Postseason past an invaluable tool
While the Lakers and Jazz will lean heavily on playoff experience, for the Spurs and Mavs -- much of it will be sitting on the bench.
Updated: April 17, 2003, 2:26 PM ET
By By Terry Brown
Steve Smith went from starter to three-point
specialist to bench warmer quicker than we could learn
how to spell or pronounce Emanuel Ginobili.
Now, it's Bruce Bowen, playing for his fifth team in
seven years, starting 82 of 82 games at small forward.
It's Stephen Jackson, late of the Fort Wayne Fury of
the now-defunct CBA, becoming the team's third-leading
scorer. It's some rookie from Argentina, accent on his
25th birthday last July, playing 425 more minutes this
season than Steve Smith.
Heck, remove David Robinson from the San Antonio
Spurs' starting line up and the team has a grand total
of 81 games worth of playoff experience on the floor
at tip off compared to a 186 game average for the
starting line ups of the 16 teams that qualified for
the postseason this year.
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