Sonics relapse
SAN ANTONIO – Manu Ginobili and Nazr Mohammed made sure the San Antonio Spurs didn’t have to sweat it out in the closing seconds of this Game 5.
Ginobili celebrated his return to the starting lineup with a career playoff-best 39 points and Mohammed scored nine of his 19 points during a 17-3 third-quarter run, sending the Spurs past the Seattle SuperSonics 103-90 Tuesday night and putting them within a victory of the Western Conference finals.
The cozy win was a relief to San Antonio fans, who remembered the Spurs’ last two second-round Game 5s. Playing the Lakers both times, San Antonio won on a Los Angeles miss in the closing seconds two years ago, then lost last year on Derek Fisher’s buzzer-beating shot.
The Spurs never trailed this time. The only tie was at 50 at halftime and it was smashed by the huge spurt that opened the second half.
“I don’t know if it was pivotal, but it was important for our team,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said.
Ray Allen led Seattle with 19 points, but he was practically invisible in the first and third quarters – the ones coach Nate McMillan called “the most important quarters of our season” prior to tipoff.
Pestered by nemesis Bruce Bowen, Allen was scoreless in the opening period and his only point in the third was a free throw with 4.2 seconds left. He missed three foul shots that quarter after being 55 of 59 from the line in the postseason.
Sonics forward Rashard Lewis missed his second straight game because of a sprained left big toe. He may return for Game 6 in Seattle on Thursday night, when the Sonics will try to extend their season.
“We know we can play better,” McMillan said. “We know we didn’t execute, especially defensively.”
The good news for Seattle fans is that the home team has won every game this series. The bad news: Coming into Tuesday night, Game 5 winners have won 103 of the 123 seven-game series that were tied at 2.
San Antonio has followed the trend each of the last two years, with both series ending in Game 6.
Tim Duncan had 20 points and 14 rebounds for San Antonio. Tony Parker was 4 for 13 for 11 points on his 23rd birthday.
Ginobili is San Antonio’s energizer, but he’d done it off the bench since the Spurs lost the playoff opener. He started all 74 regular-season games he played and Popovich downplayed the importance of the move.
Starting again, Ginobili was 10 of 15 from the field and 15 of 17 from the line. He also had six assists and four rebounds.
“I was very concerned about bringing a lot of juice, energy,” Ginobili said. “It didn’t matter if it was after six minutes or from the start. I wanted to drive to the basket and make things happen.”
Antonio Daniels scored 17 points for Seattle and reserve Nick Collison scored 14.