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Robert Horry gets Game 5 for Spurs

Robert Horry was all set to cut through the lane after inbounding the ball with 9.6 seconds left when a strange thing happened -- extremely strange, actually, considering his postseason history.

Rasheed Wallace suddenly went to double-team Manu Ginobili in the corner, leaving no one within 15 feet of one of the best clutch shooters in NBA postseason history.

Bad idea. Very bad.

"I saw Rasheed bite and said: `Oh, let me stay out here,'" Horry said after he knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds remaining in overtime Sunday to give San Antonio a 96-95 victory over Detroit in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Horry, the veteran dubbed "Big Shot Bob" whose clutch postseason 3-pointers have defined his career, gave the Spurs a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. San Antonio bounced back from a pair of lopsided losses to defeat the defending champs in their own building and send the series back to Texas needing just one more victory for a third title in seven years.

"The play was for me to take that shot, but then I saw Rasheed coming," Ginobili said "My first option in those moments was Robert. He's a winner. He's been in that situation so many times. Everyone knows what he does."

The Pistons had one final chance after Horry's shot, but Richard Hamilton missed a runner from the lane and Bruce Bowen rebounded to end it.

After four blowouts, this was the type of game everyone had been waiting almost two weeks to see -- an intense, closely-fought nail-biter befitting of a championship series. The fourth quarter was close throughout, with clutch shots coming from Chauncey Billups and Hamilton for the Pistons, and Horry and Ginobili of San Antonio.

The player who wasn't hitting the big ones was two-time NBA Finals MVP Tim Duncan, who missed six straight foul shots and a putback at the end of the fourth quarter that would have won it for the Spurs.

"An absolute nightmare, yes," Duncan said. "[Horry] pulled me out of an incredible hole that I put myself in."

Game 6 will be Tuesday, and Game 7, if necessary, on Thursday.

The Pistons haven't won in San Antonio since 1997, and the Spurs had the NBA's best regular-season home record.

Horry finished with 21 points, Duncan had 26 points and 19 rebounds, Ginobili scored 15 and Tony Parker 14. Billups led Detroit with 34 points.

"It was the kind of game where you hate to see anybody lose," Pistons coach Larry Brown said.

Of the prior 23 times a finals series has been tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has gone on to win the title 17 times. The most recent time it has happened was 2003, when San Antonio defeated New Jersey. A Game 5 loser won following a 2-2 tie most recently in 1994, when the Houston Rockets defeated the New York Knicks in Games 6 and 7.

Duncan also missed San Antonio's first two shots of overtime and lost control of an entry pass with 56 seconds left in the extra period with Detroit ahead 95-93.

An offensive rebound gave Detroit two possessions while running down the final minute of overtime, but Billups missed on a drive with 9.4 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Horry knocked down the 3 that won it.

"You can't go back and say shoulda, woulda, coulda. It was caught in the corner and I just tried to double. Now we have a day and a half. We're cool," Wallace said.

The late 3 wasn't the only big shot by Horry, whose offensive poise was a direct contrast to Duncan's troubles.

The Pistons were ahead 87-85 before Horry caught a pass and quickly launched a 3-pointer that dropped through with 1:17 left in regulation, giving him seven straight points for the Spurs. Duncan had a chance to extend the lead after Hamilton missed a jumper, but the career 69 percent foul shooter missed a pair from the line with 1 minute remaining.

Billups scored on another of his crafty drives to give Detroit an 89-88 lead, and the Pistons fouled Duncan when he got the ball down low on the next possession. With the crowd noise at its loudest of the series, Duncan missed the first foul shot -- making him 0-for-6 in the period -- but made the second.

San Antonio's best defender, forward Bruce Bowen, took over guarding Billups on the next possession, and there appeared to be contact as Billups drove the lane and missed. But no foul was called, and San Antonio got the ball back with 16.9 seconds left able to hold for the last shot of regulation.

Ginobili dribbled the clock down and drove on Tayshaun Prince, but missed. Duncan was there for the rebound, grabbed the ball with two hands and had a wide-open chance for an easy putback, but his shot somehow came up short. He walked off with his hands balled into fists covering his mouth.

No matter who wins the NBA championship, there's a strong likelihood the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs will be competing for titles for the next several years. Both teams have been built to last.

The Pistons are back with the same starting five that defeated the Los Angeles Lakers last season. The changes made to the roster in the offseason -- trading Corliss Williamson and allowing Mehmet Okur and Mike James to leave as free agents -- were made in order to free up future salary space to re-sign Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince to long-term deals.

The other three starters, Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Richard Hamilton, are already locked into long-term deals at reasonable prices, a big part of the season why Detroit's US$52 million payroll might just be the most cost effective in the NBA.
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