Sonics fall to Spurs

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO – Avenging one of their two losses, the San Antonio Spurs scored 68 first-half points to make sure the Seattle SuperSonics wouldn’t recover.

Tim Duncan shot 13-for-16 and scored 30 points with 13 rebounds to lead the Spurs over the SuperSonics 110-93 Wednesday night.

“This was a satisfying game in that it’s the first time we’ve gotten ahead of someone and played for 48 minutes and not let them back in,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “Seattle’s a hard team to do that against. Tonight we kept our intensity up and executed.”

Duncan was backed by Steve Smith and Tony Parker, both scoring 13 points, David Robinson’s 12 and Malik Rose’s 11.

“I thought we did a great job coming and setting the tempo,” said Duncan, who had his eighth double-double of the season. “We hit the offensive glass knowing we had size on them and that really put them back on their heels early.”

Seattle was led by Gary Payton with 17 points, while Brent Barry added 13.

The Spurs never trailed in the game, connecting on 16 of 26 first quarter field goal attempts and leading 40-20 after the first 12 minutes. Duncan had 16 of his points in the first quarter.

“Tonight we faced a team that felt like they had given a game to us earlier in the season,” said Seattle coach Nate McMillan, whose team beat San Antonio 114-108 on Nov. 1 in Seattle. “They were sharp tonight and came out like they had something to prove. They are the better team and they played like it tonight. They beat us every way you can beat a team tonight. At no time were we in that game tonight except in the opening minutes.”

San Antonio established a season-high with 68 first-half points, leading 68-44 at intermission as Rose came off the bench to score 11 second-quarter points.

Seattle could get no closer than 18 points in the third quarter, and San Antonio reeled off a 10-0 run at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth to lead 93-65 on a layup by Antonio Daniels with 10:30 to play.

Seattle could get no closer that 17 points the rest of the way.

The 8-2 start is the best in 20 years for the Spurs.

“We came out and set the tone early,” Duncan said. “We kind of owed these guys one for what they did to us earlier in the year. It was a great game throughout.”