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Ginobili, Spurs continue to dominate Jazz at home

Mar 31, 2007 - 4:17 AM SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- Manu Ginobili continued to make San Antonio a house of horrors for the Utah Jazz.

Ginobili scored 25 points and Tim Duncan added 20 and 14 rebounds as the Spurs notched their 16th straight home win against the Jazz with a 102-93 victory.

Tony Parker collected 23 points and 11 assists for San Antonio, which last lost on its home floor to Utah on February 28, 1999, when it played in the Alamodome.

"We haven't had much success here in a long, long time because of the way they play," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "They have Ginobili coming off the bench, and we couldn't deal with him.

"It doesn't make any difference what they do. They stay with what they do, and they get the type of shots they want to get almost every possession."

The Spurs (52-20) have slim hopes of winning the Southwest Division but still have the NBA's third-best record behind Dallas (61-11) and Phoenix (54-18).

"At this point in the season, we are trying to get better and keep improving every day," Ginobili said.

San Antonio stayed in the race on Friday, notching its sixth straight win on the back of Ginobili, who shot 10-of-16 in 32 minutes off the bench. Duncan controlled the interior, nailing 7-of-12 shots and dominating the glass.

"Manu competes every play on both ends of the court," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Tim was huge in the fourth quarter. He was our quarterback. He was finding people in the open court. He was a huge, huge part of the small lineup working because he's unselfish."

Trailing, 29-23, with 10:49 left in the second quarter, the Spurs outscored the Jazz, 35-17, the rest of the period to take control of the game. As a result, Utah dropped its sixth straight road contest.

"Some of these guys need to step it up if we want to snap out of this six-game losing streak on the road," Sloan said. "We can't afford to feel sorry for ourselves."

Fresh off clinching the Northwest Division title, Utah still is looking to stay in front of Houston for fourth place and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Jazz (47-25) are just one game ahead of the Rockets (46-26), who face the Los Angeles Lakers later Friday night.

Deron Williams scored 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, Carlos Boozer added 18 and 10 rebounds and Mehmet Okur collected 16 and 11 for Utah.

"San Antonio's a good team," Williams said. "They outplayed us, outexecuted us, outrebounded us, outhustled us. They just beat us."