SAN ANTONIO -- Less than eight minutes into the game, nothing was going right for Tim Duncan. He had scored only two points when he picked up his third foul and headed to the bench.
Well rested for the second half, Duncan roared back with 16 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes to help the San Antonio Spurs to a come-from-behind 92-81 win Saturday night over the Washington Wizards.
"We did a great job tonight just sticking with it and bringing great energy in the second half," Duncan said.
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| Washington Wizards guard Michael Jordan (23) shoots around San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson (50) during the first quarter in San Antonio, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2002. (AP) |
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Tony Parker led all scorers with 21 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers in the game's final minutes as San Antonio won its third straight. Stephen Jackson added 17 points and David Robinson had 11 points. Duncan finished with 11 rebounds.
The Spurs trailed by 10 at the half but made 22 of 36 shots after the break to snap Washington's three-game winning streak. San Antonio, which ended the game with a 17-6 run, outrebounded the Wizards 45-28.
Michael Jordan, making his first appearance in San Antonio as a member of the Wizards, was impressed by Parker.
"We had to double-team and he's the guy we had to double-team from, and he made some big shots down the stretch," Jordan said. "That got them back in it."
The Wizards went ahead 77-75 on a dunk by Brendan Haywood with 4:29 left in the game before Parker made his first 3-pointer of the night. He followed with his second with 3:36 remaining to give the Spurs a 81-77 lead.
Jerry Stackhouse led Washington with 19 points, while Jordan and Christian Laettner had 16 points each.
The Spurs opened the third quarter with a 10-2 burst to pull within two, 47-45. Duncan tied the score at 51 on a pair of free throws with 6:22 remaining in the period.
Stackhouse made a jumper on Washington's next possession, but Bruce Bowen hit a 3-pointer from the corner to give San Antonio its first lead since the opening minutes. Duncan added a follow-up dunk on a missed layup.
"We didn't come out and match their intensity," Jordan said. "We had our shots and they had theirs, and they hit them."
After going down by five, the Wizards came back to even the score at 66 on a pair of free throws by Tyronn Lue with 14.8 seconds left in the quarter.
The Spurs scored the game's first five points before Washington found its range. The Wizards took a 10-9 lead on a driving layup by Jordan, and they would not trail for the rest of the first half.
Duncan went to the bench with his third personal with 4:24 left. Washington then went on a 9-2 run over the next two minutes, capped by a 12-foot turnaround by Stackhouse that gave it a 22-15 advantage.
The Wizards' lead grew to double digits late in the second as San Antonio struggled from the floor.
A jumper by Lue gave Washington a 37-27 lead, and Laettner stole the ball on two straight possessions and the Wizards converted both times to build their margin to 41-29 with 3:58 left in the half.
San Antonio's offense was woeful in the half. The Spurs managed only 12-for-38 (31.6 percent) shooting and missed half of their 20 free throws.
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