SAN ANTONIO (AP)

The Los Angeles Clippers might be the talk of the Western Conference right now, but the San Antonio Spurs showed they still have plenty of life left.

Manu Ginobili scored 24 points and DeJuan Blair added 20 to lead the Spurs to a 115-90 win over the Clippers on Wednesday night.

Blake Griffin scored 28 points for the Clippers, while Chris Paul was held to 3-of-10 shooting and finished with 10 points.

Richard Jefferson added 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting for the Spurs, who have won 17 straight home games against the Clippers, a streak that dates to Jan. 31, 2002. Tony Parker scored 14 points, James Anderson 12 and Tim Duncan 10.

The Spurs hit 45 of 80 shots from the field while limiting the Clippers to 29-of-74 shooting. San Antonio led by only four points at halftime but outscored Los Angeles 38-17 in the third quarter to take control.

”Our defense in the second half was great,” Ginobili said. ”They couldn’t get lobs. They scored under 40 in the second half. We were pretty good on defense. We moved the ball, and everybody scored.”

San Antonio outscored Los Angeles 57-36 in the second half.

”They tore us apart in that third quarter,” Griffin said. ”Our defense needs to be better, and it can get better. The good thing about the mistakes out there is that they are easily correctable.”

While Blair didn’t limit Griffin’s scoring, he was able to do enough offensively to nearly offset him.

”I try to read them,” Blair said. ”They’re very athletic. They jump high. I jump a little bit, but I’m undersized, so I just try to read them. Just look for schemes to get around the taller defenders. I watch a lot of Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, try to get a low shot. But I’m doing great with what I’m doing.”

The Clippers weren’t able to get closer than 19 in the fourth quarter. After DeAndre Jordan’s free throw made it 98-79, Ginobili hit a 3-pointer then found Blair for a short jumper to put the Spurs up 103-79.

”They’re dunkers,” Blair said while laughing when asked about the Clippers being called Lob City. ”But, yeah, not tonight.

The Spurs hit 16 of 21 shots in the third, with Parker scoring 10 on 4-of-4 shooting from the field and 2 of 2 from the free throw line. Anderson converted a three-point play with 0.3 seconds left in the quarter to give San Antonio its biggest lead of the game at that point – 96-71.

”We were down four, and I look up to see we are down 68-58 at one point,” Paul said. ”We are going to practice tomorrow and figure out what we did right and figure out what we did wrong. First things first, we need to start with me.”

The Spurs led 58-54 at halftime behind 16 points from Ginobili, who hit 4 of 6 attempts from 3-point range in the half.

Blair added 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and Jefferson had 10, including a pair of 3-pointers. Griffin had 16 points in the first two quarters and scored all but four of those points on either layups or dunks.

San Antonio led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Clippers went on a 16-4 run and tied the game 52-all on Griffin’s dunk with 47 seconds left in the half.

The Spurs led 26-19 entering the second quarter after holding the Clippers to 8-of-22 shooting in the first. The Clippers jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Ginobili responded by scoring the next nine points. Ginobili sandwiched two 3-pointers around three free throws after he was fouled by Chauncey Billups on a 3-pointer.

I’m kind of surprised,” Ginobili said of the team’s 2-0 start. ”I didn’t think that the team was ready to have two games like this — to be so solid defensively. We’re looking sharp, but I don’t want to get too confident. I don’t think it’s fair or it’s true. We still have a long way to go. It just so happened we played two very good games.”

Notes: Jordan hit 4 of 6 free throws. He went 4 of 12 in the opener against Golden State. … Since Dec. 10, 1997, the Spurs have won 47 of 52 against the Clippers. … The Spurs are off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2008. … The big win allowed the Spurs to rest several key players. Duncan played 26 minutes, while Ginobili and Parker played only 27. … Caron Butler and Mo Williams each had 12 points for the Clippers. Billups had 11 . Ginobili hit 5 of 8 3-pointers and 7 of 7 free throws.

Read More: Chris Paul (G – LAC), Manu Ginobili (G – SAN), Blake Griffin (F – LAC), San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Clippers at San Antonio Spurs, Dec 28, 2011 5:30 PM PST

For a while, it looked like the Los Angeles Clippers were poised to end their long losing streak in San Antonio. Then the third quarter happened. The San Antonio Spurs used a huge third quarter to pull away from the Clippers 115-90 on Wednesday night, the 17th consecutive loss in San Antonio for the Clippers.

Blake Griffin scored 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds in defeat for the Clippers, who fell to 1-1 on the season.

The Clippers erased a 14-point Spurs lead in the second quarter, but ultimately trailed by four at halftime. The Spurs blitzed Los Angeles with a 38-17 third quarter to blow the game wide open. San Antonio had six different players score in double figures, led by 24 points from Manu Ginobili.

The last win for the Clippers in San Antonio was a 90-85 triumph on January 31, 2002. Since then they have lost 17 straight road games to the Spurs, by an average margin of over 15 points per game. The Clippers are 1-26 in their last 27 games in San Antonio.

Chris Paul had 10 points and nine assists for the Clippers. The Clippers return home to host the Chicago Bulls in their home opener Friday night at Staples Center.

For more Clippers news and information, be sure to read Clips Nation.

by Associated Press

kens5.com

Posted on December 27, 2011 at 6:50 AM

Updated
yesterday at 12:37 PM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Manu Ginobili scored 24 points and the San Antonio Spurs got some payback after their stunning playoff collapse last season, beating the Memphis Grizzlies 95-82 on Monday night.

San Antonio began what could be Tim Duncan’s final season with a satisfying win after Memphis upset the 61-win Spurs in the first round last season. Tony Parker added 15 points and seven assists.

Rudy Gay led Memphis with 19 points and 10 rebounds in his first game in nearly 10 months. Gay missed the end of last season with a bad left shoulder, including when Memphis knocked out the top-seeded Spurs.

The Grizzlies remained winless on opening night since the franchise left Vancouver in 2001, and this blowout surely wasn’t he NBA’s breakout team of last season had in mind.

Zach Randolph, who utterly bullied the Spurs in that playoff series, had just 10 points and six rebounds this time. Marc Gasol had 13 points and also couldn’t dominate San Antonio’s undersized front line like he and Randolph easily did last April.

And it’s not like the Spurs got any bigger.

DeJuan Blair, the 6-foot-7 center deemed too ineffective by coach Gregg Popovich to even play Games 5 and 6 against Memphis, was back in the starting lineup. The Spurs have precious few alternatives: forward Antonio McDyess officially retired in training camp, and they haven’t added a big man to replace him.

Mike Conley had 11 points and seven assists for the Grizzlies. Memphis led by one at halftime but were blown out in the third quarter after shooting just 29 percent from the floor.

Richard Jefferson, once thought to be a goner in San Antonio under the NBA’s new amnesty clause, added 14 points for the Spurs. Duncan had 10 points in 22 minutes as the challenge of rationing the 35-year-old’s minutes in a compressed, grueling schedule began.

Duncan is playing in the final year of his contract but hasn’t said whether this will be his last run for a fifth title.

If Duncan and the Spurs have one last championship run left in them, there was no better first test than Memphis. The bigger and quicker Grizzlies gave the aging Spurs fits in the playoffs last April even without Gay, who had been Memphis’ second-leading scorer.

For opening night, at least, San Antonio showed it can still keep up.

Leonard can take some credit for that. The 15th overall pick brought a jolt off the bench in the third quarter when the Spurs opened up a 19-point lead despite trailing at halftime. Leonard had six points during the stretch and earned animated approval from Duncan, who came into the league when Leonard was barely out of kindergarten.

Leonard is the centerpiece of what the Spurs are calling their youth movement — seven of their 13 players have fewer three years of experience. But the face and fortunes of the franchise still firmly belong to Parker, Ginobili and Duncan, who started their 10th season together.

Notes: Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III watched the game with some of his Baylor teammates. The Bears are in town to play Washington in the Alamo Bowl on Thursday…Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones, who owns a home in San Antonio, sat courtside with Spurs owner Peter Holt. …The Spurs remain without G Gary Neal after the second-year backup had his appendix removed during training camp.