Spurs breathe down WARRIORS’ NECK
Washington, March 24: LaMarcus Aldridge scored 23 points and Kawhi Leonard added 19 to power San Antonio over visiting Memphis 97-90 Thursday, moving the Spurs within two games of NBA-leading Golden State.
Australian reserve Patty Mills netted 15 points and French guard Tony Parker contributed 13 as the Spurs improved to 55-16 with their third consecutive triumph, staying within range of the pace-setting Warriors (57-14) with 11 games remaining.
Aldridge cracked the 15,000-point mark for his NBA career.
Mike Conley scored 22 points to lead the Grizzlies, who fell to 4032, 1 1/2 games behind Oklahoma City in a fight for sixth in the Western Conference.
DeMar DeRozan scored 40 points and the Toronto Raptors stretched their win streak to four games, rallying from an early 15point deficit to beat the Miami Heat 101-84.
DeRozan made 14-of-25 shots from the floor and 12-of-13 from the free throw line to achieve 40or-more points in backto-back games for the first time in his career, after netting 42 against Chicago on Tuesday.
The Raptors (43-29) took the lead for good after a 20-4 run during a six-minute stretch overlapping the third and fourth quarters. Portland cut down Knicks Damian Lillard scored 30 points to lead the Portland Trail Blazers over the visiting New York Knicks 110-95.
Dallas edged the Los Angeles Clippers 97-95, scoring the final five points over the last 2:30 of the fourth quarter.
Seth Curry’s jump shot pulled the host Mavericks within 95-94 with 2:19 to play and Dallas took the lead at 9695 on Harrison Barnes’ jumper with 68 seconds to play.
The Clippers had three chances to answer but a Wesley Matthews free throw sealed it for Dallas as J.J. Redick missed a desperation 3-point attempt at the closing buzzer.
Curry finished with 23 points to lead Dallas while Barnes added 21 and Griffin had 21 to lead the Clippers.
Brooklyn’s Brook Lopez scored 19 points to spark the Nets back from an early 15-point deficit to a 126-98 rout of Phoenix Suns, giving the NBA’s losingest team a 15-56 record and back-toback wins for the first time in a year.