San Antonio Spurs thrash the Sacramento Kings 124-92; top the Western Conference
On Wednesday night, the sizzling San Antonio Spurs roared to their 60th win of the season as they launched a third quarter assault to rout the resurgent Sacramento Kings 124-92 at the AT&T centre. The Spurs now boast of a league’s-best 60-19 record and with Los Angeles Lakers defeat against the Golden State Warriors, they have now clinched the top spot in the Western Conference.
The star of the show for the Spurs was their Argentinean sniper, Manu Ginobili. Ginobili landed a game-high 25 points to spearhead his line-up for their third straight win.
He said after the game. "We knew we weren't going to lose every single game (the rest of the way). We had a few good games we just couldn't win. We had a better schedule over the last three games. We won an important game in Atlanta and we got lucky that the Lakers lost to the Jazz."
Ginobili was not the lone man firing for the Spurs though. George Hill continued his exploits off the bench in this game as well and erupted with 19 points, including 12 in the game breaking third quarter. The Spurs scored a season high 41 points during the third and pounded the Kings by a margin of 22 points.
Gary Neal was also in his groove and scored 14 point on a 6-of-8 shooting. Tony Parker chipped in with 15 points and 6 assists while big man Tim Duncan finished with 12 points.
DeMarcus Cousins had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds for the visiting Kings, while the star guard Tyreke Evans scored a team-high 16. Kings coach Paul Westphal said after the game.
"The Spurs are very good. When they got out and ran we didn't have too much defense for that. In the second half our defense wasn't very good, our offense wasn't very efficient, and they hit every shot. They just blew us out in the third quarter."
Richard Jefferson surged with a 3-pointer in preliminary minutes of the game as the home team romped with 9-2 run to clinch an early advantage. The king’s starters responded aggressively and managed to cut down the deficit to 22-23 at the end of the first quarter.
The Spurs opened the second period with two scorching blows from beyond the arc; however Thornton also racked up a long distance shot and kept the shortfall to 2 points. The Kings managed to hold the Spurs in the passage that followed and Thornton’s driving bank shot just before the halftime sparked the Kings to a 49-49 tie. Hill, however, restored the Spur’s dominance when he pinned a layup shot moments before the buzzer.
The Kings tried to match the Spurs shot-for-shot at the start of the third quarter. The Spurs though were simply in a different vein. They launched a procession of layups, jumpers and treys in the first four minutes of the frame to sprint past the Kings and onto a 68-61 advantage. This led to the Kings’ coach Paul Westphal calling a time-out.
The kings got no respite even after that as the Spurs shot at 82 percent from the field to knock them out for good.
Despite of acquiring a huge advantage, San Antonio continued to blow the Kings apart as they buried four sizzling blows from downtown in the fourth quarter. The Kings strived to reduce the margin of defeat in the final minutes; however the Spurs showed no signs of retreat and ended the night with a comprehensive 124-92 victory.
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