Leonard drills jumper to lift Spurs past Wizards
SAN ANTONIO -- Kawhi Leonard capped his 23-point performance by drilling a game-winning 17-foot jumper with 6.1 seconds to play as the San Antonio Spurs outlasted the Washington Wizards 107-105 in a furious finish on Friday at the AT&T Center.
The Spurs ruled the final minute of the third quarter, stretched a six-point lead to as many as 10 in the first half of the fourth and weathered a final Washington run in the last two minutes.
The Wizards' Bradley Beal poured in a 3-pointer to give Washington a 103-102 lead with 53.4 seconds remaining. San Antonio's Patty Mills missed a 3-pointer with 28.9 to play but LaMarcus Aldridge corralled the rebound to give the Spurs another chance.
Danny Green hit his only field goal of the game, a rainbow 3-pointer from outside the top of the key, to put the Spurs in front at 105-103.
Washington's John Wall responded with a driving layup to tie the game with 11.2 to play, but Leonard one-upped the Wizards, hitting a contested jumper to hand San Antonio the victory.
Aldridge and Pau Gasol added 19 points apiece for the Spurs (16-4) while Manu Ginobili scored 13 and Mills hit for 10. Gasol also grabbed 10 rebounds for San Antonio.
Beal led the Wizards (6-12) with 23 points. All five of Washington's starters scored in double figures: Marcin Gortat added 21 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, Wall had 15 points and 14 assists and Otto Porter, Jr. and Markieff Morris scored 15 and 12 points apiece.
San Antonio got off to a ragged start again at home and the Wizards took advantage to forge a 13-2 run that netted them an 18-7 lead at the 6:03 mark of the first quarter. The Spurs, statistically the best free-throw shooting team in the NBA entering the game, missed 5 of their first 6 attempts from the charity stripe as Gasol went 0 for 4 in the quarter.
The Spurs' second unit cut into the lead, as a 3-pointer by Mills and a buzzer-beating banked jumper by Ginobili allowed San Antonio to claw back within 28-24 after 12 minutes of play.
The Wizards led by as much as nine points in the second quarter, the latest at 49-40 with 4:46 to play, before San Antonio fashioned a 12-4 run that cut the Washington advantage to 53-52 on an Aldridge jumper at the 1:47 mark. A Beal layup and free throw with at the 28.7 seconds remaining re-established the lead to 60-54, but Ginobili nabbed a steal and poured in a 3-pointer as the horn sounded to get San Antonio back to 60-57 at intermission.
Leonard and Gasol led the Spurs with 13 points each at the half while Aldridge hit for 11 points in the first two quarters. Beal paced Washington with 13 points and Gortat contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds prior to intermission.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first five minutes of the third quarter but Washington struggled worse, scoring just four points and allowing the Spurs to tie the score at 64 on an Aldridge jumper at the 6:44 mark.
Mills' 3-pointer with one minute to play in the quarter gave the Spurs their first lead since they were up 5-3. Ginobili added two free throws after a steal and David Lee added a layup off a Ginobili assist with 2.5 seconds in the quarter allowed San Antonio an 80-74 advantage heading into the final quarter.
NOTES: The Spurs waited until just more than an hour before tipoff to rule out G Tony Parker with a left quad contusion. This is the seventh game Parker missed this season. ... Washington and San Antonio split the season series, 1-1, the last two years. ... The Spurs won 19 of the last 21 games in the series. ... Washington has not won in San Antonio since Dec. 11, 1999. ... Through the first 19 games, San Antonio leads the league in free throw percentage (.833) and 3-point shooting percentage (.400). The Wizards played back-to-back overtime games for the first time since April 14 (at Indiana) and 15, 2015 (at Cleveland). ... The Spurs played just eight games with their projected starting lineup. The team holds a 7-1 record with Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, Danny Green and Tony Parker as the starting five. ... Washington is 4-1 this season when holding its opponent under 100 points. Last season the Wizards had a 27-5 record when keeping opponents under the century mark.