Spurs Crush Suns

For one night at least, the San Antonio Spurs lived up their own high expectations.

David Robinson had 24 points and nine rebounds and Tim Duncan had 19 points and 15 boards Friday night as the Spurs routed the Phoenix Suns 102-83.

"I can't even remember a game this year, maybe one early in the season, where we played this good from start to finish," San Antonio's Avery Johnson said.

"We needed this one. We needed it bad," Duncan said. "Everybody knew it. We knew it coming in here. We wanted to go out there and play a very good game to get our groove back, get our feel back. We haven't been playing well on the road. We haven't been playing well against good teams. To get this under our belt, hopefully it will snowball and we'll really take off."

The Spurs were 13-for-13 at the foul line in the third quarter, while the Suns were 0-for-2.

Cliff Robinson scored 22 points for the Suns, who have lost three of four. Jason Kidd struggled through a 2-for-14 shooting night for four points, tying his season-low. Kidd also had 13 assists for Phoenix, which shot 37 percent from the field.

"Avery Johnson was stupendous on Jason tonight," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "He stayed in front of him in transition and played him tough on the glass. Antonio Daniels came in the game and contnued on what Avery did, and that was a key, because Jason is the head of the snake."

Tom Gugliotta, in his second game back after a life-threatening seizure sidelined him for seven games, scored 14 but only four in the second half.

It was the Suns' worst loss in 11 games with Scott Skiles as head coach.

"Every little play went their way because they made it go their way," Skiles said, "and they made the shots at the end of it. We missed a lot of shots at the basket, and once that ball starts rolling, it's hard to get it back."

The Spurs outscored Phoenix 30-16 in the third quarter and led 82-62 entering the final quarter.

"They outworked us. That's the bottom line," Cliff Robinson said. "We can't win consistently doing some of the things we're doing."

After leading 52-46 at the half, San Antonio scored eight consecutive points to go up 68-53 on Robinson's two free throws with 5:16 left in the third.

The Spurs' run hit 18-5 on consecutive baskets by Johnson to put San Antonio ahead 78-58 with 1:09 left in the quarter. Antonio Daniels' two free throws gave the Spurs their biggest lead of the quarter, 82-60, with 11.1 seconds to go.

By halftime, Robinson had 20 points and seven rebounds. He took 15 shots in the first half and made eight of them as the Spurs led 52-46 at the break. Robinson finished 9-for-19 from the field.

"We're a special team when David plays and contributes like he did tonight," Popovich said.

Robinson, who had a soaring one-handed stuff on a lob from Mario Elie in the second quarter, said he knew he needed to step up his offense.

"It was a flashback. It felt like one of those nights I could go out there and get 50," he said.

Duncan had nine points and six rebounds in the first half.

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