Leonard’s last-second jumper pushes hot Spurs past Magic
ORLANDO, Fla. — The San Antonio Spurs can do no wrong this season and the Orlando Magic can’t seem to do much right.
The Spurs rallied from a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Orlando 98-96 on Kawhi Leonard’s jumper from the top of the key with 0.9 left to play Wednesday night.
Leonard led San Antonio with 29 points. LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points and Patty Mills added 17 points and seven assists for the Spurs, who won their fourth straight game.
“We always pride ourselves on playing the whole 48 minutes of the game,” Leonard said. “We just kept pounding and fortunately everything broke for us.”
Including the last 0.9 seconds.
That was enough time for Magic guard Elfrid Payton to run down a length-of-the-floor pass and miss an uncontested reverse layup as the buzzer sounded. The miss ended the Magic’s twogame win streak and sent Orlando to the All-Star break with just four wins in their last 19 games.
“We got lucky,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “There was a pick down there and we didn’t react very well.”
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Kobe Bryant’s final game in Cleveland was reduced to a sideshow when Cleveland forward Kevin Love re-injured his surgically repaired left shoulder in the first half of a win over visiting Los Angeles.
Kyrie Irving scored a season-high 35 points and LeBron James 29 for Cleveland, who head into the break with one of their “Big 3” injured.
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Stephen Curry had 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists before sitting out the fourth quarter, and Golden State stormed into the All-Star break on an 11game winning streak with a victory at free-falling Phoenix.
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Isaiah Thomas had 36 points and 11 assists, including a fade away jumper that sent the game to an extra period, to help Boston overtake visiting Los Angeles in overtime.
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Karl-Anthony Towns had 35 points and 11 rebounds, Ricky Rubio had 19 points and host Minnesota came back from 18 points down to stun Toronto.
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Jeff Teague had 17 points and eight assists, Al Horford scored 16 and visiting Atlanta routed struggling Chicago. GRIZZLIES109, NETS90
Mike Conley scored 20 points, Jeff Green had 12 of his 18 in the third quarter, and Memphis beat host Brooklyn.
PELICANS100, JAZZ96
Anthony Davis capped a 19-point night with a running lefthanded hook and 3-pointer in the final minute, and host NewOrleans snapped Utah’s sevengame winning streak.
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DeMarcus Cousins had 28 points and 12 rebounds, and Darren Collison scored 21 of his 25 points after halftime to lead visiting Sacramento to a comeback victory over Philadelphia.
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Kemba Walker scored 25 points and Jeremy Lamb had 16 as Charlotte rolled to a victory over host Indiana.
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Will Barton scored 15 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and visiting Denver held off depleted Detroit.