Spurs stymie Warriors, take 2-1 series lead
Tony Parker scored 25 of his 32 points in a sizzling first half, Tim Duncan added 23 points and 10 rebounds and the San Antonio Spurs quieted the hot-shooting Golden State Warriors in a 102-92 victory Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Western Conference semifinals.
Kawhi Leonard finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Parker added five assists and five boards to help the Spurs wrestle back home-court advantage from the Warriors after withstanding a brief fourth-quarter rally.
San Antonio outshot Golden State 50.6 to 39.3 percent and curbed streaky shooters Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson for the first time in the series.
Thompson scored 17 points on 7-of-20 shooting, while Curry had 16 points on 5 of 17 from the floor. Andrew Bogut added 11 points and 12 rebounds for Golden State but was saddled with foul trouble most of the second half.
Game 4 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday in Oakland.
After falling behind by 10 points entering the fourth quarter, the Warriors scored the first nine of the period in fewer than 2 minutes. They capped the run by slicing San Antonio’s lead to 79-78 when Bogut blocked Duncan’s layup, and Draymond Green started a three-point play by drawing a foul on Duncan with a pull-up jumper.
Parker put San Antonio back ahead by seven with a 3-pointer before leaving briefly with an apparent left leg cramp. Trainers wrapped his leg while he was on the bench and he showed no signs of slowing down when he returned.
With Parker on the bench, Duncan converted a three-point play and Leonard added a layup to cap an 11-1 run that gave San Antonio a 90-79 lead with 5:39 to play.
Most of Golden State’s yellow-shirt wearing crowd of 19,596 silenced after Curry came off a curl and his left ankle — which he sprained in Game 2 in the first round against Denver but seemed to be back to full strength — landed awkwardly when he planted his feet to receive the ball. Curry limped around but stayed in the game, with nervous chants of “Curry! Curry!” breaking out.
The Warriors moved within five points on Harrison Barnes’ pull-up jumper with 2:48 to play but never got closer. After starting 3-0 at home in the playoffs, Golden State fell short again in maybe the biggest basketball game in the Bay Area in decades.
Heat 104, Bulls 94: LeBron James came on strong down the stretch to finish with 25 points, Chris Bosh added 20 points and 19 rebounds, and the Miami Heat followed up the most lopsided playoff win in franchise history with a victory over the Bulls at Chicago to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Norris Cole scored 18, and the Heat pulled out a tight win after blasting the Bulls 115-78 on Wednesday.
This time, Chicago refused to go quietly. Never mind that the Bulls were coming off the worst playoff loss in franchise history. Put aside the fact that the ailing Luol Deng and injured Kirk Hinrich (calf) remained sidelined, not to mention Derrick Rose, or that Nazr Mohammed got ejected in the second quarter for shoving James to the floor.
James hit just 6 of 17 shots and even got blocked on a layup by Nate Robinson in the third quarter. But the four-time MVP came through down the stretch, scoring 12 in the fourth. Miami’s bench outscored Chicago’s 36-8.