June 14, 2007

Big Three bow to Bowen

By: Bill Tilton

Game 3 of the NBA Finals was definitely a Bruce Bowen kind of game.

On a night when offense and flashiness gave way to defense and blue-collar play, and in a contest in which San Antonio's "Big Three" were not as large as the Spurs are accustomed to, Bowen came up huge.

Defensively, that is no surprise for the man who has made the NBA's All-Defensive Team the past six seasons, and once again, he made Cavaliers All-Star LeBron James work for almost every one of his 25 points. However, in a game in which Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli combined for 34 points on 13-of-41 shooting, Bowen scored 13 points - including 4 of 5 from 3-point land - and pulled down nine rebounds to help spark San Antonio to a 75-72 victory in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night at The Q.

"(Bowen's performance) was definitely good for them because Manu struggled, Tony struggled and Tim Duncan didn't shoot the ball well from the field, so Bruce definitely kept them in the game in the first half hitting three big 3s," James said. "And defensively, he's very good. So he definitely, helped them."

Bowen's defensive help was impressive, limiting James to 9-of-23 shooting from the floor and only picking up one foul in almost 44 minutes of action, but that is not unexpected. It was the offensive contribution of the Cal State Fullerton grad that was particularly helpful, considering he averaged 6.2 points per game in the regular season and is ordinarily overlooked offensively in favor of Duncan, Parker and Ginobli.

In the first half, the Spurs struggled mightily to score, hitting just 17 of 38 field goals, but Bowen's three 3s were like icing on the cake considering he did his primary job, holding James to nine points before the Cavaliers' leading scorer went to the bench with three fouls midway through the second quarter.

"I am just thrilled with Bruce Bowen," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "He was guarding a player who some day will be in the Hall of Fame, and he played 43 or 44 minutes and scored 13 points and got nine rebounds. It was a yeoman effort by Bruce from beginning to end. He really set the tone for the rest of the team.

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It was an effort that the rest of the team - especially the Big Three - did not take for granted."Bruce was unbelievable, he did everything for us," Duncan said. "He sat down on defense for 44 minutes. One shot or eight shots, doesn't matter to him on offense. What defines our team is what he does and how he plays."

Bowen matched his 2007 postseason highs in points and rebounds, and surpassed his previous playoff high this year of three 3-pointers, hit against Utah in the Western Conference Finals.

No matter that the final score was more like a college outcome than the two top teams in the NBA doing battle. Regardless of whether it was a thing of beauty for the average fan to watch. Bowen was only concerned with one thing.

And that one thing was not about showing up one of the Big Three.

"Oh yeah, we've played ugly many times, but we'll take it because it is a 'W,' " Bowen said.