23.01.2004

SAN ANTONIO (86) AT PHOENIX (84)
Stats

The Phoenix Suns guarded Tim Duncan a 
little too well, and that allowed Tony Parker to get the last
shot.

Parker's 21-foot jumper with 3.8 seconds remaining snapped a tie
as the San Antonio Spurs pulled out an 86-84 victory over the
Suns.

Duncan had struggled to get open looks due to tight defense by
Jake Voskhul and was not open on the final play.  The Spurs were
trying to get the ball to Duncan, but Parker was free.  With
five seconds left on the shot clock, the point guard hit a
21-footer over Howard Eisley to give the Spurs the lead.

"I had no clue who was going to take it, I had no idea," Spurs
coach Gregg Popovich said. "I just wanted anybody that might
make a shot to take it.  With our team, we've had a tough time
field goal percentage wise and free throws wise, so I really
don't have any preference right now to tell you the truth."

"They tried to double team, so I kept the ball and let the clock
go down and I was confident to take that shot and make it,"
Parker said. "They doubled Timmy every time and we had some
pretty good wide open shots and some pretty good penetration so
we just tried to get something going."

Parker's clutch jumper capped an otherwise poor shooting night
for San Antonio, which shot 40 percent (37-of-92).  Parker had
missed 12 of his first 16 shots before giving the Spurs just
their fifth regular-season win in the last 25 visits to Phoenix.

After a timeout, Phoenix had once last chance to tie and
intended to give Casey Jacobsen or Joe Johnson the ball.  But
Voskhul's pass was deflected by Hedo Turkoglu and resulted in a
jump ball with 0.1 seconds left.

"Obviously we had a chance to win," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni
said. "I am proud of the way the guys fought.  We did not play
well all the time and we made mistakes, but they kept fighting
and fighting and that is all we can expect out of them right
now."

The dramatic ending was nothing new for these teams, who met in
San Antonio on opening night with the Spurs posting a one-point
win.  But before the season-opening win, the teams played a
grueling six-game playoff series in which three games were
decided by two points or less and five were decided by less than
10.

Although the Suns dramatically have changed their roster since
last season, neither Popovich or Duncan were surprised that the
Suns kept the contest close.

"Typical, Suns-Spurs game," Popovich said. "They are always
tough on us.  They spread the floor.  It always seems like every
game is like this."

"It's always like this," added Duncan, who collected 25 points
and 12 rebounds.  "These guys really get up for us. They have a
great game plan to counter what we do and it always seems to end
up that way."

The Suns faced a 69-62 deficit through three quarters but took a
78-77 lead with just over four minutes remaining on Johnson's
jumper.

But after Shawn Marion's basket gave Phoenix an 84-80 edge with
1:25 to play, Duncan scored his first points of the quarter with
68 seconds left.  A penetrating Parker found Rasho Nesterovic
for a tying dunk 32 seconds later.