Clippers-Spurs Preview

By PAUL J. WEBER
Posted May 16 2012 7:52PM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) Hours before turning 30 years old, Tony Parker grinned Wednesday as though his lowest-scoring playoff game since his early twenties was an early birthday gift from the Los Angeles Clippers.

Across town, Chris Paul wasn't in such high spirits.

The marquee Paul vs. Parker matchup was a scoring bust for both All-Stars in the Western Conference semifinals opener, which the San Antonio Spurs won 108-92 despite their playmaking point guard scoring just seven points on 1-of-9 shooting. Paul didn't shine any brighter, scoring six while going 3 for 13.

Paul finished third in the league MVP voting this season, and Parker was fifth. Yet heading into Game 2 on Thursday night, they're so far together being outscored by Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard.

"I didn't play effectively," Paul said Wednesday. "I've got to have a better game."

Parker's not beating himself up.

"From the beginning of the game, they wanted to take me out," Parker said. "Trapping me and forcing me to give the ball up. If they want to do that strategy, Timmy (Duncan) is going to have a lot of wide-open shots and all our shooters is going to have a lot of open shots."

And that underwhelming start to the headline matchup of the series?

"We basically canceled each other out," Parker said. "Their strategy was to take me out, our strategy was to take Chris out, too. In the end, we made more shots."

That much was obvious as the Spurs tied a franchise playoff record with 13 3-pointers. Parker had 11 assists - setting up many wide-open looks when the Clippers swarmed him in the lane - but finished with his fewest points in a postseason game since 2003.

Those days were different: Duncan was already a two-time MVP in his prime and Parker was an unequivocal sidekick. Nine years later, Duncan is 36 and on the downside while everyone from coach Gregg Popovich to Manu Ginobili has acknowledged that these Spurs now belong to Parker.

Parker owned eight of San Antonio's nine highest-scoring individual games during the regular season and led the Spurs in scoring in 22 times. But armed with his deepest roster in 16 years and a bevy of shooters on the perimeter, Popovich isn't sweating his leading scorer being held to single digits.

"Good players take what's given, and Tony did that," Popovich said.

The Clippers don't have the same luxury - particularly with Los Angeles banged-up and craving rest heading into what will be its seventh game in 13 days on Thursday night.

All-Star Blake Griffin said Wednesday his ailing left knee generally felt no better or worse than when the Clippers arrived in Texas this weekend after a physical seven-game series with Memphis. He also turned his ankle in Game 1 but said his knee remains the bigger impediment.

Griffin said he'll be more mindful in Game 2 of how the pain becomes worse as the game drags on.

"I have to do a little bit better job managing that so I have a little bit more left in the fourth, the third - the second half, really," Griffin said.

He felt at least well enough after shootaround Wednesday to punt basketballs off his right foot into the arena rafters at the AT&T Center, including once drilling one high enough to hit Sean Elliot's retired jersey banner.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said Paul is also still troubled by an aching hip and groin, even though Paul has insisted that his health is fine since the Grizzlies series ended. Del Negro said the Clippers need Paul to shoot better and control the tempo but acknowledged that his star is too banged-up to "just be Chris Paul" for the entire game.

Paul is averaging 21 points when the Clippers win in the playoffs, and 16 when they lose.

"He's got to pick his spots, I think," Del Negro said. "I don't think he's healthy enough to be as aggressive as I think he would like on either end of the floor. It didn't get worse yesterday, but there's really no time for the healing process because of the time element."

Sweet 16: Streaking Spurs go up 2-0 on Clippers

By PAUL J. WEBER
Posted May 18 2012 1:47AM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) On his 30th birthday, Tony Parker first kept the San Antonio Spurs on pace for what might be another lopsided playoff sweep. Then the All-Star who's always quick to needle Tim Duncan about his age finally acknowledged his own.

"I'm old. Used," said Parker, laughing.

Chris Paul, meanwhile, isn't acknowledging anything: Not his aching body that everyone but him is talking about, or the Los Angeles Clippers' season careening toward the end this weekend unless things change fast.

Parker scored 22 points, Duncan had 18 and the Spurs beat the fading Clippers 105-88 on Thursday night, taking a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference semifinals and winning their 16th in a row with yet another playoff blowout.

For the 13th time in a winning streak that seldom run this long in the NBA playoffs, the Spurs won by double digits. Only two other teams have sustained a longer winning streak in the playoffs: the 2004 Spurs (17) and the 2001 Lakers (19).

"I think for us, is to not look at that," Parker said about the streak. "Concentrate on the task. We know Game 3 is going to be very, very hard. I think we should focus on that and not focus on the winning streak, or what we're doing good."

Paul responded to his awful Game 1 with only a slightly better encore, scoring 10 points as the Clippers now head home desperate to steer out of what's starting to get the feel of a sweep.

Game 3 is Saturday in Los Angeles, and Game 4 is Sunday.

When the Clippers land in California early Friday, they'll be home for the first time in nearly a week. They've played seven games in 13 days, and they'll have played nine in 16 by the time the weekend is over.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro knows his team needs rest. Blake Griffin scored 20 points but added another injury to the list, this time what he described as a hip flexor strain. He's already battling a sprained left knee and shaking off a turned ankle in Game 1.

He had just one rebound.

"We're not going into these next two games thinking `Oh, let's try to keep it close,"' Griffin said. "There's no moral victories or moral losses here. We're not worried about how many points we lost by."

The All-Star matchup of Paul vs. Parker went from a Game 1 bust to a lopsided mismatch, and appeared to prove Paul is hurting more than he's letting on. Del Negro says his star is still struggling with an aching hip and groin, even as Paul insists he's OK.

He again looked anything but. While Parker - the last of the Big Three to finally hit the big 3-0 - celebrated by more than tripling his seven points and dreadful 1-for-9 shooting in Game 1, Paul shot 4 of 9 and had just five assists.

At halftime, the third-place finisher in the league's MVP voting had more personal fouls (3) than points (2), assists (2) or rebounds (2). He finished with eight turnovers, a career playoff high.

"No excuses, I've just got to play better," Paul said. "But I don't ever recall having that many turnovers.

Del Negro said his star will bounce back.

"He'll get loose here soon," Del Negro said. "We need him to."

Duncan, on the other hand, stayed in a playoff time warp. At 36 years old and playing in his 182nd postseason game - and with no contract beyond these playoffs - Duncan turned in another solid performance that sometimes recalled the former MVP who was winning championships in his prime rather than the old-timer who's chasing a fifth ring now.

He scored 14 points in the first half - almost as much as the rest of the starting lineup - and finished 9-of-14 shooting. Points in the paint weren't even close: The Spurs had 50, and the Clippers 18.

Boris Diaw added 16 points and Danny Green had 13 for the Spurs. Manu Ginobili scored 10 and was held scoreless in the second half.

Randy Foye was the Clippers' only other player in double digits, scoring 11.

If this keeps up, a near-historic postseason for the Clippers will end this weekend unless they figure out a plan fast.

This is only the third time in the woeful 41-year history of the franchise that Los Angeles' long-maligned "other" team has survived to the second round. Their momentum started with a stunning 27-point comeback on the road against Memphis in their playoff opener, but the Clippers haven't made a rally stick in San Antonio.

A bumbling start had the Clippers already down by 15 in the first quarter before clawing back with a 9-2 burst. Getting to within 46-42 at halftime had the Clippers' bench heading to the locker room clapping and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich storming off fuming.

Halfway through the third quarter, however, the lead was back to 16.

"There was a refocus of energy at halftime," Duncan said. "We came out understanding of what we had to do to finish this game."

As the deficit deepened, so did the Clippers' frustration.

DeAndre Jordan seethed and slammed the ball when a missed rotation gave Green an uncontested 3-pointer that stretched San Antonio's lead to back to double digits in the third. Less than a minute later, Foye trotted upcourt shaking his head after Paul's fumbled dribble gave Kawhi Leonard a clear path for a breakaway dunk.

Following another 3-pointer by Green- this one pushing San Antonio's lead to 70-60 - the turned-around Clippers looked so disjointed that Green darted back down and knocked the ball out of Paul's hands on the ensuing inbound.

Notes: The Spurs followed up tying a franchise playoff record with 13 3-pointers in Game 1 with 10 this time... Talk about a pro cut: A 12-year-old Spurs fan suspended from his San Antonio middle school for shaving the face of forward Matt Bonner in his hair scored free tickets to the game and a meeting with his favorite player before tipoff. Bonner, whose mother is a teacher, said he was puzzled by the school's decision and gave Patrick Gonzalez an autographed pair of shoes and an autographed jersey. "Keep supporting us redheads in the NBA," the Red Rocket told his biggest fan.

Notebook: Spurs 105, Clippers 88

Posted Friday May 18, 2012 1:21AM

By Tim Price, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Tony Parker made up for a slow opening game of the Western Conference semifinals with 22 points in Game 2, and the Spurs also got 18 points from Tim Duncan to go up 2-0 with a 105-88 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday at AT&T Center.

While Parker stepped it up after Game 1 (1-of-9 shooting and seven points), his counterpart Chris Paul with the Clippers is still stuck. He had twice as many turnovers (eight, a playoff career high) as made shots (four). For the series he's 7-of-22 with 16 points but 13 turnovers.

Blake Griffin did score 20 points to lead Los Angeles, but he had one rebound.

QUOTABLE: "I thought Tony (Parker) played very, very aggressively knowing he was going to get hit and doubled and so forth. He welcomed it."
-- Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

THE STAT: Paul had his eight turnovers, but point guard play for the Clippers was pathetic almost all night. Eric Bledsoe turned the ball over five times, making the combined L.A. assist-to-turnover ratio 7-to-12.

TURNING POINT: After two outside shots by Randy Foye and Caron Butler (his was a 3-pointer), the Clippers trailed only by five after being down by as much as 15 in the first quarter. It could have been a three-point game, but Griffin missed from inside 10 feet and Danny Green hit back-to-back threes. Just past the six-minute mark of the third quarter, Parker knocked down a 10-footer to cap San Antonio's 13-2 run and a 16-point lead. The Clippers had the lead down to single digits in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but that was as close as they got.

QUOTABLE II: "They tried to take me out of Game 1, so I had to be patient. In the first half they did the same thing. In the second half things sgtarted opening up; they changed their defense and started switching. I'm just trying to do my best stay in front of (Paul, on defense) and make sure he takes hard shots. It's not just me, it's the whole team. It's the whole team focusing on Chris to make sure he doesn't get going."
-- Parker.

HOT: Green is 10-of-17 from 3-point territory at home in the playoffs. He hit 4-of-6 tonight for the Spurs.

NOT: Heading into the second half, Paul was 4-of-16 from the floor for the series. He finally got something going by hitting 3-6 (both of his 3-pointers) in the third quarter before not attempting a shot in the fourth.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Boris Diaw was 7-of-7 from the floor including a pair of threes. He had four assists and four rebounds and 16 points. For the series he's producing right across the stat sheet: 23 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists.

INSIDE THE ARENA: Former Spurs coach Stan Albeck, who was watching the game tonight at AT&T Center, was recognized on his birthday today. ... Spurs fans are thinking another championship. One sign at AT&T Center read Operation Thumb Ring, citing what would be a fifth title for the Spurs.

GOOD MOVE: As they would normally do on a standout player, the Spurs used a number of players through the night to defend Paul. But perhaps the thing that frustrated Paul most throughout the night was having Parker charging right at him through drives to the lane in halfcourt sets and with aggressive ball handling on the fastbreak. Paul picked up three fouls in the first half and was 1-of-3 for two points with five turnovers at that point.

BAD MOVE: DeAndre Jordan could not keep up the momentum he had from a strong first quarter in Game 1. As well as Jordan played then (11 minutes, eight rebounds and seven points), he wasn't nearly as effective to start Game 2. In guarding Duncan he gave up 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and also was 0-for-2 before getting yanked after seven minutes. In fact, Duncan scored 10 of the Spurs' first 17 points while Jordan was on the floor.

ROOKIE WATCH: Griffin got to free-throw line eight times tonight and actually hit six of them (he's a 52-percent free-throw shooter for the season). Perhaps more importantly he may be coming out of his knee problem that has bothered him since Game 5 of the Memphis series. He played five minutes of the fourth quarter, and that's how much he had played in the fourth in his previous two playoff games combined. ... Kawhi Leonard had five points and six rebounds for the Spurs.

QUOTABLE III: "(Paul) is trying to make plays. San Antonio is corralling him in certain areas. I don't really worry about Chris. He'll bounce back. He's fighting through a weak hand. He just had one of those games. Tony (Parker) had a fantastic year and he's difficult to contain in the open court. We have to do a better job."
-- Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro.

NOTABLE: The extended playing time for Griffin was a double-edged sword. He was called for a flagrant-1 while hitting Parker in the head attempting to block a shot with less than three minutes to go. ... Parker turned 30 years old today. ... The Clippers played their seventh game in 13 nights and have a back-to-back with the Spurs scheduled for this weekend in Los Angeles. ... San Antonio has matched a franchise high with 17-straight wins including the playoffs.

UP NEXT: Game 3, Saturday @ Los Angeles; Game 4, Saturday @ Los Angeles; Game 5, Tuesday @ San Antonio (if necessary); Game 6, May 25 @ Los Angeles (if necessary); Game 7, May 27 @ San Antonio (if necessary).

• Clippers: Billups, Leslie
• Spurs: Byars, Joseph

• Clippers: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 6
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #41 Ken Mauer, #14 Ed Malloy, #40 Leon Wood
• Attendance: 18581
• Duration: 2:24