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Spurs beat Grizzlies 105-83 in Game 1 of Western Conference Finals

The San Antonio Spurs opened the Western Conference finals resembling the past champions who’ve been there so many times before.

The Memphis Grizzlies looked like the first-timers still trying to adapt to their first conference finals appearance.

Tony Parker had 20 points and nine assists, Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points and the Spurs struck first by beating Memphis 105-83 on Sunday.

San Antonio raced out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter, then came up with a response when Memphis rallied to get within six in the second half. Both teams pulled their starters with over 5 minutes left and the Spurs leading by 21…

The NBA’s stingiest defense wasn’t up to its usual standards, allowing the Spurs to hit 53 percent of their shots and a franchise postseason-record 14 3-pointers while All-Star power forward Zach Randolph struggled. Randolph had just two points, getting his only basket with 9:26 left in the game…

The four regular-season meetings were all won by the team with more points in the paint, but perimeter shooting proved to be a bigger factor in the playoff opener. Memphis, which was second in the NBA by holding opponents to 33.8 shooting on 3-pointers, let San Antonio make 13 of its first 24 from behind the arc and finish 14 of 29.

Danny Green connected three times and scored 16, and Matt Bonner hit four of his five attempts for 12 points…

Pondexter led Memphis with 17 points, Marc Gasol scored 15 and Mike Conley had 14 points and eight assists.

— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press

Memphis’ abject lack of outside shooting (5 for 12 on 3s) killed them in two respects. One, they were outscored by 27 points from beyond the arc, easily the biggest different in the game. Two, it allowed the Spurs to basically ignore their perimeter players and collapse on the low-post tandem of Randolph and Marc Gasol.

Gasol was active early on, but he needed 16 shots to score 15 points while drawing just two free throws. Randolph barely got any touches at all, scoring his lone bucket on a tip-in while missing 7 of 8 shots. He had been averaging 19.7 points on 51.2-percent shooting in the postseason.

It’s fitting Gregg Popovich used a football metaphor to describe the Spurs’ strategy, which was basically a page taken straight from their first-round meeting with the Lakers — swarm the paint first, recover on shooters second.

“Zach and Marc are a heck of a combination, probably the best high-low combination in the league,” Popovich said. “Everything they do is really difficult to stick with, and you’ve got to have a mindset to do it on every down. You can’t be perfect at it. They’re just too good. But the effort was there for 48 minutes.”

— Reported by Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News

NBA Western Conference Finals preview

It would be a mistake to view this as a direct sequel to 2011, when eighth-seeded Memphis knocked off the No. 1 Spurs in the first round to engineer one of the biggest upsets in recent NBA history.

The Grizzlies no longer have the steady, veteran hand of Shane Battier, or the wild cards that were Greivis Vasquez and O.J. Mayo. Neither are the Spurs relying on spare parts to shore up their front court around a hobbled Tim Duncan.

But with most of the main faces returning — Duncan, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Tony Parker, Mike Conley, Manu Ginobili, both coaches — the tone of the matchup will remain the same: Football on hardwood.

Perhaps no team in the NBA is better at imposing their will than the Grizzlies. It is not by accident that their slogans — “Grit ‘N Grind” and “Whoop That Trick” — imply violence. The Grizzlies are tough, the Grizzlies are physical, and the Grizzlies are relentless, a perfect match with the blue-collar city they represent.

“If you thought this was physical,” Duncan said after the Spurs eliminated Golden State, “it’s going to turn up about 10 notches.”

The Spurs flinched badly under such circumstances two years ago, becoming only the fourth No. 1 seed to bow out in the first round. But after recapturing some of the defensive edge from their past championship campaigns, they can now give almost as good as they get.

— Reported by Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News

Kawhi Leonard keeps evolving for Spurs

Kawhi Leonard has matured faster than anyone could have expected in his two seasons with the Spurs.

That he started for Gregg Popovich as a rookie was enough to herald his supreme potential. He’s done nothing but improve since then, regularly adding wrinkles to his foundation of lockdown defense and efficient offense.

The young small forward took the latest step in his apparent march to stardom in the Spurs’ 4-2 victory over Golden State in the Western Conference semifinals. For the first time in his exceedingly bright, if short, career, he consistently and significantly impacted a playoff series.

Leonard was also excellent against the Lakers. But the Spurs were always going to win that series after injuries rendered the Lakers a shell of themselves. Against the Warriors, however, they would have been hard-pressed to advance without him.

Dominant might be a few degrees too strong to describe his performance. But if Leonard didn’t, he wasn’t far off as he chipped in with his usual array of hustle plays and timely buckets, pulled down rebounds at an elite rate for his position and rendered Klay Thompson virtually invisible.

— Reported by Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News (Blog)

Spurs eliminate Warriors from NBA playoffs in six games

Slow at the start of the series and strong at the end, the San Antonio Spurs wore out the Golden State Warriors the way they have so many other opponents.

Tim Duncan had 19 points and six rebounds, Kawhi Leonard added 16 points and 10 rebounds and the Spurs held off a furious final rally to beat the Warriors 94-82 in Game 6 on Thursday night and advance to the Western Conference finals.

”They’ve got great character. They’re competitive. They know there’s not a million chances to do this sort of thing. They wanted it,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of his squad.

Tony Parker shook off a poor start to score 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and Tiago Splitter added a career-playoff high 14 points for San Antonio, which had a 13-point lead in the third quarter dissolve to two in the final minutes.

Stephen Curry shot 10 of 25 from the floor to score 22 points on a nagging left ankle, and Jarrett Jack had 15 points as the injury-saddled Warriors finally tired. Rookie forward Harrison Barnes also suffered a head injury in the second quarter, returned in the third and was sidelined in the fourth with a headache.

The Spurs outshot Golden State 45 percent to 39 percent and outrebounded them 46 to 40.

Second-seeded San Antonio will open the conference finals at home against Memphis on Sunday. The fifth-seeded Grizzlies eliminated Oklahoma City in five games…

Klay Thompson, who had 10 points on 4-for-12 shooting, made a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter that sliced San Antonio’s lead to three. Then Curry’s pull-up jumper brought the Warriors within 77-75 with 4:52 to play.

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press

Harrison Barnes gets six stitches in Spurs-Warriors Game 6

Golden State Warriors rookie forward Harrison Barnes needed six stitches to close a cut above his right eye after a hard fall in the second quarter of a playoff game against San Antonio on Thursday night.

Barnes fell hard to the court after leaping to contest a drive from Boris Diaw. After a few minutes on the ground, Barnes was led back to the locker room. Barnes got the stitches at halftime and returned to the court to a loud ovation just before the start of the third quarter.

— Reported by the Associated Press

NBA draft prospect refuses to give Spurs his phone number

If the San Antonio Spurs choose Deshaun Thomas in next month’s NBA draft, they might have a hard time reaching him to tell him. That’s because when the Spurs asked the former Ohio State star for his phone number Wednesday night, he refused to give it to them.

Thomas said teams asked him plenty of difficult and interesting questions during his interview process at the combine. But the most interesting, he said, was the fact the Spurs’ first question was for his cell phone number and his e-mail address. He gave them the e-mail, but not the phone number.

“I can’t go around giving it out to everyone,” Thomas said Thursday with a laugh. “Now if they want to draft me, I’d be happy to give it to them.”

— Reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal

Tony Parker leads Spurs past Warriors for 3-2 series lead

Tony Parker had 25 points and 10 assists, and the San Antonio Spurs held the Golden State Warriors’ starting backcourt to 13 points for a 109-91 victory Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kawhi Leonard added 17 points, Danny Green scored 16 and Tim Duncan had 14 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio.

Harrison Barnes scored 25 points, Jarrett Jack added 20 and Carl Landry 16 for Golden State. No other Warriors player had more than nine points.

The Spurs held Mark Jackson’s self-proclaimed ”greatest shooting backcourt” in NBA history to 6-for-22 shooting. Stephen Curry finished with nine points, going 1 for 7 on 3-pointers, and Klay Thompson was held to four while not even attempting a 3.

Curry has not missed any time since turning his right ankle late in Game 3, but the injury seemed to limit his explosiveness.

Leonard stripped Curry and then outran him to the ball midway through the first quarter, feeding Parker for an uncontested layup. Curry appeared to grimace when he attempted to push off to sprint for the loose ball.

The Spurs led for all but the opening 6 minutes of the game…

Curry and Thompson were held to a combined four points on 2-for-10 shooting in the opening 16 minutes, but Barnes had 13 points and Jack seven…

Parker passed Chauncey Billups for fourth in postseason assists among active players with 832. New York’s Jason Kidd (1,258), the Lakers’ Steve Nash (1,061) and Boston’s Rajon Rondo (845) are ahead of Parker.

— Reported by Raul Dominguez of the Associated Press

Injury to calf hindered Tony Parker in Game 4

The knot in Spurs guard Tony Parker’s left calf had shrunk to less-than-baseball size by tipoff time, so the decision for him to play in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Warriors was easy.

Finding ways for him to be effective while dealing with lingering pain and stiffness was another matter.

Parker made only 6 of 17 shots and had only three assists in a 97-87 overtime loss that tied the best-of-7 series at two games apiece.

Afterwards, he acknowledged that the sore calf affected his play.

“I felt like I was limited a little bit, but nobody cares,” he said. “It’s the playoffs. You have to keep playing.

— Reported by Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News

Warriors beat Spurs 97-87 in OT, tie series 2-2

Harrison Barnes had 26 points and 10 rebounds, Stephen Curry scored 22 on an injured left ankle and the Golden State Warriors rallied past the San Antonio Spurs 97-87 in overtime Sunday to even the Western Conference semifinal at two games apiece.

Jarrett Jack added 24 points in reserve and Andrew Bogut grabbed 18 rebounds to help the Warriors overcome an eight-point deficit in the final five minutes of regulation. Golden State scored the first nine points of overtime to whip the yellow-shirt wearing crowd of 19,596 into a frenzy and give this topsy-turvy series another twist.

Manu Ginobili had 21 points and Tim Duncan added 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Spurs, who were outshot 35.5 to 38 percent in what was an ugly offensive game most of the afternoon. The Warriors outrebounded San Antonio 65 to 51.

Game 5 is Tuesday in San Antonio.

The Spurs seized control of a sloppy, slugfest at the start and went cold shooting when it mattered most. Tony Parker, wearing a black sleeve around his bruised left calf, poured in 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting but never broke free the way he did by scoring 32 points the previous contest.

Ginobili hit a mid-range jumper and a 3-pointer, and Kawhi Leonard put back a rebound for an easy layup to out the Spurs ahead 80-72 with 4:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The home sellout crowd sat down and fell silent for one of the few times in the fourth quarter all postseason with the series slipping away…

Bogut picked up three fouls in the first six minutes, plus a technical foul for arguing with an official after giving up a three-point play to Duncan. Bogut sat out the rest of the first half, and backup Festus Ezeli also had four fouls before the break.

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press

Warriors finally win in San Antonio, beat Spurs 100-91

Golden State coach Mark Jackson insisted the Warriors’ historic collapse in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals would only help his team’s growth.

The young Warriors took a big step in their development Wednesday night, withstanding another furious rally by the San Antonio Spurs for a 100-91 victory to even their series at one game apiece and snap a 30-game skid in the Alamo City.

Klay Thompson had a career-high 34 points and 14 rebounds, and Stephen Curry added 22 points for Golden State, which had not won in San Antonio since Feb. 14, 1997. None of the losses was as painful as the one Monday.

”I truly believe the trials and tribulations are transportation for where you’re going,” Jackson said. ”Game 1 made us better. We didn’t panic. We made plays. That’s a heck of a basketball team that’s extremely well-coached and has no quit in them. We don’t have any quit in us, either. The bottom line is we made the plays we needed to make.”

Tim Duncan scored 23 points and Tony Parker added 20 for San Antonio, which had won five straight in the postseason. Manu Ginobili had 12 points and Kawhi Leonard had 11 points and 12 rebounds…

Thompson, who scored 29 points in the first half, finished 8 for 9 on 3-pointers and 13 for 26 overall…

Harrison Barnes had 13 points, Carl Landry added 10 and Andrew Bogut had six points and 11 rebounds.

After scoring 44 points in the opener, Curry’s total was cut in half as he shot 7 for 20 from the field.

— Reported by Raul Dominguez of the Associated Press