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Duncan, Parker lead Spurs rout of Raptors

Feb 27, 2007 - 5:58 AM SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs are getting back into championship form. Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors got a lesson on how the game is played at the highest level.

Duncan had 24 points and 16 rebounds as the Spurs extended their winning streak to six games with an easy 107-91 victory over the Raptors.

Tony Parker played a spectacular game as well with 27 points and nine assists for San Antonio, which shot 58 percent (25-of-43) and held a 27-16 edge on the backboards as it opened a 62-38 halftime lead.

"From a team standpoint we just had a failure to execute in the second quarter and didn't play our brand of basketball," Bosh said. "On the other hand, they played well. When they play well and we don't, this is likely to happen."

San Antonio's winning streak has come after it lost four of its previous five games.

"I think guys are just paying attention to detail," Spurs forward Bruce Bowen said. "I think we understand that if you're going to win on the road it's very important that your defense is solid and what better place to start than at home because we haven't played this well at home.

"So we're trying to make adjustments as far as the mind-set, being physical, paying attention to detail so we can have an opportunity come playoff time."

Toronto, which had won 12 of its last 15 games, entered atop the lowly Atlantic Division, but it had no answers for Duncan or San Antonio (39-18), which has the third-best record in the league.

"We just got beat. They beat us in every facet of the game of basketball," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "We competed through the fourth but in the end we just got it handed to us. We lost to a good team on their home floor.

"Hubie Brown once said that there are going to be two or three games every year where you might as well just not have shown up and hopefully this is one of those for us."

Recovering from an early 13-8 deficit, San Antonio held a 27-22 lead after the first quarter before taking control of the contest in the second period.

In the second quarter, the Spurs connected on 14-of-23 shots. Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili scored eight points apiece on 10-of-14 shooting.

Duncan had 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, 12 rebounds and four assists in 19 minutes in the first half while Parker had 16 points and five assists.

"(Duncan)looked fresh to me," Bosh said. "He had a great first half. He doesn't play a big up and down game but he will kill you with his post-up game. He's real unselfish and he's good at finding that open guy. But you are going to bring the double when he touches the ball or he's going to score on you."

Duncan finished 11-of-15 from the floor with four blocks in 34 minutes. Parker shot 11-of-19 in 35 minutes.

Bosh was shut down in the first 24 minutes. The lanky lefthander, who had averaged 25.6 points and 10.8 rebounds in his previous eight games, was 2-of-9 from the floor with six points and three rebounds in the first half.

"We really jumped on them early on and I thought we did an excellent job defensively," Duncan said. "We didn't let Chris get rolling; we pressured their shooters so we ran them off the line. They hit some shots later in the game that kind of got them back within striking distance, but all in all I thought we just did an excellent job defensively."

Bosh finished with 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting and nine rebounds.

"Francisco Elson did a great job on (Bosh) tonight," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "He was responsible for that. He stayed in front of him and he kept him off the free-throw line. Our team defense crowded him a bit on the weak side this evening. Individually, Francisco did a really fine job tonight on helping out on Chris."

"Now I just didn't make shots," Bosh said. "I missed some wide-open shots and a hook shot right in the middle. In the end, I put a lot on myself because it's up to me to make those shots."

Robert Horry knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 14 points in the third quarter as the Spurs led by as many as 30 points before heading into the fourth period with an 88-64 cushion.

The Raptors got 17 points from rookie Andrea Bargnani and a season-high 16 from former Spur Rasho Nesterovic.