Roundup | Desperate Spurs surge late for win

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs' Big Three congregated around the scorer's table during a timeout in the fourth quarter, not long before they put the game away for good.

Tim Duncan patted Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. They all laughed.

The NBA's defending champions were not going into an 0-3 hole against the New Orleans Hornets.

Parker and Ginobili scored 31 points each and Duncan added 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Spurs beat the Hornets 110-99 in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals on Thursday night.

"We know that going 3-0 — it's never been done to come back like that," said Ginobili, who along with Parker consistently got to the rim. "Today, for us, it was a Game 7. We knew if we didn't win today, it was almost over. So we had a different approach. We played with more passion, more edge."

The Hornets still have a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is Sunday night in San Antonio.

Chris Paul, still almost unstoppable, led the Hornets with 35 points and nine assists. David West had 23 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, which was dominant in the first two games of the series.

"You got to give them a lot of credit," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "I thought they played a lot more aggressive tonight. A lot more physical. Basically kind of took us right out of our game. I thought we lost our composure tonight a little bit as well."

After trading leads all night, the Spurs led 83-78 entering the fourth quarter.

Ginobili, the league's top sixth man, started for the first time this postseason and led a Spurs charge early in the final quarter. Left alone, he hit a wide-open three-pointer and was fouled by Bonzi Wells, who scrambled at him to guard the shot. Ginobili's free throw put San Antonio up 87-82, and another three by Ginobili 38 seconds later made it 90-84.

New Orleans got within 90-88 before the Spurs took over, playing out the fourth quarter better than they have played all series.

"They made a lot more shots," Paul said. "We got away from our defensive game plan somewhat. We didn't defend as well as we did the first two games."

San Antonio went on an 11-0 burst to take a 101-88 lead with 5:57 to play.

The Spurs couldn't stop Paul, but West missed three of four free throws and the Hornets got no closer than 10 points in the latter half of the quarter.

At Celtics 89, Cavaliers 73

BOSTON — Paul Pierce and Ray Allen found their shooting touch. LeBron James can only hope he left his in Cleveland.

Pierce scored 19 points, Kevin Garnett added 13 with 12 rebounds, and Allen broke out of a seven-quarter scoring drought with 16 points to help Boston take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

One game after going 2 for 18 from the field and missing his last six shots, including a layup to tie the game with 8.5 seconds left, James missed his first three tries and finished with 21 points on 6-for-24 shooting.

"I'm a little shocked that he's 8 for 42 [in the series], but this is what we work on. We work on trying to contain him," said Pierce, who was 2 for 14 in Game 1.

Game 3 is Saturday night in Cleveland. The Cavaliers will need their crowd to pull them out of their funk because the Celtics are 6-0 in the playoffs in Boston.

"Being down 0-2, that's a tough hole to dig yourself out of. But if we want to win the series we've got to do it," James said, noting the Cavaliers lost the first two games to Detroit in last year's playoffs but won four straight to reach the finals.

James will have a more welcoming crowd for the next two games than the Boston fans who serenaded him with a chant of "Over-rated!" as he went 1 for 11 over the second and third quarters.

This time, the poor shooting was contagious: The Cavaliers shot 35.6 percent in the game, hitting just 11.8 percent in the second quarter as Boston turned an eight-point deficit into a nine-point lead.