San Antonio, TX – Tony Parker scored 20 points and dished out six assists to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 106-88 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday
Gary Neal added 15 points, Tim Duncan added 12 points, nine rebounds, seven blocked shots and five assists, and Manu Ginobili finished with 12 points for the Spurs, who have won 12 straight games at the AT&T Center.
"This is what you call 'The Dog Days' right around now. Guys are a little tired. Our schedule is a little tough, but we're working through it," Duncan said. "We're winning games. We're fighting. We're not playing as well as we want to, but we're trying to get back to where we feel like we have a good rhythm."
J.J. Barea scored 15 points, Nikola Pekovic added 14 and Luke Ridnour chipped in with 13 points and six assists for the Timberwolves, who haven't won in San Antonio since the 2003-04 season.
"We couldn't knock down shots and (their bench) did a good job with their energy, getting some opportunities for them and getting them back in a rhythm," said Wolves active head coach Terry Porter.
The Spurs led 78-71 entering the fourth quarter, but quickly pushed their lead to 90-75 following a 12-4 run. Minnesota scored the next five points to cut it to 90-80 with seven minutes left, but San Antonio responded with a 9-0 push, capped with Stephen Jackson's triple with 5 1/2 minutes left.
The Wolves didn't get closer than 15 the rest of the way en route to their ninth loss in 13 tries.
The teams traded blows early until an 8-1 swing gave Minnesota a 16-7 lead midway through the first quarter.
San Antonio, though, outscored the Wolves 14-5 the rest of the way to take a 24-21 lead after the first 12 minutes.
The Spurs' lead swelled to 36-25 following Jackson's trey at the nine minute mark, but the Wolves were able to trim the deficit to 38-35 after Barea drilled a triple 1 1/2 minutes later.
San Antonio was able to push its cushion to 50-43 with 3:24 remaining in the first half, but Minnesota's 7-2 surge cut the lead to 52-50 with 26 seconds left.
Danny Green, though, nailed a 71-foot buzzer beater to send the Spurs into the break with a 55-50 lead.
Minnesota scored the first four points of the third quarter to make it 55-54, but the Spurs responded with an 11-0 run to go up 65-54. The Wolves managed to cut the lead to four three times in the frame, but didn't get closer the rest of the way.
Game Notes
The Spurs outscored the Wolves, 54-34, in the paint ... San Antonio shot 56.3 percent (45-for-80) from the floor while holding Minnesota to 37.1 percent (33-for-89) percent efficiency from the field ... Minnesota was without head coach Rick Adelman for the fourth straight game. Adelman is taking time off to deal with a personal matter.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.