The San Antonio Spurs opened the Western Conference finals with a dominant 105-83 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday. The experienced Spurs team roared out of the gates while the Grizzlies looked like a team looking to adapt to their first finals appearance.
San Antonio opened the contest with a 17-point advantage in the first quarter and was able to answer Memphis' attempted rallies. Both teams pulled their starters with over five minutes remaining and the Spurs leading by 21.
Despite the big win, the Spurs would be wise to not jump the gun and begin celebrating. San Antonio was in a similar position last season when they blew a 2-0 advantage to the eventual Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder in last season's playoffs.
"I can promise you this: Nobody's happy in our locker room, because we were up 2-0 (in the West finals) last year and we lost," Parker told ESPN. "It's just one game. It means nothing. We still have a long way to go."
The Spurs avoided a repeat of their Game 1 loss when the teams met two years ago in the first round. The Grizzlies went on to knock San Antonio out of the playoffs as the top seed that time.
Memphis has lost its opener in each round in this year's playoffs, recovering from an 0-2 deficit in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers and an 0-1 deficit against Oklahoma City in the semifinals.
Game 2 is Tuesday night in San Antonio. Memphis will look to keep up with the veteran Spurs both offensively and defensively, as they seemed outmatched on both ends in Sunday's opener.
"We just didn't play well. It's not anything specific," coach Lionel Hollins said. "It's just that we were running too fast, we missed some layups, we were taking bad shots and our defense was really awful. And the Spurs played well."
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