Spurs draw level with Suns

SAN ANTONIO: San Antonio didn’t stop Stephon Marbury, but the Spurs did make their free throws down the stretch on Monday, taking an 84-76 victory over Phoenix to even their playoff series at one match each.

Two days after the Spurs missed six of their eight free throws in overtime and fell to the Suns in Game One, Tim Duncan scored half of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. He helped San Antonio battle back from a seven-point deficit in the period.

The series switches to Phoenix for matches on Friday and Sunday. With the Spurs leading 77-76, Manu Ginobili made a three-pointer from the wing with 1:02 remaining. Marbury, the hero of Game One with a running three-point bank shot in overtime, missed a drive to the basket on the next possession. San Antonio then clinched the victory by making all four of its foul shots in the final minute. IN INDIANAPOLIS, Reggie Miller came off the bench in the final minutes to drill a three-pointer as Indiana beat Boston and even the Eastern Conference playoff series 1-1. Jermaine O’Neal scored 23 points and grabbed 20 rebounds for the Pacers.

Antoine Walker led the Celtics with 19 points, Walter McCarty had 16 and Paul Pierce, who scored 40 in the opener, finished with 16. IN SACRAMENTO, California, Peja Stojakovic scored 29 points, and Vlade Divac had 15 points and seven rebounds as Sacramento beat Utah to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series. Playing the aggressive, high-scoring style that put them among the NBA’s elite, the Kings took a 25-point lead early in the fourth period —- and they did it mostly without leading scorer and rebounder Chris Webber, who went to the locker room early in the second quarter with a strained lower back.

Bobby Jackson had 15 points and six assists for the Kings, who didn’t need Webber to better a dismal effort by the seventh-seeded Jazz in their fourth straight playoff defeat. Karl Malone scored 15 points for the Jazz, who have four days off before Game Three on Saturday at the Delta Centre, where Sacramento have won eight straight matches. Game Four is on Monday.