Overconfident after seizing a 29-point lead, the San Antonio Spurs squandered most of that edge Sunday before holding off Cleveland 103-92 in the National Basketball Association Finals.
Tony Parker scored 30 points, Manu Ginobili scored 25 and Tim Duncan added 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as the Spurs seized a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Cleveland for game today.
The Spurs were in a position to humiliate the Cavaliers, leading 89-60 lead with 12:50 remaining, and instead allowed LeBron James and Cleveland's bench to spark a 27-6 run and rally within 95-87 with 4:15 to play before falling short.
"It was really disappointing," Ginobili said. "We played such a great game for three quarters. To see the team stop in the fourth, that was irresponsible of us. We have to finish the game. That was way too much."
"We got overconfident. We were feeling so good about ourselves and then we stopped moving the ball and let LeBron get open. We have to learn from that. We can't allow ourselves to do that in Cleveland or they are going to kill us," he said.
The Spurs led 58-33 at half-time, then wasted one of the most dominant first-half thrashings in NBA Finals history.
James, benched with early foul trouble, scored 25 points on 9-of-21 shooting and led the comeback. But a four-point play by Ginobili gave the Spurs a 101-89 lead with 2:24 remaining to finally subdue the Cavaliers.
"We don't want to get blown out," James said. "It becomes a pride thing when you are down so many points in the fourth quarter. We have to find a way to get our intensity up and carry what happened in the fourth quarter over into game three. We're definitely still confident. We have to come out and be more aggressive in game three."
Parker scored 16 first-half points while Duncan added 15 and Ginobili 12 to produce a 25-point half-time margin. No team in NBA Finals history recovered from so large a deficit to win.
"They made a hell of a run in the fourth quarter. That's going to give them confidence going back to Cleveland," Parker said.
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