Duncan powers Spurs by Hawks despite Parker's ankle injury

By Tim Price, for NBA.com
Posted Thursday January 28, 2010 12:37AM

SAN ANTONIO (NBA.com exclusive) -- After losing three straight games at home for only the second time in nine years, it appears the sickness in the Spurs' defense finally may have rubbed off and infected someone else.

The Hawks came into the AT&T Center as winners of six of seven and eight of their last 10, but there really wasn't much Atlanta could stop for much of the night on Wednesday.

The Spurs scored 20 of the game's first 21 fastbreak points. They outrebounded the Hawks 67-55. And, for the first time in seven games, they weren't outshot both from the floor and the free-throw line.

Despite losing Tony Parker to a left ankle sprain late in the third quarter, San Antonio got a career-high 27 rebounds from Tim Duncan to go along with his 20 points and double figures from all the starters to beat Atlanta 105-90 at AT&T Center.

"We're trying to put a win streak together here," said Duncan, who recorded the 20th 20-20 in his career and the first in four seasons "Every game is super important for us, and we're going to try to keep it going."

Parker's injury was the only big downer on the night for San Antonio (26-18). He took an awkward step while driving the lane with 2:29 to go in the third quarter with the Spurs leading 81-63. Unable to put pressure on the leg, he was carried off the floor and straight to the examining room.

X-rays were negative, but Parker likely is to miss multiple games once additional tests are performed by Friday. He missed two games in November because of a sprain in the same ankle.

"Nobody's going to replace Tony Parker," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Everybody will step up and play hard and play to win. But we're not looking around the league to find somebody to replace Tony Parker. It's not going to happen."

The Spurs led by as many as 28. They snapped a three-game losing streak -- all home games -- as they hope they have bottomed out from a stretch that had seen them lose five of their last six.

"It was a streak, and we we're going in the wrong direction," Duncan said. "There was concern, legitimate concern, of what we need to do. Part of that concern was losing that many games in a row in a situation where we were playing a lot of games at home, and games we should be able to win."

The Hawks (29-15) had big nights from Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford, who combined for 45 shots -- more than half the team's 88. Johnson went 15-for-26 (31 points) and Crawford added a 10-for-19 (25 points) night off the bench.

But Atlanta could not overcome an 0-for-7 night from Mike Bibby. Al Horford also struggled at 2-for-10 as the Hawks shot less than 40 percent just two night before they play Boston.

"I guess we weren't ready to play tonight," Josh Smith said. "We just weren't ready to play basketball in the first half."

Duncan didn't exactly shine from the floor either (5-for-20, and he's now 21-for-62 over his last four games). But he made up for it by making all 11 free throws and gathering in 10 offensive rebounds in 35 minutes of play.

"We executed pretty well for most of the 48 minutes -- for more of the game than we have lately," Popovich said. "Timmy was a monster on the board, and I thought Richard [Jefferson] showed good aggressiveness, and that's what we've been looking for."

Jefferson had his worse game of the season when he went 1-for-8 and 0-for-2 at the foul line for two points a couple of nights ago against Chicago. He came back with 11 against Atlanta.

"The coaches are on me about a lot of things," Jefferson said, "Aggression is just one of them. They tell me to focus on other things and the offense will come."

One of the few things the Spurs did not do right was losing the third quarter. After falling behind 66-44 at half, the Hawks took advantage of the Spurs shooting 8-for-20 and turning it over four times. They outscored San Antonio 30-21 in the third, and that turned out to be rather large when Parker took a funny step while driving the lane and suffered the left ankle sprain.

Even a few minutes before Parker came out, the place sounded nervous when Crawford converted a 4-point play after Duncan fouled him on a 3-pointer to make it 74-60 with 5:32 remaining in the third.

"Our defense got better," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "We were a lot better in the third and fourth quarter but, again, when you play against good teams and spot them 28 points, it's going to be tough to come back."

Atlanta cut the lead to nine points when Crawford hit an 18-footer with 9:40 to go. But the defensive woes the Hawks experienced early in the game came back.

Antonio McDyess, who started and scored a season-high 17 points by missing just one of nine shots, hit a wide open 17-foot jumper when Smith did not get over to challenge.

And when Roger Mason literally pushed the ball up in the air from 16 feet away and got it to go in after receiving an awkward pass from Duncan as the shot clock was expiring, the Spurs were on their way to escaping. They led 97-82 with 5:25 left, and the Hawks were unable to cut the lead to less than double digit's the rest of the way.

• Hawks: Collins
• Spurs: Finley, Hairston

• Hawks: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #13 Monty McCutchen, #74 Curtis Blair, #55 Bill Kennedy, #54 Derrick Collins
• Attendance: 18258
• Duration: 2:13