SAN ANTONIO – Manu Ginobili scored 23 points, 14 in the second quarter, to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 104-89 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Ginobili was 9 of 10 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range.
The win gave Spurs coach Gregg Popovich his 800th career coaching victory. He is the 14th coach to reach that milestone and third among active coaches behind George Karl (1038) and Rick Adelman (945).
DeJuan Blair had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Tony Parker added 14 points, and Tim Duncan 12 as San Antonio moved to 3-1.
Duncan continued to struggle to find his form. The 36-year-old forward followed up his 1-of-8 performance in Houston by going 4 of 13 from the field. He had nine rebounds.
Ginobili injected life to an offense that had gone cold in Thursday's 105-85 loss to the Houston Rockets. He began the Spurs' quick turnaround in the second period, scoring the first 11 points of the quarter. That propelled San Antonio on a 22-10 run that ended with Richard Jefferson hitting a 3-pointer with 5:26 left and gave the Spurs 17-point lead.
The Spurs were 7 of 8 from the 3-point line during the second period and were 10 and 16 for the game ( 63 percent).
Al Jefferson returned to the starting lineup for Utah, scoring 21 points with 11 rebounds in 35 minutes. Jefferson sat out Utah's 102-99 win over Philadelphia on Friday night with an inflamed right ankle.
But Utah shot just 35 percent (18 of 51) from the field and had only 11 assists.
San Antonio never trailed and built its largest lead at 27 points on Blair's basket with 9:52 left that made it 89-62.
Josh Howard, who flirted with signing with San Antonio earlier in the month before committing to the Jazz, had 18 points.
Forward Derrick Favors, who had a career-high 20 points in his first career start Friday, only had seven points.
Notes: Ginobili and Blair are the only Spurs to score 20 or more points in a game this season. ... Utah is 2-14 since the AT&T Center opened in 2002-2003 season.
0 comments: on "SPORTS - Lindros shines in return to Philadelphia (AP)"
Post a Comment