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Duncan finds form as Spurs throttle Clippers

Mar 3, 2009 - 6:47 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- All Tim Duncan needed to find his rhythm was a meeting with one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Duncan scored 18 points and Tony Parker added 26 and 10 assists as the San Antonio Spurs cruised to a 106-78 victory over the lowly Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.

A veteran forward, Duncan returned to the lineup Sunday after missing three straight games with a sore right knee but looked a little rusty, finishing with 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting. He added four rebounds in 26 minutes as the Spurs suffered a 102-84 setback to the Portland Trail Blazers.

"It was just one of those games where we wanted to bounce back after a poor performance against Portland," Parker said. "We wanted to bring some energy and shoot well. Tonight we moved the ball well and shot the ball well."

He was much better in this one, hitting 7-of-11 shots while grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing out six assists in just under 28 minutes as San Antonio snapped a two-game slide.

"For us, the defense has to be there every night to have the opportunity to score," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I thought we were pretty focused. We know these guys are playing pretty well and we did not want to come here and not respect them."

Al Thornton scored 14 points and Marcus Camby added 12 and eight boards for the Clippers (15-46), who were without forward Zach Randolph due to personal reasons and endured their third straight loss after falling behind early.

"We struggled so much to make shots tonight without an anchor and low-post player like Zach Randolph," Los Angeles coach Mike Dunleavy said. "When we had the opportunity to make shots we just did not make them. We allowed too much penetration."

Los Angeles led by two points with 4:41 remaining in the first quarter, but the Spurs went on a 22-8 run, taking a 35-23 advantage on Parker's layup with 8:07 left in the second.

The Clippers scored the next eight points to narrow the deficit to four, but San Antonio responded with an 8-0 run of its own and carried a 49-36 edge into the locker rooms.

Things got worse for Los Angeles following halftime as the Spurs caught fire from beyond the arc.

"It was pretty much our rotations being off," said Clippers guard Mike Taylor, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. "They just found the hot hand (in the third quarter) and were getting great shot attempts. Our rotations were just a little slow and they kept shooting."

After hitting only 1-of-11 3-pointers in the opening 24 minutes, San Antonio made all but one of its six attempted threes in the third quarter.

"We just tried to defensively take it up a notch," veteran forward Michael Finley said. "We knew they were going to come out extra aggressive, but we wanted our offense to be started by our defense, and that's what happened."

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Finley, who finished with 14 points, pushed the lead to 57-40, 2:07 into the session. The bulge expanded to 21 points when Finley and Matt Bonner connected on consecutive threes with 6:33 remaining in the third.

"We have an All-Star guard at the point-guard position who attracts a lot of attention," Finley said of Parker. "When he is scoring and passing, it makes us a tough team to defend.

"He makes the job a lot easier for a lot of people on this team. With his ability to create, it allows us to get good looks at the basket."

Finley's fourth 3-pointer of the quarter pushed the lead to 74-48 with 5:22 left in the quarter as many of the Spurs' starters headed to the bench.