The AP reports: Phoenix took away Tony Parker’s easy layups just like it wanted to. So he just made jump shot after jump shot after jump shot. The smooth San Antonio point guard burned the Suns for a career-high 41 points along with 12 assists and the Spurs rolled to a 115-99 victory Friday night to take a 3-0 series lead. This was supposed to be a spectacular first-round matchup of potential NBA champions. Instead, it’s been a Spurs smackdown, with Parker leading the way… The Suns cut the lead to 13 points twice in the fourth quarter, the last on Raja Bell’s 3-pointer with 7:35 to play, but Parker countered with his first 3 of the game and the Suns were finished… Amare Stoudemire had 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead Phoenix, which was last swept in a series when Portland did it in a best-of-five matchup in 1998-99. Leandro Barbosa scored 20 points and O’Neal, who finished 9-for-17 from the free throw line, had 19. Steve Nash, defended ferociously by Bruce Bowen, had seven points on 3-of-8 shooting with nine assists… Kurt Thomas, a surprise starter, converted a three-point play with .3 seconds left in the first quarter to put San Antonio up 33-19.
InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: The Spurs shot 56.1%, the Suns 49.4%. The Spurs nailed 6-of-15 three-pointers, while for some weird reason the Suns only took 6, hitting 2. The Spurs hit 17-of-19 free throws, the Suns just 17-of-29. Rebounding, assists and other key stats were fairly even. For the Spurs, Parker had 41 points, 5 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 steals. Duncan had 23 points and 10 rebounds. Ginobili (7-of-11, 4-of-7 threes) scored 20. For the Suns, Amare Stoudemire (13-of-23) had 28 points and 11 rebounds. Leandro Barbosa needed 17 shots for his 20 points. Shaq (5-of-11, 9-of-17 threes) had 19 points and just 6 rebounds with no blocks in 31 minutes. Steve Nash (3-of-8) had a quiet 7 points and 9 assists.
