Cardiff » mportant thing is to help the team win, not the

SAN ANTONIO -- Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard each scored 22 points, and the San Antonio Spurs overcame an injury to Tony Parker to close out the Western Conference semifinals with a 104-82 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. Patty Mills scored 18 points and Tim Duncan had 16 points and eight rebounds for San Antonio, which had four blowout victories in the five-game series. Its the third straight conference finals appearance for San Antonio, which lost a heartbreaking seven-game series to the Miami Heat in last seasons NBA Finals. San Antonio, which had the NBAs best record, will await the winner of the series between Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Thunder have a 3-2 lead. LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points for Portland, while Damian Lillard added 17 points and 10 assists. The Trail Blazers bench contributed only seven points compared to 40 by the Spurs reserves. After playing with various injuries throughout last post-season, the Spurs had been healthy in these playoffs until Wednesday. Parker, who missed 13 games during the regular season, exited in the first half with tightness in his left hamstring. After returning to the court with 9:46 remaining in the second quarter, Parker left the game exactly a minute later. He headed back to the locker room followed closely by San Antonio general manager R.C. Buford and team physician, Dr. Paul Saenz. Parker was scoreless in 10 minutes, missing his only two shots as Portland pushed to keep the All-Star point guard out of the paint. Manu Ginobili handled most of the ball-handling duties with Parker out. Even with Parker slowed, the Spurs still had another good start thanks to their hustle on the boards. Tiago Splitter had two offensive rebounds in the opening 3 minutes. The Spurs, who were averaging 9.3 offensive rebounds in the post-season, had five in the first quarter alone. The Blazers went on a 9-0 run once Splitter exited, with Aldridge benefiting the most from the big mans absence. He hit a pair of jumpers over Boris Diaw for his first points of the game to spark the run. Mills provided a huge spark even before Parkers exit. The energetic Aussie sprinted for a layup after tipping away C.J. McCollums dribble in the backcourt. A possession later, Mills blocked Lillards 3-pointer, igniting a fast break that led to Greens first 3 of the game. Green had the strongest effort of the post-season, going 4 for 6 on 3s. San Antonio had four 3s in the second quarter, with Leonards second extending its lead to 43-30 with 4:47 remaining in the half. NOTES: Portland G Mo Williams (groin) missed his third straight game. After scoring six points on 3-for-11 shooting in the series opener, Williams exited Game 2 after nine minutes with a strained groin and has not played since. . Meb Keflezighi, the first American man to win the Boston Marathon in 31 years, was in attendance. . Ginobili slapped the scorers table twice in celebration after Greens jumper rattled in with 6 minutes remaining. Green has struggled shooting throughout the post-season. .. Mills rushed down the court to hit a 3-pointer after receiving a push by Spurs assistant coach Sean Marks after the diminutive guard leapt into the teams bench to save a defensive rebound. . Spurs coach Gregg Popovich screamed at Duncan for not providing weak-side help for Diaw on a dunk by Aldridge with 6 minutes left in the first half. After initially shaking his head and frowning at Popovich, Duncan raised his hand, nodded his head and said "My fault. My fault." Duncan later pointed to the sky after making a straightaway, 18-foot jumper with 5:24 remaining in the third quarter. Omar Vizquel Jersey . Luke Wileman and I stood in the corridor outside of the Vancouver Whitecaps dressing room at BC Place in Vancouver. Custom Cleveland Indians Jerseys . Chris Capuano. Shane Greene. And now, Esmil Rogers. http://www.indianssale.com/indians-jim-thome-jersey/. Finlands Kari Lehtonen made 26 saves to lead Dallas over the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 Saturday night. He received plenty of help from the Stars defence and got goals from Ray Whitney and Russias Valeri Nichushkin. Manny Ramirez Jersey . Expensive. The NFL fined Tomlin $100,000 on Wednesday for interfering with Baltimores Jacoby Jones on a kickoff return in the third quarter of a 22-20 loss to the Ravens on Thanksgiving night. Satchel Paige Jersey . The Brazilian-born strikers brace drew him level with Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo as the leagues leading scorers with 17 goals apiece through 16 rounds. "The important thing is to help the team win, not the goals," Diego Costa said. After a first half dominated by defence, Atletico pressed Valencia into its area and Diego Costa did the rest.INDIANAPOLIS -- Pacers coach Frank Vogel kept the game plan simple. Make the extra pass, take care of the ball, play defence and get more out of his bench. The four-pronged approach worked. Danny Granger scored a season-high 16 points, Paul George and Lance Stephenson each added 15, and the Pacers plowed through some rough stretches to pull away from the Orlando Magic, 98-79 on Monday night. "I thought we came out with the right focus and the right fight," forward David West said. "We played hard, played together and got the W." Thats good enough for right now. The team with the NBAs best record came into the game with a 3-3 mark over its last six and seemed to be sliding after a series of slow starts forced it to fight its way back from large, early deficits. Even returning home after a five-game West Coast swing wasnt the fix. The Pacers (37-10) lost to Phoenix last Thursday, then had to overcome a season-high 24 turnovers Saturday to barely get past Brooklyn. On Monday, the Pacers looked like a different team. They started fast, committed only two turnovers in the first 21 1/2 minutes and led from start to finish. Perhaps that much should have been expected against the second-worst team in the league and the worst road team in the NBA. But it was still a tough night. West hurt his right ankle in the third quarter, backup centre Ian Mahinmi left with an injured right shoulder in the fourth and Indiana let Orlando (13-37) back into the game late in the first half before nearly giving all of its 16-point, first-half lead by starting the third quarter with 10 straight misses. The difference: The Pacers heeded their All-Star coachs advice and allowed a season-low 29 points in the second half. "Thats typical of us," Granger said. "You know we hang our hat on defence, and we really want that to carry us the whole way." Arron Afflalo led the Magic with 20 points but was shut out for the final 23:47. Nikola Vucevic added 16 points, getting only four over the final 19 minutes. The only other Orlando player to reach double figures was Tobias Harris, who finished with 11. Rookie Victor Oladipo finished with six points and tied a season high with 11 assists but wass just 2 of 11 from the field in his second game back in his adopted home state.dddddddddddd "They were just more active on their tags and disguising their defence," said Oladipo, who again started in place of injured point guard Jameer Nelson. "They just did a great job of making us take tough shots. Its something we need to learn from." The Pacers, meanwhile, stuck to the Vogel Plan. Granger, a former All-Star who has been working his way back from a strained left calf, broke out of his shooting slump. C.J. Watson had 12 points and Luis Scola added 10 as the Pacers bench combined for exactly half of Indianas total, a season best. Indianas two most prolific scorers did their thing, too. George started with seven points, three rebounds, two steals and two assists in the first quarter. Stephenson, the NBA leader with four triple-doubles, settled for 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. It looked as if the Pacers would blow out Orlando when they took a 55-39 lead midway through the second quarter. But the Magic closed the period on a 9-2 run, then watched the Pacers miss their first 10 shots in the third quarter as they crept back within two on Vucevics tip-in with 7:01 to go. Indianas defence then held tight until Stephenson ended the shooting drought with a circus jumper that banked in as he drew a foul on Oladipo. Stephenson made the free throw to give Indiana a 63-58 lead and the Magic never got another chance to tie it. The Pacers closed the third quarter on a 9-1 run to make it 75-63 and opened the fourth on a 11-1 spurt to put it away. "It goes back to passing," Granger said. "You know when once you move the ball, you get a lot more open shots. Weve been trying to do it by ourselves these last 10 or 12 games and our offence has been struggling. So we move the ball, we get layups, backdoor cuts, open 3s. That makes everybody look good." Notes: Vogel gave his starters extra rest in the fourth quarter with the Pacers heading to Atlanta for the second half of a back-to-back on Tuesday. ... Nelson sat out with a sore left knee and is expected to be examined when the team returns home. ... Recently signed centre Andrew Bynum has not yet practiced with the Pacers. ' ' '