Parker scored 12 of his 19 points in the first half and Duncan added 11 of his 20 in the fourth quarter as the Spurs closed out their five-game road trip with a 96-85 triumph over the Lakers, who had their season-high four-game winning streak halted.
|
Spurs-Lakers: Play |
"We've got 10 games left and seven are at home," Parker said. "We need to take advantage of that. We've got a big game against Dallas at home (on April 7) and I think if we play the way we are playing right now, we can finish first."
Parker, who had six assists, continually drove to the basket in the first half and either scored himself or passed to the open shooter.
"It is on us to stop penetration," Los Angeles star Kobe Bryant said. "We cannot allow them to penetrate down our lane and kick it out to open shooters. They were able to drive by us and pitch it out."
Despite Parker's efforts in the first half, San Antonio only held a 41-40 lead at the break as Duncan was limited to five points on 2-of-9 shooting. However, Duncan did haul in 11 of his 13 rebounds in the first 24 minutes.
Los Angeles opened the second half with a 9-2 spurt to take its largest lead, 49-43, with 10:07 remaining thanks to an up-tempo style of play.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called a timeout to settle down his team. The defending champions responded by going on a 33-9 burst in the final 9:44 of the quarter, including a 19-2 charge to close the period, to take their biggest advantage at 76-58.
"You know there are not that many words of wisdom that I can muster," Popovich said. "They went up by six and for us, I thought our focus wasn't very good. We just called a timeout to remind them of what we are doing. ... Just get a little bit of mental discipline back and play the game."
"That run in the third quarter is something you can't do with a team like that," Lakers forward Lamar Odom said. "They move the ball. We couldn't get balanced offensively or defensively."
Nazr Mohammed was the star of the game-deciding run, scoring 10 of his 12 points in the burst.
"We just kind of got into a flow and people really did step up," Duncan said. "I thought Nazr stepped up great throughout that third quarter. I really thought he took over."
Bryant scored 23 points for the Lakers on 9-of-26 shooting, but 16 of those came in the first half. He sat on the bench for the first six minutes of the final quarter as Los Angeles chipped away at its deficit.
Odom scored seven of his 13 points as the Lakers opened the fourth quarter with an 18-9 spurt. Luke Walton's three-point play at the 6:29 mark got Los Angeles within 85-76.
Bryant re-entered the game at that point, but the Lakers could not get closer as their superstar missed his last seven shots, including two in a scoreless fourth quarter.
"We're not quite good enough yet to stay with this ballclub and make it a game," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. "We can have a game with them, but when we're not playing our top type of game, you still have to find a way to stay in a competitive mode."
The Lakers (38-35) still lead the Sacramento Kings (36-36) by 1 1/2 games for seventh place in the Western Conference.