Spurs Show Off Explosive Offense, Turn Table on Suns

Spurs 121, Suns 114

PHOENIX, May 22 -- Going into Sunday's opening game of the Western Conference finals against Phoenix, the San Antonio Spurs weren't sure if all-star forward Tim Duncan would play after he sprained his left ankle in the final game of the semifinals on Thursday. Duncan, a two-time most valuable player and the team's leading scorer, missed 16 games earlier this season with a sprained right ankle.

"I think his ankle was weighing heavily on a lot of our minds," Spurs guard Brent Barry said. "But a lot of us thought he might be able to get himself back on balance. He'd sprained his right ankle and now the left. We thought maybe he'd get himself back together."

At America West Arena on Sunday, Duncan kept his balance in the lane, and the Spurs were able to run with the NBA's highest-scoring team in a 121-114 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 18,422. Largely because of Duncan's stellar play and Barry's sharp shooting from the perimeter, the Spurs outscored the Suns 43-32 during the fourth quarter, making 16 of 22 shots.

"That was a little different," said Duncan, who scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in 40 minutes. "It was not a quarter we expected in a game like this. Not a game we expected, but one we'll take. It got a little frantic for a while and got away from us, but all in all, we were pretty comfortable with the pace. The opportunities were there and we weren't forcing things. We'll take a game like that again."

Barry, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, will gladly take another game like Sunday's performance. He set personal playoff highs with 21 points and five three-pointers, including two in the final 4 minutes 48 seconds that stretched the Spurs' lead from two points to 106-98 with 4:10 to go. Barry scored 13 points during the fourth quarter; Duncan had 11 on 5-of-8 shooting. Point guard Tony Parker led the Spurs with 29 points, and guard Manu Ginobili had 20 points and five assists.

"Brent making shots for us is huge because that's what has got to happen to make Tim a better player," Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said. "If they can go after Tim the way they did and we're not going to make any shots, we're going to have a problem."

The Suns, who played less than 48 hours after beating the Dallas Mavericks, 130-126, to advance to the conference finals, seemed slow and lethargic. After averaging 116 points in their first 10 playoff games, they scored only 20 against the Spurs in the first quarter and missed 10 of their first 12 shots.

The Spurs led 30-20 after the first quarter -- Ginobili banked in a 52-foot three-pointer at the buzzer -- and then 55-49 at halftime. The Suns finally showed life early in the second half, tying the score at 57 on Steve Nash's short jumper with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Popovich called a timeout and was given a technical for arguing with official Joe Crawford, and Nash's foul shot gave the Suns a 58-57 lead with 9:55 remaining.

The Suns led 82-74 with 1:30 left in the third quarter, but couldn't hold the lead. Less than a minute into the fourth, Barry scored on a reverse layup to put the Spurs ahead, 83-82. He made a three-pointer to make it 90-88 with 9:07 left and then drilled the two three-pointers in the final five minutes to put his team in front for good.

"I just think we kind of let fatigue affect us mentally," said Nash, the league MVP who had 29 points and 13 assists. "I think we kind of lost our concentration and fight for long enough stretches to lose the game. When things got a little hard, we didn't dig deep enough."

The Suns, who lost to the Spurs for the third time in four games this season, wasted a stellar performance from forward Amare Stoudemire, who had 41 points and nine rebounds. Nash, Stoudemire and Jim Jackson combined to score 90 of the Suns' 114 points, while forwards Quentin Richardson and Shawn Marion combined to score only 10 points. Marion had 38 points and 16 rebounds against the Mavericks on Friday.

"It's going to come down to how much heart we have and how hard we can play for 48 minutes," Suns Coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Other than the first quarter, our offense was good. We think we can make shots, but it's going to come down to stopping people."

The Suns certainly couldn't stop Duncan, who had few problems scoring over Marion and backup Steven Hunter. Duncan said his left ankle tightened up between the first and second quarters; he spent much of halftime in a whirlpool in the locker room and had his ankle taped again.

"Tim puts so much pressure on us," Nash said. "When he's in the box, he puts so much pressure on us and that's going to be the case the rest of the series."