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Parker helps Spurs sweep season series from Pistons

Mar 24, 2007 - 5:09 AM SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- The San Antonio Spurs brought out the broom for their meeting with the Detroit Pistons, and Tony Parker helped push it.

Parker had 22 points and seven assists and Tim Duncan added 17 and 14 rebounds as the Spurs survived a late charge to post a 90-89 triumph over the Pistons and sweep the two-game season series between the teams.

The win completed San Antonio's first series sweep over Detroit since 2002-03, when the Spurs went on to win the championship.

"It's a great win, especially against a team like Detroit, a top team in the league," Parker said. "I thought overall our defense was good."

"It was a great competitive game," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "It was really physical and had a playoff atmosphere. Both teams got after it. Fortunately, we ended up on the winning side."

A two-time All-Star, Parker connected on 10-of-19 shots from the floor and had four steals.

"He (Parker) was competitive and aggressive on both ends of the court," Popovich said. "He did a fine job running the team."

In the fourth quarter, Duncan and Manu Ginobili combined to score all of San Antonio's points during an impressive 10-4 burst that opened an 85-76 advantage with 2:20 remaining.

However, the Pistons responded with a run of their own and cut the deficit to 85-84 on Antonio McDyess' reserve layup with 18 seconds left.

Pistons All-Star Chauncey Billups, who returned in Thursday's loss after missing two games with an injured groin, scored six of his 13 points during the surge.

"It's frustrating," Billups said. "I take responsibility for games like this because I know I have to get it going a lot earlier for us to beat good teams, especially in their buildings. I got it going late, but I need to do more than that."

Ginobili made a pair of free throws and Duncan split two to give the Spurs an 88-84 bulge with 10 seconds to go. After Billups hit a jumper to make it a two-point contest, Ginobili added two more foul shots to seal the victory.

Rasheed Wallace scored 21 points and McDyess chipped in 18 and 11 boards off the bench for Detroit (43-25), which saw its lead over Cleveland (42-27) for first place in the Eastern Conference shrink to 1 1/2 games.