De’Aaron Fox scored 22 points with eight rebounds, Stephon Castle added 20 points and the San Antonio Spurs increased their winning streak to 11 with a 118-99 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers at Inglewood, Calif., while playing without Victor Wembanyama.
Dylan Harper scored 19 points and Devin Vassell had 14 points with 10 rebounds as the Spurs improved to 27-2 since Feb. 1. Wembanyama was given his second night off since Jan. 6 to rest lingering ankle soreness on the second night of the final back-to-back of the season.
San Antonio improved to 11-5 without its big man on the floor this season.
The Spurs (59-18) remained two games behind the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference standings with five regular-season games remaining.
Kawhi Leonard scored 24 points and Bennedict Mathurin added 18 as the Clippers (39-38) lost their second consecutive game to follow a five-game winning streak. It was Leonard’s 53rd consecutive game of at least 20 points.
John Collins scored 15 points for Los Angeles, which has already clinched a spot in the play-in tournament but fell into the ninth place in the West with one game remaining against the eighth-place Portland Trail Blazers.
The Spurs appeared to take control by outscoring the Clippers 35-19 in the second quarter to take a 68-44 lead into halftime. Harrison Barnes hit a 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer and Harper made a shot from just inside of half court at the halftime buzzer.
After trailing by as many as 26, Los Angeles pulled within single digits by flipping the script and outscoring San Antonio 34-19 in the third quarter. The Spurs took an 87-78 advantage into the fourth.
Los Angeles scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to pull within seven before the Spurs regained control with an 8-0 run for a 97-82 lead with 9:27 remaining. An 11-0 run put San Antonio up 110-87 with 6:27 left.
San Antonio shot 53.4% from the floor, while Los Angeles shot 43.0%.
–Field Level Media
