Spurs roll on into Finals

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker wasted no time showing how serious the San Antonio Spurs were about getting back into the NBA Finals -- immediately.

Duncan and Parker powered an early 14-0 spurt that featured perhaps the most dominant stretch the Spurs have played all postseason and the Utah Jazz never recovered, watching San Antonio cruise to a 109-84 victory Wednesday night and into the championship round for the third time in five years.

The Spurs took all the suspense out of it by taking a 23-point lead early in the second quarter. Although Utah got an emotional lift at halftime when Derek Fisher arrived from New York, where his infant daughter was getting medical care for a rare eye condition, the only thing in doubt by then was whether San Antonio would play Detroit or Cleveland in the Finals.

The title series begins a week from today in San Antonio, regardless of who comes out of the East. The Pistons-Cavaliers series is tied, 2-2, with Game 5 tonight in Detroit.

“It’s great, it’s about the journey,” Duncan said. “Last year we had a tough finish. This year to come back, put the team together and to go through three really, really good teams to get here, it’s tremendous.”

San Antonio led only 16-11 when the game-breaking stretch began with Parker cutting through several big guys and making a tough layup. Over the next 2:13, Parker had seven more points, plus a perfect lob that Duncan slammed with as much authority as he ever does.

Then Bruce Bowen capped the blitz with a three-point basket from the left corner that put the Spurs up, 30-11. They’d made eight straight shots, were 12 for 16 for the game, and were outrebounding the Jazz, 13-4. With Fisher missing and starting point guard Deron Williams slowed by a sprained right foot, Utah never recovered.

“They came at us really hard,” Utah Coach Jerry Sloan said. “They destroyed our will to want to play.”