Spurs wipe out Grizzlies: Duncan falls one block shy of triple-double

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Web Posted: 01/27/2007 12:16 AM CST
Johnny Ludden
Express-News

As Spurs officials spent the previous two months looking at trade opportunities and other ways to better the team, they inevitably reached the same conclusion: No matter who they added to the roster, the greatest improvement was still going to have to come from within.
And it was going to have to start with Tim Duncan.

Duncan continued to do his part Friday, totaling 26 points, 13 rebounds and a career-best nine blocks as the Spurs beat Memphis 112-96 in their final game at the AT&T Center before leaving for their annual rodeo trip.

"Tim's not going to get too vocal," Brent Barry said. "So to see these kind of games and effort from him should be a silent message to everybody that it's time to put some things together."

Unlike Wednesday when he scored a season-high 37 points and the Spurs still lost to Houston, Duncan had enough help to finish off the Grizzlies. Tony Parker, trying to balance his roles as scorer and distributor, had 18 points and eight assists. Manu Ginobili scored 17 points, including the team's first seven of the fourth quarter.

Michael Finley (15 points) and Barry (13 points) also gave the Spurs a rare one-two punch from its bench.

The victory was hardly the chest-thumping type that turns a team's season around.

Memphis not only owns the league's worst record (11-33), but also was without its best player: Pau Gasol was a late scratch because of a sore left hamstring. The Spurs also continued their season-long trend by blowing a 15-point halftime lead.

But saddled with eight home losses already, the Spurs also aren't in position to complain about any victory that comes their way. Especially considering they leave this afternoon to play eight consecutive road games, the first three of which are against the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah and Phoenix.

"We can't rely on Tim to win every game, but certainly him stepping up his effort means he needs some guys to come along with him," Barry said. "On this trip, knowing who we're going up against, we're going to need every bit we can to get ourselves righted."

Duncan has noticeably improved his rebounding and defense from earlier in the season, averaging 21.9 points, 12.4 rebounds and 3.7 blocks in his past nine games.

"It's a conscious effort, trying to be that last line of defense and really finish stops and rebounds," Duncan said. "We're not where we want to be defensively, but if we can start with that, it really helps."

Duncan appeared headed for a reduced workload Friday when the Spurs rolled to a 62-47 lead at halftime. Memphis, however, didn't see much reason to panic.

"At halftime," Grizzlies point guard Damon Stoudamire said, "we talked about how San Antonio had a problem with losing leads of late."

Less than six minutes into the third quarter, the Spurs had added another to their list. Memphis made seven 3-pointers in the quarter — a record for a Spurs opponent, as well as the Grizzlies — including three from Eddie Jones and two by Mike Miller.

After Brian Cardinal ended the third quarter with another 3-pointer, Hakim Warrick opened the fourth with a pair of free throws to give Memphis its first lead. The Spurs contributed to their problems by committing seven turnovers in the third quarter.

"They were on fire in the third," Parker said. "I know we lost the lead, but on this one, come on. I mean Cardinal, on the last one? Come on."

After Ginobili steadied the team to start the fourth quarter — his three-point play put the Spurs ahead for good — Duncan went back to work. He overpowered the Grizzlies in the post, drawing fouls, banking in a layup and drawing attention away from the Spurs shooters.

Parker hit a long shot and Barry and Finley each made 3-pointers to seal the victory.

"We were giving each other a lot of help on Duncan to try and slow him down after a pretty big first half," Jones said. "But at some point it's almost like a running game in football. It just wears you down."

Duncan made 10 of 16 shots, but he also made seven turnovers. He just missed his sixth career triple-double.

The victory came two days after coach Gregg Popovich told the Spurs he wasn't going to make any trades. His confidence in the roster might have been bolstered by Duncan's recent improvement.

"Hopefully we'll get guys falling in line and becoming more focused," Popovich said, "because they see Timmy doing what he's doing."