Gregg Popovich on Lakers: ‘It wasn’t a fair fight’

The Lakers (45-37) were no match for the San Antonio Spurs — not with Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks and Metta World Peace all in street clothes.

San Antonio (58-24) had little trouble completing the sweep on Sunday with a 103-82 victory.

“It wasn’t a fair fight,” said Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich. “When you’re a competitor, you want to compete on an even basis and the Lakers weren’t able to do that.”

It’s difficult to gauge how much was San Antonio was playing outstanding basketball or the Lakers not having the talent on the floor.

“It’s really hard to measure [this series] because [the Lakers] were missing five players in the last two games,” said Manu Ginobili.

Tony Parker called the series “weird.”

“Obviously I am happy we won, but it was just weird,” said Tony Parker. “Obviously they were missing a lot of guys so we were just happy to go to the next round.”

The Golden State Warriors pulled ahead of the Denver Nuggets, 3-1, on Sunday with a 115-101 victory. If the Warriors advance, they’ll start the second round in San Antonio against the Spurs.

Popovich said his team took the Lakers seriously, despite the injuries.

“We respected them every night,” said the Spurs coach. “We played hard, followed the game plan and we were very active and energetic every night, and sometimes that’s hard to do when your opponent is wounded.”

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Email Eric Pincus at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.