History on Their Side in Game 6

Somewhere amid the rubble of two last-second shots, an appeal and a denial, the Spurs are in position to do something of which they’re historically capable:

Win Game 6.

Four times in last season’s championship run, the Spurs played a Game 6. They were winners all four times, three times on the road.

One victory in particular stands out: Spurs 110, Lakers 82, at Staples Center, exactly one year ago.

“We’ve always been big believers that teams that win championships win on the road in the playoffs,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said. “The Lakers have proven that they can do that. And now we have an opportunity to prove that. And we will or we won’t.

“It’s one game. We’re a good road team. We’ve won there before.”

The Spurs floated a few other theories after Thursday’s stunning end to Game 5, when Tim Duncan’s apparent winner was supplanted by Derek Fisher’s official winner.

There was the four-consecutive-times approach, as portrayed by Spur forward Bruce Bowen after the 74-73 loss.

“It’s hard to beat any team four times in a row,” Bowen said. “They barely beat us three times in a row. No discredit to them, they did the job that they had to do, but it is very difficult.”

There was the gee-whiz theory from Popovich, who said the game shouldn’t have been that close.

“If you want to compare Fisher’s shot to the two circus shots that [Duncan] put in, we were probably more lucky than they were, if you want to really be honest and objective about it,” Popovich said. “The last one got us, but we were lucky to be there with Timmy’s shot.”

Duncan made a double-clutch bank shot from the top of the key with 2:44 left and an off-balance 18-footer with four-tenths of a second left, but the Spurs were the ones searching for solace Friday.

“We kept them in the 70s,” Popovich said. “That’s difficult to do. We did a great job defensively ... one of our best defensive jobs of the year, but we couldn’t put it in the hole. We’ve got to get a couple guys shooting the ball a little bit.”

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Kobe Bryant didn’t score 42 points, a moral victory for the Spurs, who are probably in need of a few. Bryant followed up his Game 4 effort with 22 points on 11-for-27 shooting.

“Kobe’s not somebody you stop, but I thought we made him work for things and I thought our team defense on him was much better than it was in Game 4,” Popovich said.

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Popovich laughed when asked whether he had considered fouling whichever Laker touched the ball as soon as it was thrown inbounds on Fisher’s winning shot. The Spurs had a foul to give.

“There’s probably a pretty good chance that when the guy catches the ball, he’s going to be in his shot motion, so we didn’t want to take that chance and put him on the line,” Popovich said. “I don’t think that would have been too wise.”