NBA PLAYOFFS WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL

Spurs spin record to 20

San Antonio just keeps on winning

Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka goes toward the basket but runs into San Antonio’s Tim Duncan who tries for the block in the first half of their NBA Western Conference final in San Antonio on Tuesday. The Spurs won 120-111, giving them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka goes toward the basket but runs into San Antonio’s Tim Duncan who tries for the block in the first half of their NBA Western Conference final in San Antonio on Tuesday. The Spurs won 120-111, giving them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

— San Antonio is halfway to turning the NBA Western Conference final into a runaway.

Tony Parker scored 34 points, Manu Ginobili added 20 and the Spurs stayed unbeaten in the playoffs with a 120-111 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

The Spurs set an NBA record with their 20th consecutive victory bridging the regular season and the playoffs. They came in sharing the longest such streak with the 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers, who won 19 consecutive before losing to Philadelphia in the first game of the NBA Finals.

Those Lakers went on to win the championship and there’s no reason yet to think the Spurs won’t do the same. They put on an offensive clinic for three quarters, shooting 60 percent from the field and leading by 22 points in the third quarter.

Parker finished with 8 of the Spurs’ 27 assists, and San Antonio went 11 for 26 from three-point range. The Spurs went only 10 for 23 from the field in the fourth quarter and still shot 55 percent for the game.

“Sometimes, it’s exactly as we drew it,” Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said of the offense. “Other times, it’s a miracle, and that’s the truth. It doesn’t always go exactly the way you planned. Good players get it done.”

The Thunder made a late surge to get within six points, but Parker, Ginobili and Tim Duncan helped San Antonio finish off the Thunder for a 2-0 lead heading into Game 3 Thursday night in Oklahoma City.

Kevin Durant had 31 points and James Harden rebounded from a rough Game 1 to score 30 for the Thunder, who have lost two consecutive for the first time since early April. Oklahoma City dropped to 15-4 in games after losses this season.

“Our guys played hard,” Thunder Coach Scott Brooks said. “Unfortunately, we came away with nothing the last few days.”

San Antonio picked up where it left off from the 39-point fourth quarter that turned Game 1 on Sunday. With sharp passes and hot shooting, the Spurs jumped to a 19-9 lead after the Thunder missed 6 of their first 7 shots and had 3 turnovers in the first four minutes.

The Spurs shot 52 percent (12 for 23) in the opening quarter, though, and led 28-22. Durant was on the bench at the start of the second quarter, and Parker and the Spurs put together a 14-4 spurt to stretch the gap to 13 points.

Russell Westbrook hammered Parker’s arm on a drive and he crumpled to the court. That didn’t faze Parker, who scored the Spurs’ next seven points to keep San Antonio rolling.

The Spurs shot 58 percent (22 of 38) and had 13 assists in the first half. They also cut down their turnovers, committing only six in the first half after giving away 14 in the first two quarters of Game 1.

“You never go out and say, ‘We’re going to start out fast,’” Popovich said. “You don’t know what is going to happen. You just want your team to be aggressive. Good teams are aggressive and it is, it’s a matter of making shots or not making shots.”

The Spurs resumed picking apart Oklahoma City’s defense with precision passes after the break, scoring on five consecutive possessions. San Antonio was shooting 63 percent from the field and 64 percent from threepoint range at one point (7 for 11).

The biggest cheer from the crowd came after Ginobili flipped a behind-the-back pass to Parker in the corner for another three and the lead ballooned to 78-58.

Late in the third quarter, the Thunder began intentionally fouling Tiago Splitter, a 32 percent freethrow shooter during the playoffs.

That backfired, too. Splitter went 5 for 10 over a 54-second span before Popovich replaced him with Duncan, and Oklahoma City trailed by the same margin — 16 — that it did when Brooks called for the “Hack-a-Splitter” strategy.

It may not have showed on the scoreboard, but the Spurs seemed to lose their edge after that.

“There’s a reason why you do it, to kill the rhythm,” Parker said. “I think it got us out of our rhythm.”

Sports, Pages 19 on 05/30/2012

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