Tony Parker scored 18 points with 8 assists and reigning Western Conference Player of the Week Tim Duncan added 15 and 8 rebounds on the way to extending the Spurs’ franchise-record winning streak to 19 games with a win over the Golden State Warriors 111-90 on Wednesday night at the AT&T Center.
“We’ve come along. We’ve always used the regular season 82 games to turn our team into the kind of team we want it to be,” Duncan said about the team’s chemistry amid the winning streak. “We’ve done just that, added some pieces, but incorporated them really well and out systems working.”
That system has now reeled off one of the franchise’s best winning streaks in their history. It’s noticeable by nearly every team they have defeated during this time, including Warriors coach Mark Jackson.
“They’re a great basketball team. (They’re) the best team in basketball right now for a reason,” Jackson said after the game. “It was another job well done (by the Spurs). I give them a lot of credit.”
The Warriors, playing without key players Andre Iguodala, David Lee and Andrew Bogut, were playing the second game of a back-to-back after a win over the Dallas Mavericks. Stephen Curry, who made a game-winning jumper to beat the Mavericks the previous night, was held to 11 points of 5-of-15 shooting.
“It wasn’t a fair fight because it is late in the season and it’s a back-to-back. They had three important guys like (Andre) Iguodala and that makes it pretty tough,” Spurs coach Greg Popovich said following the victory. “We took advantage of it and we move on.”
The Spurs (59-16) started the game down 4-0 when Popovich called a quick timeout displeased with the defense. The Spurs responded with a 16-2 run, ending with them ahead 31-18 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second, the Warriors (46-29) battled to keep the game close, cutting the lead to nine points with about two minutes left in the first half. However, the Spurs finished with a 6-1 run on the strength of two jumpers form Manu Ginobili and Parker, followed by a Ginobili buzzer beater tip-in to end the half with the Spurs up 57-42.
With a matchup looking with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, Popovich was able to rest Parker and Duncan for the remainder of the fourth quarter, with the bench continuing the onslaught.
Every Spurs player in uniform scored a point, and three of them were in double-digits. Marco Belinelli, who played 28 minutes, scored 12 points and Ginobili added 13 to go with his five assists and six rebounds.
The win comes with question marks heading into tomorrow’s matchup with the Thunder.. Popovich would not disclose who would be traveling and suiting up for the regular season series finale between the teams.
“I don’t want to speculate on that sort of thing,” Popovich said. “We will talk about that internally and we will try to figure out what we want to do.”
The Spurs also clinched another Southwest Division title with the Rockets loss.
Either way, the Spurs will look to close the season series against the Thunder with a win. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
