SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Much has been said and written in the past few years about the demise of venerable point guard Tony Parker and his reduced role in the San Antonio Spurs' continuing success.

But it's not quite time to throw out the 16-year veteran with the recycling.

When Parker is healthy and aggressive, as he was Saturday night in the Spurs' dominating 111-82 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 1 of the first-round Western Conference playoff series at AT&T Center, he's a key cog for San Antonio.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Monday in San Antonio.

The stats will show that the Spurs' Kawhi Leonard matched his career playoff high with 32 points despite sitting out the fourth quarter and that San Antonio used a big third quarter to blow past Memphis. But Parker's performance -- 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field and no turnovers in 22 minutes -- was a huge part of the win.

"Tony's felt pretty confident tonight, and we love when he starts out defensively and taking pride in that," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He's gotten back in shape over the past couple of weeks and done a great job in the weight room and on the court just trying to get his wind back."

Parker, who played in only 63 games this season and averaged just 25 minutes of court time, said he doesn't have time to pay attention to the reports that the game has passed him by.

"I don't read that stuff -- I'm just too busy," Parker said. "I have two kids at home and I'm up at 6 in the mornings to take them to school. The only time I hear about those things is when (the media) brings it up.

"Tonight, I just saw some opportunities and I was aggressive. Games like this just happen sometimes. I have been feeling really good the past three or four games, but I didn't want to say anything to mess things up."

San Antonio led 74-64 with 1:53 to play in the third quarter but closed on a 10-0 run and added the first nine points of the fourth quarter to build a 93-64 advantage. During that stretch, Memphis missed nine straight shots and committed three turnovers.

The Spurs rested their starters for the entire fourth quarter, which could be a huge advantage in a series that's expected to be a physical one between grind-it-out teams.

LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 points for San Antonio as the Spurs reached 100 points for the first time in five games against Memphis this season. San Antonio outshot the Grizzlies 53.2 percent to 39.2 percent from the field and hit 10 of 19 3-point shots (52.6 percent).

Marc Gasol led the Grizzlies with 32 points, including 25 in the first half. Mike Conley added 13 points for Memphis but did not score in the second half.

Andrew Harrison (10 points) hit Memphis' only 3-pointer after halftime as the Grizzlies went 1 of 10 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Memphis rolled to a 22-9 lead in the first seven minutes by hitting four of its first five 3-pointers and taking advantage of turnovers by San Antonio on consecutive possessions that resulted in dunks.

But the Spurs, down 28-15, responded with a 10-0 run to cut the Grizzlies' advantage to 28-25 before a Conley layup with 1.2 seconds left allowed Memphis a 30-25 lead at the end of the quarter.

The Spurs pushed the lead on Parker's 3-pointer with 8:53 left in the second quarter and the teams battled back and forth through the remainder of the half, with San Antonio leading by five points before settling for a 52-49 advantage at halftime.

Gasol almost single-handedly kept the Grizzlies in the game, pouring in 25 points while outscoring all his teammates combined. Gasol was 9 of 13 from the floor in the half and hit both of his 3-point attempts.

"There's no reason to hold anything back -- it's the playoffs," Gasol said. "I was lucky enough to start the game very efficient and getting good looks, but it's not about that. It's about how we feel as a team, how we execute, how we defend as a team. It starts defensively -- it always does for us."

Leonard was nearly as good, scoring 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor, and delivering four assists. Parker had 12 points and Aldridge scoerd 10 in the opening half for San Antonio.

Leonard took over in the third quarter, pumping in 15 points -- equaling the Memphis total output in the quarter -- as the Spurs took the heart out of the Grizzlies while building an 84-64 lead at the end of the quarter.

Memphis shot just 29.4 percent in the third quarter and was outrebounded 16-4.

"Defensively, we allowed them to just drive and kick and get into their flow," Conley said. "Early in the game, we were being disruptive, getting our hands in passing lanes and allowing ourselves to get out in transition and make some easy plays. We started getting hesitant defensively and against a good team you can't do that."

NOTES: The teams split their season series and have met four previous times in the Western Conference playoffs, with the Spurs sweeping all but one of the matchups. That one series was a big one, though, as the eighth-seeded Grizzlies upset the top-seeded Spurs in the first round in 2011. ... At 40 years, 79 days old, Grizzlies F Vince Carter is the oldest NBA player to start a playoff game since Dikembe Mutombo (41 years, 312 days) on May 2, 2008. ... The Spurs led the league during the regular season in 3-point percentage (39.1) and defensive rating (100.9) and had the second-best net rating (7.9) behind Golden State.