Warriors hold off Spurs and maintain hold on third seed

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Jonathan Kuminga and Jordan Poole each had 18 points and the Golden State Warriors won their fourth straight, beating the San Antonio Spurs 100-94 on Saturday night and strengthen their hopes for a top-three seed.

Golden State is a game ahead of Dallas in the Western Conference and can secure the third seed with a victory Sunday at New Orleans in the season finale. If the Warriors lose, and the Mavericks beat the Spurs on Sunday, Dallas will finish third after going 3-1 in its season series with Golden State.

San Antonio will finish 10th in the Western Conference and must travel to ninth-seeded New Orleans for the opener of the play-in tournament Wednesday.

Lonnie Walker IV had 24 points to lead the Spurs. Walker was the only San Antonio player in double figures through the first 39 minutes. Tre Jones finished with 15 points, Josh Primo had 14 and Josh Richardson added 10.

After the Spurs pulled within two points with two minutes remaining, Poole made a pair of free throws with 47.9 seconds to put Golden State up 98-94 remaining after Jones missed a running layup.

Andrew Wiggins finished with 15 points and Draymond Green added 12 points and 13 rebounds for Golden State.

The Warriors were without Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The Spurs were without their entire starting lineup of Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson, Jakob Poeltl, Devin Vassell and Doug McDermott.

Those absences led to a low-scoring affair with the teams combining to score 44 points in the opening quarter. The Spurs scored 36 points in the first quarter of each of their three previous games against the Warriors.

After trailing by as many as 17 points, the Spurs closed to 78-71 on a 3-pointer by Primo as time expired in the third quarter. A 3-pointer by rookie forward Joe Wieskamp and a 15-foot jumper by Primo cut the Warriors’lead to 86-84 with 6 1/2 minutes remaining.

San Antonio outscored Golden State 17-12 in the opening seven minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Warriors were able to maintain their lead down the stretch with veterans Green and Wiggins leading the way. ---AP*