Manu Ginobili scored 23 points, 14 in the second quarter, to
lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 104-89 victory over the Utah Jazz
on Saturday night.

Ginobili was 9 of 10 from the field, including 5 of 6 from
3-point range.

The win gave Spurs coach Gregg Popovich his 800th career
coaching victory. He is the 14th coach to reach that milestone and
third among active coaches behind George Karl (1038) and Rick
Adelman (945).

DeJuan Blair had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Tony Parker added 14
points, and Tim Duncan 12 as San Antonio moved to 3-1.

Duncan continued to struggle to find his form. The 36-year-old
forward followed up his 1-of-8 performance in Houston by going 4 of
13 from the field. He had nine rebounds.

Ginobili injected life to an offense that had gone cold in
Thursday’s 105-85 loss to the Houston Rockets. He began the Spurs’
quick turnaround in the second period, scoring the first 11 points
of the quarter. That propelled San Antonio on a 22-10 run that
ended with Richard Jefferson hitting a 3-pointer with 5:26 left and
gave the Spurs 17-point lead.

The Spurs were 7 of 8 from the 3-point line during the second
period and were 10 and 16 for the game ( 63 percent).

Al Jefferson returned to the starting lineup for Utah, scoring
21 points with 11 rebounds in 35 minutes. Jefferson sat out Utah’s
102-99 win over Philadelphia on Friday night with an inflamed right
ankle.

But Utah shot just 35 percent (18 of 51) from the field and had
only 11 assists.

San Antonio never trailed and built its largest lead at 27
points on Blair’s basket with 9:52 left that made it 89-62.

Josh Howard, who flirted with signing with San Antonio earlier
in the month before committing to the Jazz, had 18 points.

Forward Derrick Favors, who had a career-high 20 points in his
first career start Friday, only had seven points.

Notes: Ginobili and Blair are the only Spurs to score 20 or more
points in a game this season. … Utah is 2-14 since the AT&T
Center opened in 2002-2003 season.

SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 31 (UPI) — Manu Ginobili sank five 3-pointers and DeJuan Blair provided a double-double Saturday in the San Antonio Spurs’ 104-89 win over Utah.

Ginobili finished with 23 points, while Blair added 17 and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, who logged their third win in four games to start the season.

Tony Parker contributed 14 points and eight assists.

The Spurs got 12 points and nine rebounds from Tim Duncan in the victory.

The Jazz were led by Al Jefferson’s 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Josh Howard added a spark off the bench with 18 points and seven boards, but it wasn’t enough for Utah.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Manu Ginobili scored 23 points, 14 in the second quarter, to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 104-89 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.

Ginobili was 9 of 10 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range.

The win gave Spurs coach Gregg Popovich his 800th career coaching victory. He is the 14th coach to reach that milestone and third among active coaches behind George Karl (1038) and Rick Adelman (945).

DeJuan Blair had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Tony Parker added 14 points, and Tim Duncan 12 as San Antonio moved to 3-1.

Duncan continued to struggle to find his form. The 36-year-old forward followed up his 1-of-8 performance in Houston by going 4 of 13 from the field. He had nine rebounds.

Ginobili injected life to an offense that had gone cold in Thursday’s 105-85 loss to the Houston Rockets. He began the Spurs’ quick turnaround in the second period, scoring the first 11 points of the quarter. That propelled San Antonio on a 22-10 run that ended with Richard Jefferson hitting a 3-pointer with 5:26 left and gave the Spurs 17-point lead.

The Spurs were 7 of 8 from the 3-point line during the second period and were 10 and 16 for the game ( 63 percent).

Al Jefferson returned to the starting lineup for Utah, scoring 21 points with 11 rebounds in 35 minutes. Jefferson sat out Utah’s 102-99 win over Philadelphia on Friday night with an inflamed right ankle.

But Utah shot just 35 percent (18 of 51) from the field and had only 11 assists.

San Antonio never trailed and built its largest lead at 27 points on Blair’s basket with 9:52 left that made it 89-62.

Josh Howard, who flirted with signing with San Antonio earlier in the month before committing to the Jazz, had 18 points.

Forward Derrick Favors, who had a career-high 20 points in his first career start Friday, only had seven points.

Notes: Ginobili and Blair are the only Spurs to score 20 or more points in a game this season. … Utah is 2-14 since the AT&T Center opened in 2002-2003 season.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SAN ANTONIO — What do the Jazz need to do in order to win, then? Keep Al Jefferson out of the game?

Following a three-point win over Philadelphia Friday night, Utah reverted back to the same poor play it had in its first two games of the year with the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver, and shot below 40 percent for the second time in four contests (including 2-of-16 from the 3-point line) in getting hammered, 104-89, by the San Antonio Spurs Saturday night in Texas.

Jefferson returned to the lineup after sitting out against the Sixers at EnergySolutions Arena.

GUARDS: Devin Harris continues to turn in sub-par performances. He scored eight points on just 2-of-8 shooting, while dishing out just three assists. Curiously, he shared time with Earl Watson, who was equally bad in going just 2-of-9 from the floor with no assists.

Raja Bell has yet to play great in any game, going scoreless in three attempts in 17 minutes Saturday, while C.J. Miles returned to inconsistency by scoring seven points on just 2-of-7 shooting. Meanwhile, San Antonio shooting guard Manu Ginobili was nearly flawless in scoring nearly as many points (23) as he logged minutes (24), while going 9-of-10 from the field. He simply ran around, shot over and backcut the listless Jazz guards whenever he actually was in the game. Really, no Jazz guard hardly played well at all. GRADE: D-

FORWARDS: Paul Millsap scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds, but he really needs more shot attempts. Derrick Favors gave a mediocre performance in 23 minutes in his first effort off the bench this season, while Gordon Hayward probably gave his worst performance of the young season, going just 1-of-9 for four points. He tallied four assists and three rebounds. Former all-star Josh Howard scored 18 points, but it came on 6-of-16 shooting. Future Spurs hall-of-famer Tim Duncan was limited to a 4-of-13 effort. GRADE: C-

CENTERS: Jefferson did return with a decent offensive game in scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He and rookie Enes Kanter allowed DeJuan Blair to score 17 points on just eight field goal attempts. Kanter’s two rebounds mark the lowest rebounding game of his four-game NBA career. It remains to be seen if the Jazz will miss Mehmet Okur. GRADE: B-

BENCH: You know when you’re in trouble when Howard’s 6-of-16 effort leads the bench attack. Overall, the reserves shot just 16-of-43 from the field in going just 1-of-8 from the 3-point line. The saving grace? The Jazz bench outscored the San Antonio reserves 48-30. GRADE: C

SAN ANTONIO — A fan sitting behind press row at the AT&T Center shared a loud mouthful of free advice with the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.

“Put in Hornacek!”

That option, of course, hasn’t been available for years. Now an assistant coach, Jeff Hornacek has different game-time responsibilities these days anyway.

But even without good knees and with his suit and dressy loafers on, the former Jazz sharpshooter’s touch would’ve come in handy in this 104-89 blowout loss to San Antonio.

Of course, it would’ve been even more helpful for the Jazz if “Take out Ginobili!” had been shouted out and then adhered to by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

Manu Ginobili hit a sizzling 9-for-10 from the field, sank 5 of 6 3-pointers and finished with 23 points.

“He is who he is in this league,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. “He’s an All-Star. He can score. You want to make him work hard for everything.”

Oops.

The Argentine Assassin single-handedly turned this into a rout in the second quarter when he scored eight straight against a Jazz bench that got lost on rotations, allowing for back-to-back wide-open treys for Ginobili.

The Manu moment continued as he dropped 14 points and the Jazz dropped their heads in the period, giving the Spurs a double-digit lead they never came close to relinquishing.

“We lost a little bit of our zest. I thought our energy level was pretty good up until that point,” Corbin said. “They made a run and we just didn’t respond to it.”

As a result, the Jazz, still trying to find who they are between their youth and veterans, were clobbered on someone else’s court for the third time in five nights.

Any momentum picked up in Friday’s exciting 102-99 home win over Philadelphia fell out of the charter somewhere between the Wasatch Front and the Alamo. It’s looking like inconsistency could be the major theme of the season.

“It’s going to be an up and down for a while,” Corbin said, “until we get more familiar with each other.”

At least the 3-1 Spurs’ fans didn’t get free tacos like the Lakers’ crowd did when L.A. held Utah to 71 points and like Nuggets’ supporters did when Denver scored 117 in those one-sided contests.

“It’s only our fourth game. We do not need to panic,” Jazz center Al Jefferson said. “We have all the pieces we need. We have a good bench, and we have a lot of new guys, so on offense they are not quite clicking yet.”

Against Utah’s defense, the Spurs sure clicked.

Besides Ginobili happening, DeJuan Blair added 17 points with 10 rebounds, while Tony Parker (14 points, eight assists) and Tim Duncan (12 points, nine rebounds) reminded the young Jazz that the old guard still rules in these parts.

On the other (cold) hand, there was Utah.