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Ginobili, Spurs topple undermanned Magic

Mar 26, 2008 - 3:56 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- Manu Ginobili scored 28 points off the bench to guide the San Antonio Spurs to a 107-97 victory over the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night.

Michael Finley had 24 points and Tim Duncan chipped in 19 and 15 rebounds to help the Spurs complete a season sweep of the shorthanded Magic.

The win also pulled San Antonio (48-23) within one game of New Orleans (48-21) for the top seed in the Western Conference and Southwest Division standings.

Orlando suffered two major blows to its lineup in the first quarter as starters Hedo Turkoglu (wrist) and Jameer Nelson (jaw) exited with injuries.

"It's a sprain right now," said Turkoglu, who is having an MRI Wednesday. "Hopefully it's not too serious so it won't keep me away from playing. So cross your fingers."

"Hedo is a big part of what they do," Ginobili said. "He is not only spotting up for threes, but now he is a creator. He dishes a lot of assists. The fact of him not playing and Jameer of course helped us."

Ginobili's 3-pointer pushed San Antonio's lead to 83-74 with 11:12 left in the fourth quarter. Orlando battled back behind an 11-4 surge to close within two on Rashard Lewis's shot from the arc at the 6:34 mark.

But the defending champion Spurs created some distance as Bruce Bowen and Finley hit back-to-back 3-pointers during an 11-3 run for a 98-88 advantage with 2:57 remaining.

"We are just slow and steady," Duncan said. "We are trying to get to the point we are playing those 48 minutes the right way. We are headed in that direction. It is coming down to crunch time here and we are healthy and have been for a little while. That is a big part of it."

"That's the difference between a veteran championship team and our team," Lewis said. "They did the little things, they knocked down all their free throws and that's what separated us on the scoreboard. We missed free throws, turned the ball over, just the little things we could have done to win the ballgame."

The Magic were unable to cut the deficit to under eight points thereafter.

All-Star Dwight Howard did his best to pick up the slack with 24 points and 21 boards, and Lewis also scored 24 for Orlando, which shot 45 percent (35-of-77) from the field.

"That is a very good team and it was a difficult night," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. "From my standpoint, (it was) disappointing because I thought our guys really came to play."