Robinson Does Duty On Defense San Antonio’s Mvp Center Plays Olajuwon To Standstill

The admiral did his duty Sunday. But in David Robinson’s case, duty did not include going down with the ship.

Robinson once again answered the call to sacrifice life and limb - but most of all, precious limelight - for the cause of refloating the San Antonio Spurs. And if that meant having to baby-sit Houston center Hakeem Olajuwon in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, so be it.

Robinson’s solo defensive effort on Olajuwon freed teammates to roam a wider perimeter and pin a 103-81 loss on the starved-out Rockets at The Summit.

“I know sometimes you go out and want to match Hakeem bucket for bucket,” Robinson said. “But that’s the ego thing. I want to win games.”

The strange thing was, Robinson got to do both.

Both Robinson and Olajuwon finished with 20 points as the Spurs knotted the series at 2-2.

Robinson, however, had five teammates willing to match his double figures. With Olajuwon not drawing defensive fire from anyone other than Robinson, the Rockets withered in all other phases.

Led by Dennis Rodman’s 19 rebounds, the Spurs dominated the boards, 64-39. The Rockets shot only 39 percent.

Spurs coach Bob Hill said the difference was simply a new understanding that Robinson, this year’s NBA most valuable player, had to go solo with Olajuwon, last year’s MVP, to keep the Spurs’ fast-break strategy intact.

Even if that meant Robinson giving up some freedom on offense.

“We have to play teams a certain way,” Hill said. “We can’t worry about how many points David gets versus Hakeem. The MVP award is a regular-season award. Now it’s the playoffs. There are no awards now except for winning.”

Olajuwon, who averaged 37 points in the first three games of the series, connected on only nine of 24 shots.

“He’s got that Superman cape, and all you can do it try to make him take tough shots,” Robinson said of Olajuwon. “If I can do that, I’ve done my job.”

“You have to give them credit,” Olajuwon said of the Spurs. “They came out fighting. They made good decisions. We were not patient. We were not creative. We have to be creative. That’s how we win.”

Robinson said the Spurs won because they were able to stick to their formula.

“I think we’re starting to figure out what got us here,” he said. “If we don’t take advantage of our quickness and the fast break, we’re just hurting ourselves.”

The Rockets took 16 three-pointers. They made only three.

“One thing we wanted to take away was the wide-open threes,” Robinson said. “The last two games, I think we’ve done a pretty good job. That’s made a little bit of difference.”

“Now we’re back to square one,” Olajuwon said. “This series is just starting over again.”