THE FACTS: Tony Parker scored a game-high 37 points and had six assists to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 93-86 win over the Memphis Grizzlies Monday night at FedExForum, giving them a sweep in the Western Conference finals. The Spurs await the winner of the Eastern Conference finals between Miami and Indiana as they prepare to make their first trip to the NBA Finals since winning the championship in 2007.
QUOTABLE: "It's an unbelievable feeling. It's really hard to go to the Finals and win a championship. For me, personally, I was 21 when I won my first title and you think it's easy and you're going to go back every year. In 2007, I won my third one in five years. Six years goes by and every year it gets tougher and tougher. Every team wants to beat you. That's why it's even more special to go back after all these years and be playing at a high level with the same coach and the same 'Big Three.'"
-- Tony Parker
THE STAT: The Spurs held the Grizzlies to 37-percent shooting (32-for-86) Monday night. It was the third straight game they held the Grizzlies to under 40-percent shooting.
TURNING POINT: The Grizzlies used a late 5-0 spurt to pull to within 89-86 with 48.7 seconds left in the game. But Parker, like he had done repeatedly throughout the game, halted the run with a pair of free throws with 29.7 seconds to go. The Grizzlies failed to score the rest of the game.
HOT: Parker was magnificent throughout the series. He averaged 24.5 points and 9.5 assists. In the first two games of the series, the Grizzlies helped when Parker penetrated and he dished to wide-open teammates for easy 3-pointers which was how he tallied 18 assists in Game 2. The Grizzlies stayed with the shooters in the final two games, allowing Parker to get to the basket almost whenever he wanted.
NOT: Zach Randolph capped a frustrating series with 13 points on 4-for-13 shooting from the floor, to go with eight rebounds. Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter took turns making life miserable for the All-Star forward who dominated in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Randolph averaged just 11 points a game against the Spurs. In the first two rounds, he averaged 19.7 points.
QUOTABLE II: "I just think we learned that winning isn't easy and winning championships is one of the hardest things you can possibly do. I think our guys really dug deep to get as far as we did, and San Antonio is a tremendous team. We're going to take a couple of pages out of their book and move on. Hopefully, we do a lot better next year."
--Memphis forward Quincy Pondexter, who led the Grizzlies with a career-high 22 points off the bench
NOTABLE: Pondexter scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half to help keep the struggling Grizzlies in the game. He made 7 of his 11 shots. ... The Spurs offense in this series was nearly as superb as their defense. They shot 51.3 percent Monday night, which was the third time in four games they topped the 50 percent mark. ... At 37, San Antonio forward Duncan returns to the NBA finals. He is the lone Spur to be a part of the club's previous for championships. He had 15 points and eight rebounds Monday night. ... The Grizzlies most successful season in franchise history came to an end. The club won a franchise record 56 regular season games and reached the Western Conference finals for the first time after knocking off the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder without having home court advantage. ... The Spurs won their fifth Western Conference titles. The previous four resulted in NBA titles. ... The Grizzlies normally make a living by scoring in the paint. But the Spurs outscored them in the paint, 52-32, and held the Grizzlies to 37-percent shooting in the lane. ... The Spurs sweep of the Grizzlies was the first in a conference finals since New Jersey swept Detroit in the 2003 Eastern Conference finals.
UP NEXT: The Spurs will play the winner of the Eastern Conference finals matchup, Miami or Indiana, in the NBA Finals (TBA).