Spurs

The news of a tragic death in the family of Maurice Cheeks rocked the 76ers' training camp. The players yesterday learned that 36-year-old Marvin Cheeks, an older brother of the former Sixers star, was shot to death in Chicago Saturday night, the victim of an apparent robbery. The Chicago Tribune reported that Marvin Cheeks had been at a bar and was supposed to have been en route to his girlfriend's home. He was found 12 miles away from his destination, in the Hyde Park neighborhood, having been shot in the head and neck.

Tony Parker scored 19 points and San Antonio beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-84, last night, giving the Spurs their ninth win in the past 10 games despite getting only eight points from Tim Duncan. The visiting Clippers have lost nine straight, the longest skid in the NBA this season. The Spurs have a 1 1/2-game lead over second-place New Orleans in the Southwest Division. Roger Mason added 18 points for the Spurs, Michael Finley had 15 and Manu Ginobili 13 off the bench.

Dennis Rodman stood up the Spurs again, but has been spotted in San Antonio - with bright green hair. The team's hopes that the truant forward would show for last night's game with Utah were dashed when Rodman didn't contact the team during the day and missed a shootaround, then later missed the Spurs' 117-114 double-overtime loss to the visiting Jazz. Rodman was discovered later, with his new hair color, at a San Antonio health club, where he said he would attend a meeting today with Spurs management.

Center David Robinson will be in the San Antonio lineup for the first time this season when the Spurs play the Phoenix Suns tonight. Robinson left an Oct. 11 exhibition game because of back pain and missed San Antonio's first 18 games. The Spurs have started the season 3-15 without him. Robinson was cleared to play yesterday. Also, Dallas activated forward Jamal Mashburn, who had missed eight games because of a broken right cheekbone. ROCKETS: BARKLEY HURTING Houston forward Charles Barkley missed a workout with a foot injury, but he expects to play tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

New York Knicks coach Don Chaney knew his team had to keep San Antonio's Tim Duncan out of the paint if it was going to have a chance to win. That single focus, however, came with some dangers. "You've got to get it out of Duncan's hands, but that opens up their perimeter game with great shooters," Chaney said. Duncan, who had only seven points in the first half, sank four free throws in the closing minutes as the host Spurs held off the late-charging Knicks, 90-79. He finished the game with 21 points, eight of them in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio nearly squandered a 13-point lead.

Triple-doubles are no big deal to David Robinson, who leads the NBA with five this season. Quadruple-doubles, though, are something special. "I've been close a number of times, so this is something I wanted to do," Robinson said after getting the fourth quadruple-double recorded in NBA history last night with 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocked shots in San Antonio's 115-96 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons. "I'm excited because it's one thing you never know if you're going to get," he said.

Tim Duncan scored seven of his 21 points in a 20-point San Antonio spurt to start the second quarter and the visiting Spurs took advantage of the absence of All-Star guard Jason Kidd to beat the New Jersey Nets, 107-82, last night. Tony Parker added 19 points and Manu Ginobili had 14 as the Spurs avoided tying their season-high three-game losing streak with their third win in eight games. Vince Carter had 18 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Nets, who also were without two other starters who have been sidelined for a while - Nenad Krstic and Richard Jefferson.

No Tim Duncan, no problem. With Duncan on the bench in foul trouble, San Antonio steamrolled host Portland with a 16-0 third-quarter run last night on the way to an 85-63 rout that puts the Spurs one win from a sweep in the Western Conference finals. "Well, 3-0 is better than 2-0, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but it still doesn't put us anywhere," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. Portland's 63 points was its fewest ever in the playoffs, and the second-lowest total in NBA playoff history.

San Antonio's Tim Duncan scored 32 points, and the Spurs began the game going 24-for-24 from the free-throw line, en route to a 119-106 win over the visiting Mavericks in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals last night. Dallas was called for six technical fouls, and both head coach Don Nelson and assistant Del Harris were tossed before halftime. The series is even, with Game 3 set for tomorrow at Dallas. Michael Finley led the Mavericks with 29 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 23. Noteworthy LeBron James, the high school phenom from Akron, Ohio, will make tonight's NBA draft lottery almost as important as a playoff game.

What a difference two days and a change of scenery can make. San Antonio, which was routed in Phoenix by 26 points on Saturday, turned the tables on the Suns with a 94-77 victory last night as Tim Duncan scored 26 points to lead the Spurs. "Tonight the defense was consistent both halves," said San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich. "We stayed in front of them, contested shots and cut off their penetration. None of the above happened the last time we played them. " San Antonio, which has won 19 of its last 22 games, also received a season-high 20 points from Avery Johnson.

Not content to leave Pennsylvania communities with any control over gas drilling within their borders, state legislators have stripped municipalities of their zoning authority under Act 13, choosing energy corporations over the people who elected them. This isn't exactly new ground for the legislature; indeed, taking away communities' authority to govern themselves is a decades-old pastime in Harrisburg, one that has shifted into high gear over the past 20 years. The legislature made logging a guaranteed right in all zoning districts back in 1992, giving in to timber interests and eliminating municipalities' authority to provide for conservation zones.

San Antonio's Tim Duncan helped engineer a 24-0, third-quarter run Saturday that put the Spurs ahead for good and the Los Angeles Clippers in danger of being swept out of the playoffs. The Spurs, who at one point trailed by 24 points, beat the Clippers, 96-86, in Los Angeles to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinals series. "We didn't plan on being down that much," said Duncan, who scored 19 points and at 36 is hungry to win the team's fifth NBA championship and first since 2006-07.

CAMP DAVID, Md. - Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge. "There's now an emerging consensus that more must be done to promote growth and job creation right now," Obama proclaimed after hosting unprecedented economic talks at Camp David, his mountaintop retreat.

Hours after a shocking 94-75 loss in Game 3 to the Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat canceled Friday's practice and media availability. One day after they lost by 19 points and Dwyane Wade lost his cool, the Heat needed a short-term escape. They stayed inside their downtown Indianapolis hotel to recharge mentally and physically for Sunday's Game 4. The team gave no reason for Friday's decision. On Thursday night, while the Pacers were pulling away in the third quarter, Wade got into an ugly sideline exchange with coach Erik Spoelstra.

THIS DOES NOT sound like a winning formula. Miss 24 of 29 shots in one stretch, on the road. Watch an 11-point, second-half lead turn into a deficit. Have your entire team get outscored by two players in the fourth quarter. Somehow, it worked for the Indiana Pacers. And with one part of the Big Three gone, the Miami Heat might have a very big problem. David West scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Pacers took home-court advantage away from Miami by beating the Heat, 78-75, in Game 2 of the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday night - after LeBron James and Dwyane Wade both came up short on key opportunities in the final minute.

MANU GINOBILI broke out of his shooting slump with 17 points to lead the visiting San Antonio Spurs to an 87-81 victory over the Utah Jazz on Monday night and a sweep of their first-round Western Conference series. Ginobili was 0-for-8 from beyond the arc in the first three games. But after Utah pulled within 61-58 with 3:18 left in the third, he hit consecutive three-pointers then added another as the Spurs regained control, taking a 76-58 lead early in the fourth. The Jazz went scoreless for more than 8 minutes during a 15-0 Spurs run. Utah made a furious charge late and was within 83-79 on Al Jefferson's putback with 49 seconds left.

Danny Granger had 26 points and nine rebounds, Roy Hibbert added 18 points and 10 rebounds, and the visiting Indiana Pacers beat the Orlando Magic, 97-74, on Wednesday night to a take a two-games-to-one lead in the first-round series. The Pacers regained home-court advantage with the victory, riding good shooting early and building a 29-point lead in the fourth quarter.   Spurs go two games up Tony Parker scored 18 points and the host San Antonio Spurs handed Utah its second-worst playoff loss in franchise history, beating the Jazz, 114-83, to take a two-games-to-none series lead in the first-round series.

Acres of rotting industrial properties sit with impunity on the city's lists of building-code violators and tax deadbeats. They languish in the haze of uncomfortable realities urbanites have learned to live with until something horrific happens. It happened on April 9, when fire Lt. Robert Neary and firefighter Daniel Sweeney died in a blaze at the long-idled Thomas W. Buck Hosiery factory. Afterward, there were the all-too-common reports that the building had outstanding code violations and its out-of-town owners were behind on their taxes.

FIVE DAYS after a second-grader was hit by a car near an East Germantown corner with no crossing guard, about 30 schoolchildren and parents rallied there Wednesday morning to demand that the city hire more crossing guards. Of 1,037 intersections in the city that have been determined to need crossing-guard protection for schools, about 120 have none, according to the guards' union. Friday's accident occurred near the unguarded intersection of Sprague and Woodlawn streets, outside Francis P. Pastorius School.

Construction is set to begin on a $50 million project to expand sewage service in undeveloped sections of eastern Camden County, including portions of the Pinelands, laying the groundwork for 10,000 new homes. The county plan - paid for with a low-interest loan from a state environmental fund - comes as the region wrestles with tight municipal budgets caused by the real estate slowdown and shrinking property values. "That part of Camden County that has remained stagnant because of water and sewer issues," said Camden County Freeholder Jeff Nash.