The San Antonio Spurs withstood a furious late charge by the Cleveland Cavaliers to claim a 103-92 victory on Sunday and take a 2-0 lead in the NBA finals.
San Antonio were cruising with a 29-point lead late in the third quarter but Cleveland went on a 25-6 run to start the final period to slice the Spurs' advantage to 95-87.
Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, however, was fouled by Daniel Gibson while hitting a three-point shot and his four-point play hiked the Spurs lead to 101-89 with just 2:24 to go.
"He jumped into me, but I had time enough to finish the shot, so of course it was a big play and I was very, very happy for it," said the Argentine, who finished with 25 points.
Guard Tony Parker paced the Spurs with 30 points, hitting 13 of 20 shots on a variety of jumpers and running one-handers while slicing through the lane. Forward Tim Duncan added 23 on nine of 16 shooting.
LeBron James scored 25 points on nine of 21 shooting but was ineffective until Cleveland's late charge. The Cavaliers outscored San Antonio 30-14 in the final quarter but were unable to complete the comeback.
"We're definitely still confident," said James.
"It doesn't matter if you lose by one or lose by 30 with us. A loss is a loss, and we've been down 2-0 before in this situation.
"So we have to find a way to bring the intensity that we did in the fourth quarter tonight and carry it on to game three."
The best-of-seven series shifts to Cleveland for games three, four and, if necessary, five.
BRING THE JUICE
San Antonio was so dominant in the opening half that few would have bet against them going on to win their third championship in the last five years.
Cleveland coach Mike Brown said mistakes are plaguing his team.
"There's nothing magical that's going to help us out on the floor," he said.
"It's as simple as that. There's no magic play, magic defense. This is a good team and we've got to bring the juice, and right now we're not."
The Spurs went on a 12-0 run with James on the bench to stretch a 16-13 first-quarter lead to 28-16. James played only three minutes of the opening quarter after picking up his second foul with 9:05 left in the period.
San Antonio held a 58-33 lead at the half and was dominant in every statistical category, much to the delight of the 18,797 fans in the AT&T Center.
The Cavaliers shot only 26.8 percent in the opening half, including just one of eight from three-point range.
More from rediff