Spurs Semi-Finals Update

Tuesday night the second round series between the Spurs and Clippers finally got underway. I only say finally because we've been resting for 7 days now. And now I find out we have a back-to-back this weekend? Such a crock! Its like "Way to go Spurs & Thunder! For sweeping your 1st-round series, we're going to reward you with back-to-back games. But wait.. there's more! It's going to take place on the home court of the team who doesn't have home court advantage!"

So game-1 began, and it was obvious that we were a little rusty. We missed several layups, and were allowing way too many points in the paint early on. But with all the shots we were missing, the 1st-Q score of 29-29 was actually acceptable. K-Mart would hit a few jumpers, which he doesn't usually do, and Eric Bledsoe was beginning to make a mark as well. Then Manu & Neal would hit back-to-back threes. After the game had been pretty tight throughout, the Spurs finished off the half with a 16-7 run: Our halftime lead was 57-49.

Two quick Caron Butler jumpers opened the 2nd half, but right after we would respond with 7 of our own, the Clippers took a timeout (65-53). Spurs would

Timmy dominated.. Image Source (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

proceed to score almost every time down the floor - responding to Caron Butler's 13-pt. 3rd-Q, but by the 1:54 mark, our lead had ballooned to 19.. 83-64, thanks to Manu & Diaw. Manu's 9-pt. 3rd-Q led us to the 87-72 3rd-Q lead.

After Jack extended the lead to 18 again, the Clips would go on a 10-0 run to close within 8 (90-82). Then our defense tightened-down like always for a 4th quarter playoff game. An 11-3 run combined with solid defense on Chris Paul resulted in a 101-85 lead with just 2:33 left. And the Spurs would close out the 108-92 WIN with perfect execution down the stretch.

1-0. I don't think they knew what hit them. Here is ESPN's boxscore..

Manu came through with 22 in 27 minutes. Kawhi & Danny combined for 31 and 12 boards, too! Boris Diaw is so important to us: 7 pts. 12 reb. 5 assts. and a +/- rating of (gulp) +24. Tony's was +26 even though he had a bad game - that goes to show you his stats don't have to be good for us to win. Then there's Timmy, who turned the clock back yet again with 26 & 10 on 12 of 20 shooting in 35 minutes.

That's 15-straight wins - and counting. We haven't lost since April 11th! APRIL 11.

Game-2 is Thursday night - again in San Antonio.