San Antonio, TX (Sports Network) – Tony Parker scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, guiding San Antonio to a 108-103 win over the Kings.
Manu Ginobili added 24 points and seven assists, while Tim Duncan netted 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, winners of 11 straight and 16 of the last 17 meetings.
“I thought our big three pulled it out for us; they dug down deep,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Tony carried us in the third quarter and then Manu and then Timmy. Those three guys were great tonight. We had to dig deep with them and they were the reason we won the game. I thought Sacramento did a great job.”
The Spurs had their 22-game home winning streak broken Sunday against the Lakers, but have since won two in a row at the AT&T Center. George Hill and DeJuan Blair each contributed 14 points in Friday’s triumph.
Jermaine Taylor and Omri Casspi each had 16 points in reserve roles for Sacramento, losers of five in a row.
“We took it right down to the wire,” Kings coach Paul Westphal said. “Ginobili did what he does. I was very proud of our effort. I thought we played the pick-and-roll as well as we’ve played it all year. It’s hard to stop them, because they’re the best in the league at it.”
Pooh Jeter’s pull-up jumper tied the game at 93 with 4 1/2 minutes remaining, but the Spurs went back in front for good on Ginobili’s three-ball. That started a 12-0 run, which was finished off by Ginobili’s three-point play with 2:02 left. The big three of Duncan, Ginobili and Parker accounted for all of those points.
The Kings got within four points, but that came with 12.8 seconds left.
San Antonio held a 22-20 edge after the opening quarter and a 52-46 edge at halftime. Casspi’s layup had the visitors within 75-71 moving to the fourth.