NBA
SpURS 114, JAZZ 83
Tony Parker shooed away the NBA coach of the year. The San Antonio Spurs were ahead 36 points and he didn't want Gregg Popovich to end his night just yet.
"To stay in shape," Parker said.
That's how bad it got for the Utah Jazz. It was the third quarter of a playoff game, and Parker by then was practically treating it as just another workout.
Pummeling the Jazz in a fashion not seen since Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls humiliated them in the 1998 NBA Finals, San Antonio handed Utah its second-worst playoff loss, winning 114-83 on Wednesday night to take 2-0 lead in the first-round series.
Parker scored 18 points, while Popovich -- a day after receiving the NBA's highest coaching honor -- could practically put the Spurs on autopilot after a 20-0 run in the second quarter. Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin had admitted to being unusually jittery before losing Game 1, but this time, it was center Al Jefferson summing up how this shiner felt.
"Embarrassing," he said.
The only bigger embarrassment for the Jazz in the playoffs was that 42-point loss to Jordan's Bulls in 1998.
Game 3 is Saturday night in Salt Lake City.
It's the first time the Spurs have led a series 2-0 since opening the 2008 playoffs against Phoenix. San Antonio won that series in five, and unless the Jazz can shake this off, this one will be over just as quick.
If not sooner.
"I can't explain it. I couldn't explain it the other night," Jazz forward Paul Millsap said. "They came out and just whipped us."
It was a total collapse by the Jazz in spite of flying back to Salt Lake City after Game 1 and regrouping with two days of practice back home. There they had talked about adjustments and maybe giving Parker "a hard foul or two" to get him thinking twice about driving, but Parker didn't seem to have a dent on him before taking the entire fourth quarter off.
Jefferson and Millsap weren't any more imposing on offense than they were defensively. Jefferson scored 10 points, and Millsap had nine.
Popovich chalked the blowout more to the Jazz having a bad night -- they shot 23 percent in the first half -- than the Spurs dominating. Parker played 28 minutes and Popovich said the decision on when to take his star out was a struggle between keeping him in condition and not risking injury.
"He wanted to get the whole quarter, but we compromised and got two more minutes," Popovich said. "He's been special for us all year, obviously. We got to keep him ready to go."
Jefferson and Josh Howard, who also had 10 points, were Utah's leading scorers.
Pacers 97, MAgic 74
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Danny Granger had 26 points and nine rebounds, Roy Hibbert added 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Indiana beat Orlando Magic to a take a 2-1 lead in the first-round series. Game 4 is Saturday in Orlando.
The Pacers regained home-court advantage with the victory, riding good shooting early and building a 29-point lead in the fourth quarter.
They also dominated scoring underneath thanks to a 46-33 rebounding edge and have outscored the Magic 81-43 in the third quarter in the series.
Glen Davis led the Magic with 22 points, and J.J. Redick added 13. The Magic never led, struggled to get any scoring in the paint, and made a series-low five 3-pointers.
AROUND THE NBA
Knicks' Chandler voted Defensive Player of Year: Tyson Chandler, the catalyst for the New York Knicks' defensive improvement, was voted the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday.
Chandler beat out Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka and three-time champion Dwight Howard of Orlando to become the first Knicks player to win the award. Miami's LeBron James and Boston's Kevin Garnett rounded out the top five.
Grizzlies guard Tony Allen finished sixth in the voting and Memphis' Mike Conely and Marc Gasol also received votes for the award. The Grizzlies were the only team to have three players receive votes.
Stoudemire says 'great chance' he'll play in Game 4: Amare Stoudemire says there's a "great chance" he can play in Game 4 of the Knicks' series against Miami on Sunday despite cutting his left hand on a fire extinguisher case.
Stoudemire is out of tonight's Game 3 after a surgeon repaired a muscle in the hand Tuesday. The Knicks are calling him doubtful for Game 4, but Stoudemire says he's "not totally sure yet."
Stoudemire, wearing a large wrap around his hand, says he has reason for hope because "I just persevere through a lot of injuries and work hard to recover from injuries."
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