The San Antonio Spurs on Monday rolled to their season-best ninth straight win by toppling the two-time defending champions Golden State Warriors with a 111-105 victory.
DeMar DeRozan scored 26 points and LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds as the NBA’s hottest team guaranteed themselves a league-record 22nd straight winning season.
The Spurs won their 11th consecutive home game and improved to 42-29 on the season.
Photo: AP
“We worked very hard. They are the defending NBA champs, and they move and cut better than anybody in the world. The effort was there for 48 minutes and we learned a lot,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
Rudy Gay added 17 points for the Spurs, while Derrick White put up 12 points and Patty Mills 10 points.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 25 points, as Kevin Durant returned from a two-game injury absence to score 24 points for the Warriors.
“We had a couple of breakdowns at crunch time,” Curry said. “We fought hard and they just made shots down the stretch.”
Klay Thompson added 14 and Draymond Green racked up 10 points for Golden State, who dropped to 47-22 on the season and are now tied with Denver for top spot in the Western Conference standings.
The Spurs defense has been a catalyst during their winning streak, but when asked what the Spurs did to bottle up the Warriors, Thompson said: “Absolutely nothing. We just missed shots.”
Australia’s Andrew Bogut, who signed with the Warriors on March 6 after playing this season in the Australian National Basketball League, made his season debut for the Warriors. He played 10 minutes and finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
“He looks good. He is a big help,” Curry said of Bogut.
Bogut played for the Warriors from 2012 to 2016 and was a key member of Golden State’s 2014-2015 championship team.
The Spurs took a four point lead at the end of the third quarter then cruised from there, leading by as much as nine points in the fourth.
Davis Bertans nailed a three-pointer with a little less than two minutes to play to give San Antonio a 109-102 lead.
Elsewhere, Nikola Jokic had 21 points and 13 rebounds to help the Denver Nuggets punch their ticket to the post-season by rallying past the Boston Celtics 114-105.
Will Barton added 20 points for Denver, who have won four straight.
The Nuggets improved to 47-22 on the season and are tied with Golden State for the best record in the Western Conference Pacific Division.
The Nuggets won 46 games last season, but missed the playoffs after losing in overtime to Minnesota on the final day of the regular season.
Pelicans 129, Mavericks 124
Dirk Nowitzki reached a milestone, but his Dallas teammates failed to make it a celebratory evening, blowing a four-point lead in the final 19.1 seconds of regulation as visiting New Orleans pulled out the overtime victory.
Nowitzki made his first two shots, both trademark jumpers, in the opening four minutes to surpass Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA’s sixth-leading all-time scorer.
Julius Randle finished with a game-high 30 points for New Orleans, and Elfrid Payton recorded his fifth consecutive triple-double with 19 points (11 coming in the fourth quarter and overtime), 11 assists and 10 rebounds.
With 29 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, Luka Doncic racked up another triple-double for the Mavericks.
Trail Blazers 106, Pacers 98
Damian Lillard scored 30 points and dished out 15 assists as Portland downed visiting Indiana, which has lost nine of the teams’ past 10 meetings and 10 straight on the Blazers’ home court.
Jusuf Nurkic contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Al-Farouq Aminu added 16 points for Portland, which has won four of five games overall.
Myles Turner scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who fell to 0-2 on a four-game road trip. Bojan Bogdanovich scored 15 points.
Heat 116, Thunder 107
Goran Dragic hit six 3-pointers and scored 26 points off the bench to lead visiting Miami, and Dwyane Wade scored 25 in his final game at Oklahoma City.
James Johnson also added 14 points as Miami’s reserves outscored Oklahoma City’s 67-10. Dragic had 11 assists. Kelly Olynyk contributed 18 points and nine rebounds to help the Heat win for the seventh time in nine games.
Oklahoma City was playing without Russell Westbrook, who was suspended after picking up his 16th technical foul of the season in the loss on Saturday last week to the Golden State Warriors. Paul George led the Thunder with 31 points, and he grabbed nine rebounds.
Additional reporting by Reuters
In Monday’s other games, it was:
‧ Jazz 116, Wizards 95
‧ Raptors 128, Knicks 92
‧ Bulls 116, Suns 101
‧ Cavaliers 126, Pistons 119
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