Spurs overwhelm Suns with third-quarter surge

Another big comeback by the San Antonio Spurs. Now the Phoenix Suns will need one.

Tony Parker scored 32 points to lead the Spurs to a 102-96 victory in Game 2 on Tuesday night after the Suns gave away another double-digit, first-half lead.

On Tuesday, the Spurs were down by as many as 14 in the first half before outscoring Phoenix, 27-11, in a breakout third quarter.

The Spurs still had to withstand a fourth-quarter surge that got the Suns to within five points with 14 seconds to play, but the defending champions have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Amare Stoudemire led the Suns with 33 points but struggled after halftime, when he shot two for 11 from the field.

The Spurs went up by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter after taking control in the third. But Steve Nash led a 10-0 run to bring Phoenix to within 96-91 with 2:44 left on the clock.

Nash had 23 points and 10 assists for the Suns. Manu Ginobili scored 29 points for San Antonio.

New Orleans 127, Dallas 103 – Chris Paul, who had a brilliant playoff debut in Game 1, provided quite the encore in Game 2 by finishing with 32 points and a franchise playoff-record 17 assists in leading the host Hornets to another blowout victory and a 2-0 lead in the series.

The old record was 15 assists, set by Muggsy Bogues in 1993.

David West scored 27 points and Peja Stojakovic 22 for New Orleans, which took a double-digit lead in the second quarter, led by as much as 25 in the third and never looked back. The Hornets shot 60.8 % (48 for 79).

The series now moves to Dallas, where the Hornets have not won since January 1998.

Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 27 points, but Jason Kidd had only seven points and eight assists.

Paul had 35 points and 10 assists in Game 1.

Orlando 104, Toronto 103 – Dwight Howard had 29 points and 20 rebounds, his second straight 20-20 game, and the host Magic held on to take a 2-0 series lead.

Chris Bosh had 29 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto but missed a 19-footer with 1.9 seconds left that could have won the game. Jason Kapono scored 20 points for the Raptors.

Hedo Turkoglu made the go-ahead layup and finished with 12 points and nine rebounds for Orlando.

Toronto, which trailed most of the game, took a 101-100 lead with 1:04 left on three consecutive three-pointers, one from Carlos Delfino and two by Jose Calderon, plus a free throw by Delfino. Turkoglu then scored on an acrobatic layup before sinking two free throws before Delfino answered with a layup to set up Bosh’s final shot.

Howard became the first player to record consecutive playoff games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds since the San Francisco Warriors’ Nate Thurmond in 1969.