Vintage Tim Duncan notches up a double-double as San Antonio Spurs crush Memphis Grizzlies: NBA
On Thursday night at the AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas, the San Antonio Spurs played hosts to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Spurs who were give a drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers; one night earlier, put the double-digit loss behind them as they defeated the streaking Grizzlies 107-97. This was the fourth and the last meeting between the
two teams in the regular season. Spurs took the series 4-zip, having failed to defeat the Grizzlies in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
Tim Duncan notched up a double-double with 28 points and 12 rebounds. Tony Parker finished the game with 13 points and 9 assists, but also had 7 turnovers. Daniel Green also added 10 points. Manu Ginobili came off the bench to
score 20 points which included a 100% shooting from the free throw line, scoring on all his 11 attempts.
Rudy g*y led the scoring for the Grizzlies with 19 points. Marreese Speights added 15 points and 7 boards; Marc Gasol contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds while Mike Conley finished with 11 points. O.J. Mayo came off the bench
to notch up 16 points and Zach Randolph posted a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The Spurs who were outrebounded the Lakers, in their previous game (60-33) managed to get 41 in the game, equalling the Grizzlies who also had 41 rebounds. However the Spurs were able to power their way inside the paint as they
registered 42 points from inside the key.
This matchup was a close contest from the start as both teams knew each other very well. The Spurs started the game off racing to the score of 10-4 to get a 6 point advantage, early. However the Grizzlies rallied their way back
and were able to make the scores even at 14 each with 5:31 remaining in the period. The lead changed hands twice in the next several minutes as the Spurs were able to regain their six point advantage by the end of the first 12 minutes, 27-21.
The lead was extended to 8 on the Spurs first trip to the offence in the second. However the Grizzlies were just not letting up as they rallied their way back to pull to within 2 points of their host with 6:19 to go in the half.
From that point on till the 3:07 mark, the Grizzlies added 10 unanswered points to take the lead 44-36. The lead got as big as 9 but the Spurs behind Boris Diaw`s five quick points in the final 42 seconds of the half were able to get back to within 4.
San Antonio took that momentum with them into the second half as they managed to tie the scores inside the first minute. Both teams converted possession to baskets for the remainder of the third period. Memphis held a 1 point advantage
with the score of 70-69 when Spurs went on a burst of nine unanswered points to take the lead 78-70. This 8 point advantage remained after three quarters of game time had been played, 82-74.
Spurs went on to extend their advantage as they went on a 6-0 run to start off the fourth quarter. With a 14 point lead, the Spurs looked set to cruise to a win at that point, but keyed by Speights, the Grizzlies ripped off an
18-6 spurt to close in at 92-94 with 2:54 remaining till the final buzzer.
It looked as though the Grizzlies were going to make a successful comeback into the contest and win this one. However, the experienced Spurs were able to hold off the Grizzlies charge and led 101-97 with 58.5 seconds remaining.
In the final minute of the game, Spurs added 6 more points to their account, all of them coming from Ginobili free throws to win this one by a margin of 10.
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