SAN ANTONIO (AP) – The veteran San Antonio Spurs showed Portland a few things about succeeding in the playoffs. The biggest lesson was how not to panic when an All-Star goes down.
Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard each scored 22 points, and San Antonio overcame an injury to Tony Parker to close out the Western Conference semi-finals with a 104-82 victory last night.
Patty Mills scored 18 points and Tim Duncan had 16 points and eight rebounds for San Antonio, which had four blowout victories in the five-game series.
It’s the third straight conference finals appearance for San Antonio, which lost a heartbreaking seven-game series to the Miami Heat in last season’s NBA Finals.
San Antonio, which had the NBA’s best record, will await the winner of the series between Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Thunder have a 3-2 lead.
“Whoever’s the best team, I want to play them,” Leonard said. “It’s gonna prepare us for the (NBA) finals.”
LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points for Portland, while Damian Lillard added 17 points and ten assists.
After returning to the court with 9:46 minutes remaining in the second quarter following his normal rest, Parker left the game exactly a minute later with a hamstring injury. He headed back to the locker room followed closely by San Antonio general manager R.C. Buford and team physician, Dr Paul Saenz.
Leonard, Mills and Green pressed the action on both ends. San Antonio finished with 13 steals, including five for Leonard, while forcing 18 turnovers.
