Spurs 120, Nuggets 111
Kawhi Leonard collected 25 points, eight rebounds and three blocks as San Antonio cooled off visiting Denver.
Tony Parker added 24 points and seven assists while Tim Duncan scored 15 for the Spurs, who have won four straight since a four-game slide. Danny Green scored 11 points and Tiago Splitter finished with 10 to put all five starters in double figures for San Antonio.
Ty Lawson bounced back from a scoreless performance with 23 points and nine assists for the Nuggets, who dropped to 2-1 under interim coach Melvin Hunt. Kenneth Faried recorded 20 points and 10 rebounds while Wilson Chandler contributed 16 and eight for Denver.
The Spurs went up 99-91 on Parker’s layup with 7:37 left but Lawson scored seven straight Nuggets points and handed out a pair of assists to help cut it to 105-102 with 4:52 to play. It was still a three-point gap until Green buried a 3-pointer to spark a 7-0 run that put the game away for San Antonio.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Marco Belinelli and Manu Ginobili gave the Spurs a 32-22 lead in the first quarter but Denver scored the next 11 points and it stayed tight through the second quarter before San Antonio took a 65-60 lead into the break. Leonard’s jumper put the Spurs in front 85-75 with four minutes left in the third before the Nuggets cut the deficit to seven heading into the final period.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Duncan passed Patrick Ewing for sixth place on the all-time blocks list with his 2,895th career swat in the fourth quarter. … San Antonio hit its first five 3-point attempts and finished 9-of-24 from beyond the arc. … Faried has posted three straight double-doubles since Hunt took over.