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.

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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.

CBSSports.com wire reports
Dec. 28, 2011

SAN ANTONIO — 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.

Reporting from San Antonio — They are the new-look Clippers, a team with savvy veterans, All-Stars and with high hopes for the season.

But these Clippers will tell anyone that will listen that this is a process that will take time before they can become whole.

In the process of that happening, these Clippers got treated like all the other Clippers teams before them, taking a beating from the San Antonio Spurs, 115-90, Wednesday night at the AT&T Center.

The 2011-12 Clippers were put through the same torture chamber the Clippers before them have experienced, extending the losing streak in San Antonio to 17 games. The last victory came here on Jan. 31, 2002.

The Spurs own a 64-8 margin over the Clippers here and have won 19 of the last 20 games overall.

“This is the start of a process for us,” Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “We’ve got to find a way to get better every day. I keep on talking about that. It’s not going to be easy.”

One place the Clippers have to start the process is on defense.

They trailed by as much as 27 points.

They allowed the Spurs to make 56.3% of their shots, 52.6% (10 for 19) on three-pointers.

“We haven’t been together for how many days? We’re not making any excuses,” said Chris Paul, one of the new Clippers. “So, yeah, it [defense] can be an issue that can be resolved. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

They seemingly couldn’t stop any of the Spurs.

Manu Ginobili had 24 points on six-for-10 shooting, five for eight on three-pointers.

DeJuan Blair had 20 points on 10-for-15 shooting and Richard had Jefferson 19 points on eight-for-nine shooting, three for four on three-pointers.

Tony Parker had 10 of his 14 points in the decisive third quarter, when the Spurs outscored the Clippers, 38-17.

“We just played terrible, just from start to finish, I thought,” Del Negro said.

Unlike the Clippers, the Spurs have been together for a while, something that Chauncey Billups says benefits San Antonio during the 66-game season.

Tim Duncan (35), Ginobili (34) and Parker (29) have won three NBA championships together.

“I just think in a season like this, where it was a short camp, a team like that is going to prosper,” Billups, also one of the new Clippers, said after scoring 11 points. “They’ve got all their guys back that have played together. But at the same time, we’re down four at the half and to get beat by 25, that’s not pretty.”

The Clippers trailed by 15 in the second quarter, but pulled to within four at halftime.

They went down by 25 in the third and never recovered.

Their defense was the worst of the game at that point. The Clippers saw the Spurs do as they pleased in shooting 76.2% from the field in the third quarter.

“They are not going to beat themselves. You’ve got to beat them,” said Paul, who finished with 10 points and nine assists. “We’ve got to defend.”

Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 28 points and nine rebounds.

It mattered little because the Clippers were so porous on defense.

Six Spurs scored in double figures, and they showed the Clippers how defense is played, limiting them to 39.2% shooting.

“We’re not there yet,” Paul said. “When you get to that point in the season where we just stop teams, that’s when you’re ready.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

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