San Antonio Spurs sweep Utah Jazz out of NBA playoffs

The San Antonio Spurs never took the foot off the gas as they swept the Utah Jazz out of the NBA playoffs with a 87-81 victory in game four of their Western Conference series. Manu Ginobili scored a team-high 17 points and Tim Duncan had 11 points and five rebounds for the top seeded Spurs who went on an unanswered scoring spree midway through the fourth quarter to seize command of the game. The Spurs wanted to avoid a similar fate to last season when they suffered an embarrassing first-round loss to eighth place Memphis. France's Tony Parker had 11 points for the Spurs who beat the Jazz in four straight to reach the second round of the postseason. Al Jefferson tallied a game-high 26 points and Devin Harris had 19 points and seven assists for the Jazz who were trying to send the series to game five on Wednesday. Utah is now 22-25 all-time in elimination games as no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit.