Spurs topple Thunder to climb into 4th inWest
LaMarcus Aldridge had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs held off the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-99 on Thursday in San Antonio to climb back into fourth place in the Western Conference.
San Antonio matched Oklahoma City at 44-32 in jumping two spots in the standings. The Thunder are fifth, a half-game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Aldridge scored 19 points in the first half, then drove past Steven Adams for a dunk and a three-point lead with 52 seconds left as the Spurs snapped a two-game slide.
Paul George led Oklahoma City with 26 points and had six assists. Russell Westbrook added 19 points and 11 assists, but had a pair of 3-pointers miss the rim and land out of bounds in the final minutes.
Both teams experienced scoring droughts, resulting in 10 lead changes and seven ties.
Patty Mills and Davis Bertans hit back-to- back 3s to give the Spurs a 9487 lead with 4 minutes remaining. The Thunder made only two field goals between the 10:34 and 3:17 mark of the fourth but still were within a basket with less than two minutes remaining.
George sank three free throws to pull Oklahoma City within 97- 96, but Aldridge scored before Westbrook shot an airball on a 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining.
Aldridge played despite bruising his left knee following a collision in Tuesday’s 116-106 loss to Washington. He was listed as doubtful, but the Spurs couldn’t do without him as they battle for a playoff berth. PACERS106, KINGS 103 » Victor Oladipo scored 13 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining, and Indiana held on to win in Sacramento.
Bojan Bogdanovic had 25 points, Thaddeus Young added 18 points and eight rebounds, and Darren Collison finished with eight points and nine assists against his former team to help the Pacers extend their winning streak to four.
Cyclone fences were erected around Golden1 Center and extra members of law enforcement in riot gear were lined up outside the arena in anticipation of a possible third day of protests over the fatal police shooting of Stephon Adams, an unarmed 22-yearold African-American who was shot in his grandparents’ backyard on March 18 as police searched for a person suspected of attempting to break into several homes. HEAT 103, BULLS 92 » Josh Richardson scored 22 points, Goran Dragic added 17, and host Miami trimmed its magic number for clinching a playoff berth to one. Justise Winslow scored 13 points and Kelly Olynyk finished with 11 for the Heat, who’ve won a season-best eight straight home games and moved within a halfgame of Washington for the No .6 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. PISTONS 103, WIZARDS 92 » Andre Drummond scored 24 points and pulled down 23 rebounds, and host Detroit beat Washington for its fifth win in six games. Detroit was missing power forward Blake Griffin, who was a late scratch with an ankle contusion. Griffin is averaging 19.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 25 games since joining Detroit late January. EM BI ID NEEDS SURGERY, HAS CONCUSSION » Philadelphia 76ers All- Star center Joel Embiid will need surgery on an orbital fracture of his left eye and he has a concussion. There was no timetable on how long Embiid would be sidelined.
Embiid posted a photo on Instagram of him on the court and grabbing his face with the caption, “I guess I gotta trust ‘ The Process’ that I’ve been preaching... Unfortunate freak accident but I’ll be more than fine.”