did not try to hide that the Warriors' problems were of their own
making.

``Nothing went right,'' he said. ``We were playing hard, but we just weren't
executing plays. Playing hard and not converting really doesn't get you
anywhere.''