Spurs Ready if Lakers Willing, Able

It’s out there now, officially and, if they still want it, unavoidably: A playoff rematch with the San Antonio Spurs awaits the Lakers if they can finish off the Houston Rockets.

The Spurs, defending NBA champions, overwhelmed the Memphis Grizzlies, 110-97, on Sunday night in the Pyramid, wrapping up a sweep of their first-round series and moving on to the Western Conference semifinals, where a year ago they ended the Lakers’ run of three consecutive titles.

They made 58.7% of their shots, 11 of 17 from beyond the three-point arc. Unbeaten since March 23, they led comfortably throughout the second half and stretched their winning streak to 15 games.

Tony Parker scored 29 points, matching his playoff career high, and also had 13 assists. Tim Duncan scored 26 points on his 28th birthday. Former Laker Robert Horry, again raising the level of his game at playoff time, scored 14 points and, killing a number of rallies, made four of five three-point shots.

The Grizzlies, meanwhile, ended their storybook season -- in which they won 50 games, eclipsing the previous franchise record by 22 victories -- on a sour note, losing their last eight games and 10 of 11.

Pau Gasol scored 22 points, and James Posey had 20 points and 11 rebounds, but the Grizzlies never got closer than nine points in the second half.

“There’s no joy to going out 0-4,” Grizzly Coach Hubie Brown said, “but I can handle this because of who we just went out [against]....

“We didn’t get taken out by a team that’s playing bad basketball; we just got taken out by a team at the height of its game. So, from that standpoint, if you’re going to get taken out, you always want to get taken out by a superior team playing to its maximum, and that’s what you just saw.”

The Spurs, playing at home, won the first two games of the series by an average of 21 points, then overcame a 10-point deficit to win Game 3, 95-93, at Memphis, pushing the young Grizzlies to the brink of elimination.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal, anticipating the end, wondered in its Sunday editions about the future of the 13-year-old Pyramid, which will become a white elephant next season when the Grizzlies move into their new arena.

But overconfidence, the Spurs said, was not a concern.

“Coach Pop is going to take care of that,” Parker said with a laugh before the game, referring to Coach Gregg Popovich. “He was screaming yesterday in the video room; I don’t even know why. He’s always going to push us. He knows we’ve got high expectations.”

The Grizzlies, playoff neophytes, had fed off the emotion of an electric atmosphere in the Pyramid to build an early lead in Game 3. They brought out a similar cast of characters for Game 4: a towel-waving sellout crowd, Elvis impersonators, etc. Isaac Hayes sang the national anthem.

The decibel level was through the pitched roof as the Grizzlies jumped to a 10-4 lead, but the Spurs answered with a 14-2 run and the volume decreased, as did the Grizzlies’ chances of sending the series back to San Antonio.

It picked up again when the Grizzlies closed to within 44-39 late in the second quarter, but the Spurs closed the half with a 13-6 run. They led at halftime, 57-45, after making nearly 63% of their shots.

Parker, knocked to the floor early and often, picked himself up and scored 14 points in the first quarter, helping the Spurs to a lead they never lost.