Ginobili, Duncan power Spurs to 2-0 lead over Sonics

San Antonio, TX (Basketball News) - Manu Ginobili finished with 28 points and Tim Duncan posted 25 points and nine rebounds, as the San Antonio Spurs downed the Seattle SuperSonics, 108-91, in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals at the SBC Center.

The Spurs have won the first two games of the best-of-seven set and will try to take a 3-0 lead when the series shifts to Seattle on Thursday.

"I think we’ve had two very solid performances," said Ginobili "We’ve prevented them from making too many threes and running the fast break...Overall we’ve done a very good job and we got to try and play the same way over there."

Tony Parker collected 22 points and seven assists for San Antonio, which improved to 9-2 in its last 11 home playoff games.

Ray Allen was a game-time decision with an ankle injury for Seattle, but started and scored a team-high 25 points. Allen suffered the ankle sprain in the second quarter of Game 1 and left for the remainder of that contest. Vladimir Radmanovic also suffered an ankle injury in the first game and was forced to sit out Tuesday’s contest.

"I thought Ray was able to be aggressive tonight," said Sonics head coach Nate McMillan.

Rashard Lewis netted 22 points for the Sonics, while Antonio Daniels chipped in 16.

The Sonics’ only lead of the contest was 4-2 after Luke Ridnour hit a long jumper. That’s when the Spurs used an 18-4 explosion to grab a big cushion. Ginobili hit a pair of three-pointers in the run and Parker’s basket made it a 20-8 game with 3:41 left. San Antonio would hold a 28-16 edge at the end of the first quarter.

San Antonio opened the second quarter on a 12-6 stretch to push its cushion to 18 points. Ginobili started the run with a long jumper and Parker hit a set of free throws to give the Spurs a 40-22 edge with 6:28 left. Seattle answered with an 11-2 burst to cut the lead to single digits. Lewis scored the final six points of the run and his baseline jumper made it 42-33 with 3:35 left.

The Spurs would restore their lead to double digits and held a 54-42 advantage by halftime. San Antonio shot 53-percent from the floor in the opening half and held the Sonics to a 38-percent clip.

"I think the key to our game is on the defensive end," said Duncan. "We’re doing a great job of contesting shots and we’re doing a good job of getting back and getting in front of people."

Ginobili led all scorers with 18 points at the break and Allen paced Seattle with 11.

The Spurs were unable to pull away in the third quarter and even allowed Seattle to cut the lead to nine points when Allen’s free throws made it 72-63 with 3:02 remaining. However, San Antonio rattled off the game’s next seven points to restore the cushion to 16. Nick Collison’s bucket would make it a 79-65 game at the end of three quarters.

Seattle was never able to seriously threaten the Spurs in the final 12 minutes.

The Spurs led 91-74 after Duncan’s dunk with 5:01 remaining, but Seattle responded with seven straight points to make it a 10-point game with 3:16 left. However, that was as close as the Sonics would get the rest of the way.