Whatever the Method, the Spurs Just Keep Winning With a 102-99 sweep-completing win over the Clippers on Sunday, the Spurs extended their franchise record 18-game winning streak en route to a seventh conference finals berth in the last 14 years. The margin of victory was the narrowest yet for the Spurs in these playoffs, but it was yet another balanced effort as artful as it was cerebral, and - in what is becoming the league's new clockwork - another win for a team looking more and more invincible. But while the series may have technically ended on Sunday, the seeds of a Spurs" advance - psychologically speaking - were sown on Saturday. That's when, down 22 points at the end of the first quarter, the Spurs cut and clawed their way to the biggest comeback from a first-quarter deficit in N.B.A. playoff history. But just as impressive as the comeback itself was how the Spurs managed to employ the offensive script that got them here. Throughout the season, the Spurs" offense has been most effective in two quadrants: 5-9 feet from the rim, where they were third in attempts (759) and fourth in percentage (41 percent); and 20-24 feet, where they hoisted the ninth most jumpers (948) at the second highest clip (41.9 percent). Key to both has been the prowess of Tony Parker, whose controlled paint forays routinely resulted in the veteran point guard's deft floaters or - more commonly - kicks to wide open teammates themselves trained to always find the open man. Statistics from NBA.com. When that program was briefly abandoned in the first quarter on Saturday, the Clippers pounced, jumping ahead by as many as 24. All the while, the Spurs seemed content to settle for mid-range jumpers, with 6 of their 17 first quarter attempts - all of them misses - coming from 14-18 feet. Coupled with struggles from three point range (0-3), a relative dearth of shots in the paint (3-6), and the Clippers" own paint prowess (6-7 from eight feet and in during the first quarter), the Spurs soon found facing a seemingly insurmountable first quarter deficit. And then the next 36 minutes happened. From the second quarter on, 39 of the Spurs" 49 field goal attempts came from either in the paint, or beyond the arc. During a second quarter in which they outscored the Clippers 32-20 and crawled back to within striking distance, San Antonio was 3-5 from three point range, and an impressive 7-9 from 14 feet or less. With the exception of a handful of misses from the left wing, the third quarter spun a similar story, with the Spurs continuing their unprecedented blitz by shooting 6-11 from the paint, and 2-4 from distance. On the other end, the Clippers couldn't buy a basket, combining to shoot a woeful 12-34 from the field in the middle two quarters, including a staggering 1-9 from the paint in the third. Even when the Clippers managed to stay within striking distance down the stretch, Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich countered with one of his more unseemly - though no less strategic - ploys by repeatedly sending the poor-shooting Reggie Evans to the free throw line. Call it "clip-a-Clip." Not only did the move honor the percentages (Evans, a career 52 percent free throw shooter, went 3-10); it also kept Chris Paul and the Clippers from building any kind of momentum. The result: A comfortable 10-point win, and a crushing psychological blow from which the Clippers could never truly recover. Since the start of the playoffs, the beatings administered by the Spurs have taken a number of forms, from start-to-finish onslaught to late-game surge. After this weekend's two victories to clicnh a berthg in the conference finals, they can now list "impossible comeback" and "steady grind" to their increasingly sterling postseason resume.