Today in Spurs History: Big 3 Dominate, Take Game 2 of NBA Finals Over LeBron's Cavs
The San Antonio Spurs would not be denied a fourth championship in the 2007 NBA Finals. In a 4-0 sweep over the Cleveland Cavaliers and rising superstar LeBron James, the Spurs officially cemented themselves as a NBA dynasty of the 2000s.
And 15 years ago on this date, June 10, 2007, San Antonio got halfway to the finish line in a 103-92 victory in Game 2 at the AT&T Center.
James scored the game's first bucket to give the Cavs an early 2-0 lead. But from that point on, it was all Spurs, as they never trailed the rest of the game and led by as many as 29.
The Spurs led 58-33 at the half, as Tony Parker led all scorers with 16 points while adding three rebounds and two dimes. Tim Duncan posted 15 first-half points and Manu Ginobili scored 12 off the bench for coach Gregg Popovich.
James led the Cavs with 13 points despite picking up two early fouls. Former Spurs assistant and Cleveland head coach Mike Brown elected to keep him on the bench at various points in the half to help his superstar stay out of more foul trouble, but it wound up hurting the Cavs in a major way on the scoreboard.
The Cavs outscored San Antonio 59-45 in the second half and used a furious rally late in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to as low as eight with just under five minutes to play.
But Ginobili's crucial four-point play with 2:24 left all but sealed the victory for the Spurs, who would take a 2-0 lead in the series headed into Game 3 in Cleveland.
Parker, who would go on to be named Finals MVP, scored a game-high 30 points on 13-20 shooting with four rebounds, two assists, and just two turnovers. Duncan had a near triple-double, as he filled it up with 23 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in 36 minutes. Ginobili added 25 points, which was bolstered by a perfect 11-11 shooting night from the foul line for the Argentinian.
No other Spur had more than six points.
James did his best to carry the Cavs to victory, totaling 25 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, but had six turnovers and went 9-21 from the floor.
In a series where the final deficit of every game was within single digits, the Spurs still managed to pull off what was the eighth sweep in NBA Finals history at the time.
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