NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

Sweep sends Spurs to Finals for first time since 2007

San Antonio Spurs head coach  Gregg Popovich, left,  talks to San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, of France, during a timeout in the first half of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, in Memphis, Tenn., Monday, May 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, left, talks to San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, of France, during a timeout in the first half of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, in Memphis, Tenn., Monday, May 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

MEMPHIS - The San Antonio Spurs are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since they won their last championship back in 2007, and this trip feels even more special for a team counted out as too old to contend anymore.

Tony Parker scored 37 points in his best game this post season, and the San Antonio Spurs finished off a sweep Monday night of the Memphis Grizzlies with a 93-86 victory in the Western Conference final.

“It’s a great feeling,” Parker said as he sat with the Western Conference trophy perched in front of him. “Since last year, I promised Tim [Duncan] we would go back to the Finals and get an opportunity to win the whole thing, and I’m trying to do my best to be aggressive every night. I think everybody on the team, we really want to do it for him.

“We win the West and now one more step. It’s the hardest one.”

The Spurs have won six consecutive in these playoffs, handing two consecutive losses to a team that had been undefeated on their own court in their best postseason in franchise history. Memphis finished off its best season ever swept by the same franchise that needed four games to knock them out of their first playoff appearance back in 2004.

Parker made 15 of 21 shots and all six at the free-throw line, earning the Spurs and Duncan plenty of rest before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 6.

“He’s been amazing,” Duncan said. “Every year he gets better and better and better. He’s been carrying us. You can see tonight he carried us the entire game.”

Duncan hugged Manu Ginobili before heading off the court, celebrating the chance at a title that slipped away a year ago when the Spurs blew a 2-0 lead to Oklahoma City by losing four consecutive. Duncan, 37, finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. Kawhi Leonard added 11.

“We want to get back there,” Duncan said of making the NBA Finals. “We’ve had some really close years where we fell right on the verge of getting back. It feels like forever since we’ve been there.”

Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said the fact they are back in the championship game after a six-year drought likely won’t sink in for a bit, although it already felt pretty good.

“You don’t expect that to happen maybe this late in the game with the same group,”Popovich said. “It’s tough to do with the same group. It’s tough to do, to maintain something that long. It just shows the character of those three guys and the ability to play with whoever else is brought in around them. They deserve a lot of credit for that.”

Memphis Coach Lionel Hollins had talked about how his Grizzlies needed to dig deep for something they didn’t know they had to take the first step back into this series, but they couldn’t out shoot the Spurs and were beaten again at their own inside game.

The Spurs shot 51.3 percent (39 of 76) from the floor and outscored Memphis 52-32 in the paint, even though the Grizzlies had a 41-34 rebounding edge. Memphis led only briefly and the last at 6-4 as the Spurs took control early.

Memphis stayed close only by getting to the free-throw line, making more shots there (17 of 24) than San Antonio took (12 of 13). The Grizzlies also got a career-high 22 points from reserve Quincy Pondexter, 18 of those in the second half. Pondexter was the only player from Memphis to shoot better than .500. Zach Randolph finished with 13 and continued to struggle at the line, where he was 5 of 8, and Marc Gasol had 14.

“We learned that winning isn’t easy and winning championships is one of the hardest things you can possibly do,” Pondexter said. “I think our guys really dug deep to get as far as we did, and San Antonio’s a tremendous team. We’re going to take a couple pages out of their book.”

Duncan had taken care of the Grizzlies by scoring the big points in overtime in each of the last two games. Parker took over this time as he hit 14of his first 18 shots, and he hit the biggest shot with 9:15 left when he knocked down his lone three-pointer over the outstretched arms of Tony Allen and Randolph after Memphis pulled to within 76-73.

Sports, Pages 13 on 05/28/2013

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