"Tony Parker was amazing tonight," said Sixers coach Doug Collins. "He had that ball on a string. We were trying our best to keep him corralled."
"He's really fast. He's crafty. He knows how to worm in close quarters," said Jrue Holiday, Parker's most frequent victim. "You just try to get the ball out of his hands."
Duncan managed 16 points and 11 rebounds, four of his points late in the fourth to cement the win, one Parker called "huge" for the Spurs, now 18-9 and atop the Southwest Division.
The loss dropped the Sixers to 18-8, still three games ahead of Boston in the Atlantic Division. They are 4-2 in a tough, seven-game stretch that culminates tomorrow when Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the Clippers visit.
"That's 'Lob City,' " said Holiday, a Los Angeles native who keeps a close eye on his hometown squads. "Always excited to play against LA teams."
He would be more excited if his center was healthy.
The MRIs were negative on the back and Achilles' tendon of Sixers center Spencer Hawes, but he still missed last night's game.
The Achilles' issue has become chronic, and the Sixers worried that a disk problem in his back was the root of it, especially since Hawes battled back soreness earlier this season. The exams, performed Tuesday, showed neither a disk problem nor any tearing of the Achilles'.
With Hawes out, forward Elton Brand returned to the starting lineup after missing two games with a sprained right thumb that needs more time to heal - time the Sixers do not have.
"It's not close to 100 percent," Brand said after he took part in a shoot-around yesterday morning at the Wells Fargo Center. "It's definitely painful. The swelling has gone down. With Spencer out, you've got to find a way . . . especially against those big guys."
