San Antonio Spurs use a balanced attack to edge out Sacramento Kings 117-112: NBA Recap
On Wednesday night San Antonio Spurs levelled the season series with Sacramento Kings 1-1, after handing them a 117-112 defeat at the Power Balance Pavilion.
Spurs rolled onto a 6 game winning streak after this win and are now just on the cusp of qualifying for the playoffs. Even though it was their 5th game in 6 nights stretch, the Spurs didn’t show any symptom of fatigue and finished the game with style having 5 players in double figure index.
Veteran Manu Ginobili tallied a game high 20 points coming off the bench while Kawhi Leonard barely missed his double-double with 19 points and 9 boards.
Tim Duncan was also in the mix with 18 points and 8 rebounds, all that in just 29 minutes and 34 seconds. He was content with his performance especially under the tight schedule.
"I feel pretty good right now. I'm sure it will hit me in the next two days here, but I feel good right now. It was great to win all of them. That was huge for us. We played tough games on the road and (against some) tough teams. We looked pretty good so we're getting better."
Reserve Gary Neal poured in 13 and Tony Parker recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists in San Antonio’s 35th victory of this season.
Rookie Isaiah Thomas was on song for Kings. He had a career night scoring 28 points to go with 10 assists. DeMarcus Cousins poured in 25 points and 11 boards and recieved a vote a appraisal from Duncan.
"He's getting better. Every time we play them he's getting better. He's getting more comfortable with his role. He's expanded his game and he always plays hard, so he's getting better."
Marcus Thornton had 18 and forward Jason Thompson chipped in with 15 as Sacramento skidded down to a 4 game losing streak.
The game was mostly a one sided affair as Spurs allowed only 6 ties and 0 hand changes in 2 hours and 8 minutes of game.
With five ties, the game was highly competitive in the opening frame. With 59.8 clicks left in the 1st frame and the scores tied at 22 each, the Spurs reeled off a 5-nothing run and capped the segment with 27-22 advantage.
The same pattern was followed in the 2nd period. After some back and forth action San Antonio were having a slender 44-40 lead, when they came up with a 9-4 run and widened the gap to 53-44. Kings toned that down to 53-49 with 5 unanswered points by the end of 1st half.
The hosts displayed a resilient show in the 3rd and narrowed the gap to 74-72 late but the Spurs managed to hold onto their lead. As the game entered into its last 12 minutes Spurs were ahead by a fragile 81-78 advantage.
The Kings strived to overcome the deficit in the last frame and they came as close as 93-92 with 7:06 in hand, but the Spurs shifted gears and reeled off a decisive 17-8 run to claim a double digit 110-100 lead. They cruised through the rest of period and handed Kings their 33rd defeat of this season.
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