San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker has been recognized as an MVP-candidate by a number of people in his 11th NBA season. And Sunday’s performance in Game 1 of the Spurs’ first round series against the Utah Jazz only strengthened that pitch for Parker.
Parker finished with 28 points and eight assists in San Antonio’s 106-91 victory, and the Spurs looked much like a team that most expect to see in the Western Conference Finals in the next few weeks.
After leading by six after the first quarter, the Spurs maintained a sizable margin throughout the rest of the first half before stepping on the pedal to end the third. The Spurs used an 11-4 run to close out the third quarter and led 85-70.
Tim Duncan finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, while Stephen Jackson added 14.
Paul Milsap had a team-high 20 points for the Jazz to go along with nine rebounds, while Al Jefferson added 16 points and nine boards. Gordon Hayward had 17.
In Los Angeles, the Lakers used a dominating scoring performance from Kobe Bryant and a triple-double from Andrew Bynum to defeat the Denver Nuggets 103-88 in the first game of that series.
Bryant finished with a game-high 31 points on 11-for-24 shooting, and hit nine of L.A.’s 11 makes from the free throw line.
It’s hard for big men to record triple doubles, and it’s even more difficult to accomplish that feat by tallying up double-digit blocks. Bynum didn’t have the offensive outburst a lot of people were looking for against the bigs of Denver. But his 10 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks marked the first playoff triple-double for L.A. since 1991. Yes, even Bryant hasn’t had one in the postseason. The 10 blocks also ties a NBA record for most in a postseason game.
Five Nuggets scored in double figures – led by Danilo Gallinari with 19 – but a 13-point deficit after the first was too much for Denver to overcome. The Nuggets shot under 36% (32-for-90) from the field and 29% (4-for-14) from three-point range. Meanwhile, L.A. hit half of their field goal attempts in the victory.
Game 2 of the series is in L.A. on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m.
The Spurs will host the Jazz once again in Game 2 on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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