SAN ANTONIO ? Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs knew exactly what to expect from Indiana.
Duncan scored 27 points, Tony Parker had 26 and San Antonio clamped down on defense in the second half for a 111-98 victory over the Pacers on Thursday night.
“These are great games for us,” Duncan said. “We know they’re a tough defensive team. They have (former Spurs assistant coach) Mike Brown, who basically runs our defense. He runs our zone. It’s like playing ourselves on defense.”
Manu Ginobili added 18 points and Duncan grabbed 12 rebounds for San Antonio, which improved to 8-0 at home against Eastern Conference teams and 16-1 overall at the SBC Center.
The Spurs earned their seventh double-digit victory in eight games, but it didn’t come easy.
Jermaine O’Neal had 32 points and nine rebounds for Indiana, and Jamaal Tinsley finished with 18 points and eight assists.
“They played very well,” O’Neal said. “There were some questionable things that happened with the officials, but you’ve got to play the game, and the Spurs just outplayed us tonight.”
Parker got San Antonio off to a fast start by scoring 10 points in the first quarter on a series of layups.
Still, the Spurs only led 57-51 at halftime despite shooting 54 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. San Antonio also held a 10-0 advantage in second-chance points through the first two quarters and a 10-point edge in the paint.
For the game, the Spurs outrebounded Indiana 43-23.
“Our undoing tonight was the difference between the rebounds and second-chance points,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We shot a good percentage and we didn’t play great defensively, but when you have a difference of 20 possessions you’re going to pay the price against a good team.”
O’Neal scored 14 points in the first half and Tinsley added 13. O’Neal was able to draw three early fouls on Spurs center Rasho Nesterovic, who played only eight minutes in the first half.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich turned to Robert Horry with Nesterovic in foul trouble, and the veteran responded with his best performance of the season. Horry scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and had two blocked shots, including a monstrous swat on O’Neal’s drive in the first quarter.
“He’s been great,” Parker said. “Robert in the last couple of games brings us a lot of energy. He had great blocks and hit some 3s. That’s what we need from him. He’s playing great.”
With Horry starting in the second half, San Antonio went on a 22-12 run to open the third quarter. Duncan, Parker and Bruce Bowen combined to score all the points during the run.
The Spurs outscored Indiana 46-36 in the paint, but the Pacers’ frontcourt of O’Neal, David Harrison and Jeff Foster did pull their team to 84-78 at the end of the third quarter.
The Spurs closed the game with a strong defensive effort in the final period, however. They limited the Pacers to two points off turnovers in the second half.
