NBA

Spurs stay on a roll, go up 2-0 on Sonics

SAN ANTONIO - The Spurs are making things look easy this postseason.

Manu Ginobili came off the bench and livened the offense with his usual array of layups and long jumpers, making 9 of 11 shots and scoring 28, leading the Spurs past the SuperSonics 108-91 Tuesday night for a 2-0 lead in their second-round series.

Tim Duncan was his usual steady self with 25 points and nine rebounds for San Antonio.

Since a stunning loss at home in the playoff opener against Denver, the Spurs have won six straight by an average margin of 16 points. Considering how they've dominated the Sonics in every aspect - leading for all but 62 seconds - perhaps Seattle's best hope is that overconfidence gets the best of San Antonio. And that's not likely.

Ray Allen shook off a sprained ankle that knocked him out of the opener and scored 25 points in 42 minutes. Rashard Lewis scored 22. The Sonics even had a stretch of 22 points scored by that duo.

Mike D'Antoni was named the Coach of the Year after guiding the Suns to the league's best record this season.

D'Antoni received the award two days after Suns point guard Steve Nash was chosen as the league's Most Valuable Player. The Suns, who missed the playoffs last year, tied a franchise record during the regular season with 62 wins and led the NBA with an average of 110 points per game, almost seven points more than the second-place Kings.

D'Antoni, 54, led the Suns to a 33-win improvement over last season, the third-best in NBA history.

CAVALIERS: Forward LeBron James has dropped agent Aaron Goodwin, who negotiated about $135-million in endorsement deals for the 20-year-old in the past two years. James is expected to turn over some of his management duties to close friend Maverick Carter, a former teammate at Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary High School currently employed by Nike.

MAVERICKS: Coach Avery Johnson was ejected from Monday night's playoff game, drawing two technicals with 3:20 left in the third quarter and his team trailing 89-68. Johnson emphatically complained that Dirk Nowitzki had been fouled when he lost the ball underneath the Dallas basket.

NUGGETS: Carmelo Anthony will join Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich to announce a new violence prevention initiative.

IN OTHER NEWS: Commissioner David Stern reiterated his confidence that a new labor agreement between players and owners can be struck in the coming weeks.

Stern said a large group of players will meet in Chicago today, and that another meeting with players and owners is scheduled in New York on May 17.

The current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on June 30. ... Whether Jeff Van Gundy is retained as Houston's coach is up to the Rockets, but the league needs to do a better job of defending its game officials from criticism by coaches, said Lamell McMorris, spokesman for the National Basketball Referees Association, in response to Van Gundy's comments about league officials targeting Rockets center Yao Ming.

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 01:01:02]