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Monday, Mar. 5 10:00pm ET
Spurs hand Grizzlies eighth straight defeat

RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME FLOW

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had his doubts during his team's game against the Grizzlies, although they weren't as strong during a long stretch of the second half.

Tim Duncan
The Spurs' Tim Duncan lays up an easy first-half basket against the Grizzlies.
San Antonio held Vancouver scoreless for a nine-minute stretch Monday night in a 91-77 win over Vancouver.

Trailing by as many as eight points early in the second half, Popovich was starting to think his team might be looking past Vancouver as the Spurs began a stretch of four games in five nights.

Those fears were dispelled late in the third quarter after Vancouver's Mike Bibby hit a jumper with 57 seconds left to tie the game at 67-all.

The Spurs didn't allow so much as a free throw until Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf connected on a runner with 8:03 gone in the fourth quarter and the game already in garbage time.

The 23-2 run bridging the third and fourth quarters enabled the Spurs to win their 15th straight game against the Grizzlies, who lost their eighth in a row overall. The scoreless drought was three seconds off a franchise record for Vancouver.

"That's pretty tough to do," Popovich said. "When we play defense, we're a hell of a team. When we don't, we're another guy on the street. They finally realized that we were going to be beaten if we don't play defense because (Vancouver) is going to play until the end."

Bibby came within a foul shot of matching the 25-point effort of San Antonio's Derek Anderson, who carried the Spurs while Tim Duncan and David Robinson struggled offensively, combining for 25 points on 11-for-32 shooting.

San Antonio started the contest quickly, hitting 10 of its first 14 field goal attempts, mostly from the perimeter. However, the Grizzlies hung tough defensively and began to get baskets inside, even against the twin towers of Duncan and Robinson.

Vancouver led by as many as eight points in the first half and 49-47 at the break, partially a result of a 21-19 edge on the boards against the Spurs, the NBA's top defensive rebounding team.

Poor shooting by the Spurs also played a factor. San Antonio shot 35 percent in the second quarter and opened the second half by missing nine of its first 11 tries.

"Missed layups, missed free throws, missed everything," Duncan said. "Luckily we had two halves to play."

"We didn't quit," said Grizzlies coach Sidney Lowe. "If anything, I think we tried too hard. You saw guys try to go on their own between double-teams, trying to make a move before we even catch a ball.

Game notes
A calf injury forced the Spurs to place guard Jaren Jackson on the injured list. Center Shawnelle Scott was activated. The Grizzlies placed Brent Price on the injured list and activated Kevin Edwards, who had not played since Jan. 19... The Spurs won their three previous meetings against Vancouver by an average 21.4 points. ... The game began with no fewer than nine top-five NBA draft picks in uniform, the most among any two clubs in the league. The announced attendance of 10,798 was the second lowest in franchise history for Vancouver.

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 Stromile Swift throws down the alley-oop from Mike Bibby.
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