Parker sparks San Antonio to 109-91 victory over the Warriors

Gregg Popovich urged his San Antonio Spurs to raise their energy to almost maniacal levels, because winning the battle on the boards and for loose balls was critical against the athletic Golden State Warriors.

The Spurs responded to their coach's message, outworking and out-muscling Golden State to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

Tony Parker had 25 points and 10 assists, and the Spurs held the Warriors' starting backcourt to 13 points for a 109-91 victory on Tuesday night.

The Spurs outrebounded the Warriors 38-36, forced 14 turnovers and limited them to 16 second-chance points.

"Our energy was good," Parker said. "We got the 50-50 ball; that was huge for us tonight. It was a tough turnaround for us in Game 4. We missed an opportunity at the end and we realize that. Tonight, we played for 48 minutes."

Kawhi Leonard added 17 points, Danny Green scored 16 and Tim Duncan had 14 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio.

Harrison Barnes scored 25 points, Jarrett Jack added 20 and Carl Landry 16 for Golden State, but Stephen Curry was held to nine points.

"I was terrible, plain and simple," Curry said. "They outplayed us as a team. Individually, I didn't have anything on either end. (I was) a step slow, my shot wasn't falling and I was trying to make plays but defensively I lost a little focus."

The Spurs held Mark Jackson's self-proclaimed "greatest shooting backcourt" in NBA history to 6-for-22 shooting. Curry was 1 for 7 on 3-pointers, while Thompson was held to four points while not even attempting a 3.

"The series for us is all about the defense," Popovich said. "(Leonard and Green) did a good job; (there were) other people who did good work out there. We got a lot of mismatches. They love those mismatches, so we have to play intelligently. I thought we did that tonight.

"But we followed up the defense with a board. There is no stop until the board is secured. That was our main emphasis going into the game."

The Spurs led for all but the opening 6 minutes of the game and moved one game closer to advancing to their 12th Conference Finals in franchise history.

(China Daily 05/16/2013 page24)