Tony Parker scores 37 as San Antonio Spurs sweep Memphis Grizzlies 4-0
Tony Parker's 37 points helped the San Antonio Spurs to a 93-86 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night, in the process booking a spot in the NBA finals after a 4-0 series sweep.
The winner of the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers await the Spurs in the finals, with that series currently evenly poised at 2-1 in favour of LeBron James' Heat.
Parker was undoubtedly the star of the show for the Spurs as he hit on 15 of his 21 shots, including six from six from the line.
"It's a great feeling," Parker told ESPN after the victory. "Since last year, I promised to him [Duncan] that we will go back, go back to the Finals and get an opportunity to win the whole thing and I'm trying to do my best, trying to be aggressive every night.
"I think everybody on the team, we really want to do it from him. We win the West and now it's one more step. This is the hardest one."
The Spurs led the Oklahoma City Thunder 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals last year, only to lose the next four and crash out.
Duncan and co didn't come close to surrendering their lead to the Grizzlies this post-season though. Duncan, a four-time NBA champion, added 15 points and eight rebounds, while Kawhi Leonard contributed 11 points.
For the Grizzlies, Quincy Pondexter recorded a career-high 22 points, while Zach Randolph's struggles continued - the forward finishing with just 13 points.
But on defence they just couldn't deal with Parker. Speaking about his Spurs point guard, Duncan said: "He's been amazing. Every year he gets better and better and better. He's been carrying us. You can see tonight he carried us the entire game."
No comments:
Post a Comment