Elie Provides Spurs With a Much-Needed Edge

For all the talk about Tim Duncan and David Robinson, Mario Elie probably has done as much as any player to transform the San Antonio Spurs from a good team to a title contender.

He’s a tough defender, he has played on two NBA championship teams in Houston and, most of all, he has brought an attitude to a team that needed one.

Elie was a major factor in holding down Isaiah Rider in San Antonio’s 80-76 victory over Portland on Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. He had a crucial drive to the basket, as well as two important free throws down the stretch.

With the experience that comes from nine previous playoff appearances, he keeps his team from becoming complacent.

“No. 1, he stays angry,” Avery Johnson said. “He’s one of the angriest guys on the court. On the court, he has an edge, he’s bitter about a lot of things. He stays mad all the time and we kind of needed that little edge.”

Elie saw a blandness on his new team after he signed with the Spurs as a free agent before this season began.

“I thought at first when I got here that we were sort of a corporate team, just punch in and have no fun,” he said.

“We had a lot of laid-back guys, and that’s just not my personality. It seems like now our guys are showing a lot of emotion.”

They will need it tonight against a Portland team that remains confident even though it has lost four of five against San Antonio this season.

The Spurs believe they relied too much on Duncan and Robinson in Game 1.

“Basically, we’ve got to shoot the ball better,” Robinson said.

“We shoot 40% it’s going to be tough for us to put together a good game.”