Pre-game festivities worked overtime

If you thought the festivities and musical numbers before Game 1 of the NBA Finals ran a bit long, you weren’t alone. Players from both clubs were a bit surprised by the snail’s pace of the series opener.

The pre-game production included Alanis Morissette singing the national anthem and Will Smith performing his new single, “Switch,” with a group of dancers. With that much star power moving on and off the court, the game didn’t tip off until approximately 8:23 p.m. San Antonio time.

The NBA has featured musical acts before and during games for several years, and the teams took it in stride. What’s more, Smith’s appearance allowed the Spurs to crack jokes at the expense of Horry, who bears a striking resemblance to the rapper-turned-actor.

“We thought he was doing double duty last night,” Brent Barry said. “He did the opening rap, and then he was going to play 25 minutes for us.”

The teams made up for lost time when the game finally began. The defensive-minded clubs’ tendencies toward long possessions kept things moving despite the extra-long timeouts of finals games, and a lengthy halftime show featuring Canadian rocker Bryan Adams.

Neither team would use the delays as an excuse – not for San Antonio’s slow start, and not for the Pistons’ fourth-quarter struggles.

“It ran long, but it isn’t an excuse for what we did,” Detroit’s Antonio McDyess said. “Both teams had to wait around. But it was definitely long.”

–Associated Press