Source: AFP
-- San Antonio's top trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined for 61 points Friday as the Spurs spoiled Kobe Bryant's return from injury with a 121-97 NBA victory over the Lakers.
San Antonio posted their sixth straight victory and improved to 46-16. They maintained their narrow, half-game lead over Oklahoma City atop the Western Conference.
Oklahoma City also won Friday, as Kevin Durant scored 29 points with 14 rebounds in a 103-92 victory at Sacramento.
San Antonio and Los Angeles were meeting for the third time in 10 days. The Western Conference rivals split the first two games of the regular-season series -- with each team winning by big margins on the road.
Bryant had missed the first two clashes as he sat out seven games with a sore left shin.
On Friday Bryant played just under 30 minutes and scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
But the Lakers defense could not slow the Spurs, who shot 61 percent from the field.
Duncan led the Spurs with 21 points and eight rebounds. Parker and Ginobili chipped in 20 points apiece. Parker also handed out 10 assists while Ginobili added seven assists and six rebounds.
The Spurs have four games left in the season, and coach Gregg Popovich, his eye already on the playoffs, will continue to limit the minutes of his "big three".
Duncan, 35, is averaging 28.3 minutes per game and the 34-year-old Ginobili 23.5 minutes.
Parker, 29, is the only Spurs player averaging as many as 30 minutes.
"This is the fourth in five nights and then we end with four in five nights," Popovich said of the team's frantic finish to a hectic lockout-shortened regular season. "We’re far from done managing minutes."
The Lakers, who lead cross-town rivals the Clippers by half a game for third place in the West, have two regular-season games remaining, on Sunday at home to Oklahoma City and on Thursday at Sacramento.
Source: Reuters, R
ATLANTA — The San Antonio Spurs snapped a four-game road losing streak with a 97-90 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.
The victory allows the league leading Spurs (59-19) to tighten their grip on securing home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
They entered the game with a 1-1/2 game lead over the Eastern Conference leading Chicago Bulls, who are playing the slumping Phoenix Suns.
Manu Ginobili scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Spurs, who held a one point advantage at the end of the third quarter.
Tony Parker led the Spurs with 26 points while Tim Duncan added 17 points. Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 21 points and Jamal Crawford scored 20 points off the bench.
Source: AFP,
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Argentina's Manu Ginobili scored 22 points and Gary Neal came off the bench to add 22 more as the San Antonio Spurs stretched their win streak to 10 games by beating Denver 109-103.
The Nuggets lost while playing without star playmaker Carmelo Anthony, who was absent due to a death in his family. His return timetable is uncertain. Denver's next game is on Christmas Day at Oklahoma City.
"It brings us down to earth," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "Basketball isn't the most important thing."
The Spurs, who improved their NBA-best record to 25-3, are two triumphs shy of matching their longest win streak of the year. The Nuggets fell to 16-11, sixth in the Western Conference.
Ty Lawson and J.R. Smith each scored 22 points to lead Denver while Kenyon Martin made his season debut after missing 26 games after knee surgery, scoring eight points in 17 minutes.
Richard Jefferson scored 16 points for the Spurs while Brazilian rookie Tiago Splitter contributed 12 points and nine rebounds.
The Nuggets led 89-80 entering the fourth quarter but Denver connected on only two shots in the last five and a half minutes and connected on only 17 percent of their shots in the final period.
"It was a huge fourth quarter," Ginobili said. "I'm still kind of in shock by the way we won it."
Denver missed a chance to avenge a loss last week to the Spurs in which they had appeared to win on an Anthony basket with one-third of a second to play, but the basket was waived off by officials.
Anthony, 26, is averaging 24 points and 8.3 rebounds this season but has been the subject of trade rumors for months after rejecting a three-year offer worth 65 million dollars from the Nuggets.
Matt Bonner added 13 points for San Antonio, which also had 11 points and a game-high nine assists from French guard Tony Parker and nine points and nine rebounds from Tim Duncan.
Source: AP,
SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Duncan set San Antonio's career scoring record as the Spurs beat the Utah Jazz 94-82 on Friday for their ninth straight NBA win.
Duncan needed 13 points to eclipse the mark set by David Robinson over 14 seasons (20,790), and finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds for yet another double-double.
Tony Parker blocked out jeers from the crowd for 24 points as the Spurs improved to 10-1 for the first time.
Utah, plagued by another slow start, rallied from a 15-point deficit to tie the game late in the third quarter. But unlike road wins against Miami, Orlando, Atlanta and Charlotte, the Jazz couldn't pull off another comeback.
Source: AP
-- Manu Ginobili scored 28 points, and Richard Jefferson had 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 94-73 victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night.
The Spurs beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and Celtics in consecutive games, and next go to New Jersey to play the nine-win Nets on Monday.
Tim Duncan had eight points and nine rebounds, and DeJuan Blair added seven points and 11 boards for the Spurs, who have won 12 of 16 to move into a three-way tie with Portland and Oklahoma City for sixth place in the Western Conference.
Paul Pierce scored 18 points, and Kevin Garnett had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Boston. It was the Celtics' lowest point total of the season, their worst home loss of the year and their third loss by 20 or more since Feb. 25.
Boston had won six of its last seven, and seven of eight at home, apparently reversing a season-long slide that led to concerns that the 2008 NBA champions had aged quickly. The Celtics trailed just 44-43 at midgame, but the Spurs scored the first 12 points of the second half and led by as many as 17 in the third quarter.
With seven minutes left in the game, the home crowd was booing the Celtics — an unusually common occurrence lately — and with five minutes left the building was mostly empty. Celtics coach Doc Rivers emptied his bench with four minutes to play, and so did San Antonio's Gregg Popovich.
Since moving into the starting lineup to replace Tony Parker, who missed his 12th straight game with a broken hand, Ginobili has averaged 24 points. He had 16 points at the half and eight more in the third quarter, when he hit a running, one-handed, 25-foot bank shot at the buzzer to give the Spurs a 77-60 lead.
The game got rough at times — at least for the Celtics.
Garnett hit the floor hard after Ginobili blocked his shot in the second quarter. The Celtics forward landed on his back, but he soon got up and held his fingers to his ears to encourage the crowd to cheer.
In the third, Pierce went to the floor after he was fouled driving the lane. He stayed down for a while before getting up and rubbing his right shoulder while wincing in pain.
He was able to shoot the free throws, but he missed the first, and a minute later he was on the bench talking to the medical staff again.
Source: AFP
-- Kobe Bryant scored 24 points, including two key 3-pointers in the 4th quarter, to spark the Los Angeles Lakers past San Antonio 92-83 on Wednesday for their 7th victory in a row.
The victory opened a 5-game road swing for the Lakers, who at 53-18 have the best record in the Western Conference by six games over Dallas with only 11 games to play.
"It was a playoff-type of atmosphere," Bryant said. "We were down in the first half. We had to battle back. It was a good win for us to start this road trip."
Argentina's Manu Ginobili scored 24 points and George Hill added 21 for the Spurs, who at 42-28 are half a game ahead of Portland in seventh in the West.
Tim Duncan struggled from the field, sinking only 2-of-12 shots to finish with six points as well as 12 rebounds.
"You always want to beat the best teams, but at this point in the season, I just want to beat the team in front of me," Ginobili said. "If it's the worst or the best, we just need to win."
Bryant hit 4-of-5 shots in the fourth quarter and scored 10 points in the final period, including a 3-pointer to put Los Angeles ahead 80-74 with 5:41 to play and another two minutes later to give the Lakers an 11-point lead.
Lamar Odom had 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers while Ron Artest scored 16 points and Spaniard Paul Gasol contributed 10 points and 12 rebounds.
"We're at the point of the year where we're really tuned in and focused about what we have to do out there," Gasol said.
"Defensively, in that good mindset so it carries on to the offensive end."
Source: AP
-- Pau Gasol had 21 points and 19 rebounds to lead five players in double figures, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs 101-89 Monday night without injured Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum.
Bryant missed his second consecutive game with a sore left ankle, while Bynum sat out with a bruised right hip.
In their absences, the Lakers used a collective effort to win in their final home game before this weekend's All-Star break. Ron Artest added 18 points, Lamar Odom 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Jordan Farmar and Derek Fisher had 13 each.
Manu Ginobili scored 21 points, Tony Parker 20, Tim Duncan had 16 points and 15 rebounds and Antonio McDyess 12 rebounds for the Spurs, who have lost four in a row to the Lakers at Staples Center.
Los Angeles again showed it could win without Bryant. The Lakers snapped a five-year losing streak at Portland with a victory Saturday, when Bryant ended his streak of 235 consecutive games played and Bynum missed the second half.
The Lakers extended their lead to 81-70 early in the fourth, equaling their largest lead to that point, capped by Shannon Brown's 3-pointer.
Mostly though, the final period was a messy affair, with the Spurs throwing the ball away on three occasions and the Lakers stumbling through a cold stretch after their strong start.
But they regrouped and ended the game on a 17-11 run after going 4½ minutes without a field goal.
Los Angeles led 68-57 on a 14-4 run in the third. Gasol scored seven in a row and Odom had three. But the Spurs closed the quarter with an 11-5 spurt, capped by Ginobili's 3-pointer, to trail 73-68 going into the fourth.
Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, Farmar and Josh Powell started the second quarter for the Lakers along with Gasol. The youngsters' energy paid off as the Lakers scored the first seven points to take their first lead since early in the game.
The Lakers made 5 of 6 free throws to end the half ahead 50-47.
The Spurs raced to a 9-0 lead to open the game before Artest sparked the Lakers' offense with consecutive 3-pointers. Parker scored 12 of his 15 first-half points in the opening quarter when he wasn't dishing off in traffic.
