San Antonio Spurs make light work of Atlanta Hawks with efficient display in 105-83 win: NBA Recap
The San Antonio Spurs are considered an Eastern Conference power house for a reason, and they made it abundantly clear here again with a resounding 105 – 83 win. Playing in front of their home crowd at the AT&T Center, Spurs decimated the Atlanta Hawks with some crisp offence and stifling defence.
The veteran side relied on team work and bench strength to overcome an energetic Hawks outfit. San Antonio’ star forward Tim Duncan only had 6 points and 11 rebounds but he didn’t need to turn on the heat because his colleagues did most of the work for him.
The Spurs had five players in double figures for scoring. These included young centre DeJuan Blair, who scored 17 points, and point guard Tony Parker, who had 15 along with 7 assists. From the bench, San Antonio got 16 points and 8 rebounds from Tiago Splitter, 10 points from Danny Green and 17 from Matt Bonner.
In comparison, Atlanta’s bench was a non factor as no one got into double figures at all. The starters put in some decent numbers; Jeff Teague top scored for the game with 20 points, Joe Johnson had 10 points and 7 assists while Josh Smith scored 13.
The Hawks weren’t exactly poor in their shooting, connecting on 43.8 percent of their efforts, but the Spurs were much superior with a 51.2 percent success rate from the field. They also bested the Hawks in free throw and 3-pointer percentages as well as in rebounds.
The game was a straightforward affair. San Antonio looked the stronger side at the start and finished the first quarter on top at 24 – 18. Atlanta put up a decent fight in the second period, scoring 26 points but were unable to dislodge San Antonio’s grip on the lead at half time.
After the interval it was one-way traffic as the Spurs clamped down on their opponent’s offence, reducing the Hawks to just 17 points in the quarter while scoring 28 themselves. It only got worse in the final period where the home team piled on another 29 points before time ran out, ending the game at 105 – 83.
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