Suns never lead as Spurs assert their superiority

Last Saturday, the Suns were seconds away from stealing a playoff-opening win in San Antonio and sending a strong message to their longtime postseason nemesis.

A week later, they are poised to be the first team sent home for the summer.

SLIDESHOW: View photos of Suns-Spurs Game 3 action

Bordow: Plan blows up in Suns’ face

Suns dirty? Spurs' accusation unproven

Phoenix feels as good as home for the Spurs

Since Tim Duncan’s game-tying 3-pointer went through the hoop to send Game 1 to a second overtime, the Spurs have done all the talking — and all the winning.

The defending NBA champions left little doubt that their superiority over the Suns remains intact Friday with a 115-99 win that was total and absolute.

Tony Parker destroyed Phoenix for a career-high 41 points and dished 12 assists to boot as the Spurs, who spotted Phoenix double-digit leads in the first two games of the series, led from start to finish and by as many as 23 points to take the Suns and the US Airways Center crowd out quickly.

Parker lit up Steve Nash early. Then he picked apart fellow Frenchman Boris Diaw.

Grant Hill, moving well for the first time in the series, took a turn. Then the Suns tried a zone. Nothing worked.

“That was the best I’ve ever seen somebody play. They just beat us,” Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Whatever we tried to do, they seemed to have an answer.”

The Suns, who were the only NBA team not to lose three straight games during the regular season, are now the only team down 0-3 in the postseason. No team in NBA history has every come back from 0-3 in a seven-game series.

And the Spurs, who have won eight of their last 10 playoff games in Phoenix, can sweep the series here on Sunday afternoon and send the Suns home for the third time in four years and the fourth time in six years.

“They played playoff basketball. It’s pure and simple,” Suns forward Amaré Stoudemire said. “There’s no out of control plays, no shooting the ball within the first seconds. They take their time and make sure they get a good shot every time down … that’s how you win a title.”

The Suns tried to keep the Spurs out of the paint and succeeded, holding them to just 28 points. They tried to reclaim the edge in fast-break points, and did so (12-2). But that left the midrange game wide open, and Parker (17-for-26 from the field), Manu Ginobili (7-for-11) and Tim Duncan (9-for-15) drilled jumper after jumper over their helpless foes.

“I wanted to be aggressive. They were backing off the pick-and-rolls and I took every shot,” said Parker, who hit his first four shots and six of eight in the first quarter to set the tone. “We just clicked tonight. We played great defense and didn’t give up anything easy.”

Meanwhile, nothing came easy for the Suns. Stoudemire had 28 points and 11 rebounds and Leandro Barbosa came alive with 20 off the bench, but Nash managed only seven points and eight shots under the watchful eye of defender Bruce Bowen.

“We tried did a fairly good job on Tim, which is their main threat,” Stoudemire said.

“We tried to take out the king, but when you’re playing a game of chess, there is always that queen that steps up and hits you from the blind side. Tonight was a game that Tony Parker wanted to dominate and they did so.”

Trailing by as many as 15, the Suns closed the gap to seven at 48-41 with 2:06 left in the half on a jumper by Hill, who played 20 minutes off the bench.

But as they have all series, the Spurs closed the first half strong.

They scored 10 of the next 12  points on a Ginobili jumper, a Duncan dunk, a Parker lay-in and a 3-pointer from Brent Barry. They led 61-47 at the half, and the Suns never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

The Spurs shot 58 percent from the field in the first three quarters (37-for-64), collected 20 assists on 37 baskets and hit 14 of 15 free throws. Even the ‘Hack-A-Shaq’ ploy worked in the first half, when Shaquille O’Neal (19 points) missed six of his last seven free throws.

“We played an unbelievable game,” Parker said. “We made tons of shots and we didn’t have any meltdowns in any part of the game. It was almost a perfect game.”