Spurs guard scores 55 in double-OT win over Minnesota
McClatchy Newspapers
MINNEAPOLIS — If all the world is indeed a stage — and Target Center’s court fabulously became one Wednesday night — the arena’s public-address announcer would have preceded San Antonio’s 129-125 double-overtime victory over the Timberwolves with these hushed words borrowed from the theatre:
Playing the part of Manu Ginobili is Tony Parker.
And then some.
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Parker shattered his career high by scoring 55 points — the most ever against a Timberwolves team — on a night when the Wolves fell to 1-3 but for the first time this season displayed the team they could become.
Last season, Ginobili single-handedly won a pair of games at Target Center by scoring 31 points in November and 44 in February. The Wolves might have figured they got a break when the Spurs arrived Wednesday with an 0-3 record for the first time since the team’s first American Basketball Association season in San Antonio 35 years ago and without Ginobili, out until December while he heals from ankle surgery.
Sorry.
Parker took every defender — Corey Brewer and Sebastian Telfair, to name two — the Wolves threw at him and dissected the Wolves both with an unusual number of made jump shots and with his expected dashes to the rim. He forced the second overtime with a jump shot at the buzzer and then put the Spurs ahead to stay by scoring the opening four points of that second overtime.
"It was just one of those games when everything you do — tear drops, jump shots — works," Parker said. "I’ve scored 40 in Europe and 45 or 46 in high school, but never 50."
His 55 points exceeded his previous NBA career high by 17 points. The Spurs on Wednesday played their second game in as many nights after losing at home to Dallas on Tuesday.
"That’s as many jump shots as I’ve seen Tony Parker make in a game," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said of a night when Parker made 22 of 36 field-goal attempts and teammates Tim Duncan and Roger Mason combined for another 56 points. "That’s what you try to do, make him shoot jump shots. I told our guys afterward, we could easily be 3-1. The reality is we’re 1-3."
In defeat, in the season’s fourth game, the Wolves for the first time displayed the team and the lineup they envisioned when they made that draft-night trade with Memphis five months ago:
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For the first time, veteran Mike Miller asserted himself, scoring the team’s first seven points and finishing with 25 points that included five three-pointers. For the first time, rookie Kevin Love became a prime-time player, delivering a 14-point, nine-rebound performance in 35 minutes (by 13 minutes a season high) that included a spot with the starters to open the second half. And for the first time this season, Telfair, back from a season-opening, three-game suspension, played and ran the show down the stretch until he fouled with 1:29 left in the first overtime.
They also made just enough mistakes to lose: Al Jefferson’s missed free throw late in regulation time allowed Tim Duncan to tie the score with 2.7 seconds left. Randy Foye then threw the inbounds pass directly to Bruce Bowen, denying the Wolves of a potential winning shot. In the overtimes, they allowed one or two offensive rebounds too many.
"You don’t want to lose too many to build on," Miller said.
SPURS 129, WOLVES 125
SAN ANTONIO (129)
Bowen 1-1 0-0 3, Duncan 12-26 6-7 30, Bonner 0-0 0-0 0, Parker 22-36 9-10 55, Finley 1-9 0-0 3, Oberto 1-2 0-0 2, Mason 9-16 6-6 26, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Udoka 4-5 0-1 8, Hill 0-2 2-4 2. Totals 50-97 23-28 129.
MINNESOTA (125)
Brewer 5-11 5-5 15, Gomes 3-8 1-1 7, Jefferson 12-27 6-9 30, Foye 5-11 0-0 11, Miller 10-19 0-0 25, Love 4-13 5-6 14, Telfair 3-6 2-2 8, Smith 2-3 4-5 8, McCants 3-8 0-0 7, Ollie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 47-106 23-28 125.
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San Antonio 18 27 29 32 10 13 — 129
Minnesota 18 31 22 35 10 9 — 1253-Point Goals — San Antonio 6-13 (Parker 2-3, Mason 2-4, Bowen 1-1, Finley 1-5), Minnesota 8-19 (Miller 5-7, Love 1-2, Foye 1-3, McCants 1-5, Brewer 0-2). Fouled Out — Telfair. Rebounds — San Antonio 56 (Duncan 16), Minnesota 60 (Jefferson 14). Assists — San Antonio 25 (Parker 10), Minnesota 35 (Telfair 10). Total Fouls — San Antonio 25, Minnesota 26. Technicals — Minnesota defensive three second 2. Attendance — 11,112 (19,443).
