NBA Round-up, March 21: San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets win (part 3)
San Antonio Spurs 111 – Golden State Warriors 96
Manu Ginobili scored a game high 28 points and led the San Antonio Spurs to a 111-96 win over the Golden State Warriors at AT&T Centre on Monday.
The Spurs were leading by 19 points early in the fourth quarter, but the Warriors slashed it to just seven with 5:41 left. But the Spurs again stretched the lead to a 100-86 advantage with Ginobili’s 3-pointer and a dunk. The Warriors
attack failed to make a move at the crunch time, which permitted the Spurs to extend the lead further and win the game by a big margin.
Tim Duncan sprained his left ankle five minutes before the game; he could miss two weeks of basketball.
Budding Steve Novak added 13 points off the bench and Richard Jefferson had 12 for the Spurs.
The Warriors found themselves out of track because Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry had a poor shooting experience, they both combined to go 7-of-21 from the field for 18 points.
Ekpe Udoh led the Warriors with 15 points. His colleagues Acie Law and Dorell Wright scored 14 each as the Warriors fell from the fifth straight game.
Denver Nuggets 123 – Toronto Raptors 90
Ty Lawson’s high-quality 23 points and eight assists, and seven Denver players made to the double figures as the Nuggets crushed the Toronto Raptors 123-90, at the Pepsi Centre, Denver.
After the game Nuggets Coach George Karl expressed his views on the team being 10-4 since trading Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups "The gossip of the trade was one-sided. Celebrations in New York and we just got the scraps.
We never felt that way. We felt we had a h**l of a chance to be a good team and all of (the players) are better than I thought they were.”
In the first quarter, Denver point guard Lawson set the tempo straight away, hitting 5-of-5 shots, including two swishes beyond the arc, and scored 17 points during the regulation to give the Nuggets a 36-23 lead.
The Nuggets completely dominated the Raptors in all departments of the game and in the end won the game quite comprehensively. The Nuggets provided 31 dimes on 43 baskets. They barely missed a beat as everyone chipped at the right
time, including J.R. Smith, who made 13 points, 10 caroms and eight dimes.
Nene had very effective 18 points from seven shots out of nine and he also notched seven boards during his 24 minutes stay on court. Al Harrington led the bench with 15 points, while his colleague Gary Forbes had 14.
Andrea Bargnani remained the top contributor for the Raptors with 20 points, three rebounds, one steal and one block shot. His fellow DeMar DeRozan added 14 points.
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