SAN ANTONIO — Two down, two to go. The San Antonio Spurs are halfway to a fourth title and a chance to state their case as an NBA dynasty.
Tony Parker scored 30 points, Manu Ginobili had 25 and Tim Duncan added 23 as the Spurs enlightened Cleveland in championship basketball for 3½ quarters, overpowering the Cavaliers 103-92 in Game 2 last night to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
San Antonio was vastly superior in every way imaginable — until relaxing in the fourth quarter — when the Cavaliers stormed back within eight before the Spurs finally put them away for good.
“That’s why sometimes it’s hard to play with a 20-point lead,” Parker said. “We’re humans.”
The Spurs, clicking on offense and digging their sneakers in on defense, built a 28-point lead in the first half and were embarrassing the Cavaliers, who are in their first finals but didn’t show up until it was too late.
The Spurs’ big three of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili combined for 43 points — 10 more than the Cavaliers — in the first half, and as both teams walked off the floor of AT&T Center, the arena’s public address announcer, Stan Kelly, summed up the first 24 minutes with a comment that would have been funny if it wasn’t so painfully true for Cleveland.
“Spurs by a bunch,” he said.
And at the same time, a fan held up a sign saying, “Bring Out LeBroom.”
LeBron James, limited to 14 points in his finals debut, scored 25 to lead the Cavaliers. Cleveland’s superstar got into early foul trouble and played less than three minutes in the first quarter, sitting when the Spurs ran away to their huge lead.
Down by 25 points at halftime and 27 after three, the Cavaliers went on a 22-4 run and eventually pulled within 95-87 on a three-point play by James with 4:53 left, a stunning turnaround for a team that looked done moments earlier.
But the Western Conference champions, who got sloppy and perhaps disinterested, responded as they almost always do.
Ginobili hit a 3-pointer as he was fouled by rookie Daniel Gibson. The four-point play made it 101-89 with 2:24 remaining.
“That was a heck of a play and a heck of a shot by Manu,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. “He tricked our young fella and leaned right into him.”
Gibson’s 3-pointer got the Cavaliers within nine, but Duncan grabbed a rebound and scored inside to bail out the Spurs, who were outscored 30-14 in the fourth quarter.
“We knew it was coming,” Parker said of the Cavaliers’ comeback. “They are an NBA team and have LeBron James. They played very good in the fourth quarter. They made a big run, but in the end we made a couple of stops and got the win.”
With two more victories, small-market San Antonio, often overlooked in the conversation of great teams, can join the Boston Celtics (16 titles), Los Angeles Lakers (14) and Chicago Bulls (six) as franchises with at least four championships.
“Four for Four” has become the popular catchphrase among San Antonio fans in these finals, and the Spurs are making it stick.
Game 3 is tomorrow night at Quicken Loans Arena, which has never played host to a finals game and may only end up holding two unless the Cavaliers can put together four solid quarters.
Frustrated at being stuck on Cleveland’s bench, James yelled something in Brown’s direction and then rubbed his forehead with his hand as the Spurs blew through the Cavaliers for more than 40 minutes.
Parker went 13-for-20 from the field, spun his way through defenders at will and made the Cavaliers look like shorts-wearing statues. He kept pushing the action in the third quarter, scoring 10 points to the delight of fiance Eva Longoria and Spurs fans, who aren’t ready to plan any parades just yet.
In the 2005 finals, the Spurs won the first two games against Detroit but had to go seven to win the title.
The Cavaliers, who were down 0-2 against Detroit in the conference finals, also can look to last year’s finals for comfort. Miami lost Games 1 and 2 in Dallas before going home to Florida and winning three straight and then beating the Mavericks on their home floor for their first championship.
“We’re definitely still confident,” James said. “We’ve been down 2-0 before, and we have to find a way to get back the intensity we had in the fourth quarter.”
Gibson added 15 points, Drew Gooden had 13 and Sasha Pavlovic 10 for the Cavaliers, who went just 19-for-29 from the line and got zero points in 20 minutes from point guard Larry Hughes, who is playing with a foot injury.
After building a 12-point lead in the first quarter while James was out, the Spurs pushed it to 17 on a 3-pointer from Ginobili. Parker scored on a three-point play and whizzed through the lane for a layup to make it 46-26.
Then, with 30 seconds left before the half, Parker drilled a 17-foot jumper to make it 58-30.
As fans dressed in silver and black poured into the arena on a sultry night in south Texas, a mariachi band played to chants of “Go, Spurs, Go!,” a cry that can be heard in the streets of the Alamo City even when there’s no game scheduled.
Several fans posed to get their pictures taken in front of a display case containing the club’s NBA title trophies from 1999, 2003 and 2005. There’s plenty of room for a fourth, and the Spurs appear poised to get it.
James was confident he would play better after his Game 1 flop, and as long as he did, he felt the Cavaliers would be OK.
“When I make adjustments, my team automatically makes adjustments,” he said. “We have to play hard for 48 minutes.”
But he was only on the floor for 2:55 before being forced to the bench with his second personal foul.
From star to star witness, James could do nothing but sit, watch and chew on his fingernails as the Spurs, efficiently and effortlessly took control, reeling off 12 straight points to take a 28-17 lead after one.
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