Tim Duncan had 25 points and 13 rebounds, and the Spurs showed they can still hang with their Western Conference rivals in a 105-85 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers last night in San Antonio.
Tony Parker scored 22 as the Spurs got their biggest victory this season. The Lakers are just the fourth winning team San Antonio has beaten, but none the caliber of the defending NBA champions.
Kobe Bryant had another off game, scoring 16 points. He again wore a thick splint over his broken right index finger.
The Spurs and Lakers dominated the last decade, winning seven titles between them. The Lakers whittled a 22-point deficit to six late in the first meeting of this decade, but it was a rout by the end.
Bryant, who scored just 12 on 4-of-21 shooting in a win against Milwaukee on Sunday, had another slow night. He took a season-low 10 shots from the field, hitting seven of them.
Pistons 99, Wizards 90 - Detroit found a team in worse shape than it is and ended a 13-game losing streak by beating host Washington behind Charlie Villanueva’s 23 points and nine rebounds.
Wizards guard Mike Miller is out again with a right calf injury that already sidelined him for about 1 months.
Magic 109, Kings 88 - Dwight Howard had 30 points and 16 rebounds, and visiting Orlando used a big run to open the fourth quarter and beat Sacramento.
Ryan Anderson started the 18-4 run with a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the quarter to give the Magic a 79-78 lead. Orlando just built on it from there, holding Sacramento to just one field goal in the first 7:14 of the period.
Grizzlies 104, Clippers 102 - Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol each scored 24 points, Zach Randolph added 20 and host Memphis snapped Los Angeles’ four-game winning streak.
The Grizzlies overcame Baron Davis’ triple-double, an 18-point deficit and a 36-minute delay caused by a water line break in the fire sprinkler system at FedExForum for their sixth straight home win.
Bobcats 102, Rockets 94 - Stephen Jackson scored 16 of his career-high 43 points in the fourth quarter and host Charlotte clamped down on defense to rally past Houston.
Surpassing his previous best scoring night of 42 set nearly six years ago with Indiana, Jackson hit 15-of-22 shots and made 10-of-11 free throws.
Elsewhere in the NBA - Two more Washington Wizards players are speaking to authorities about the Gilbert Arenas gun investigation. Coach Flip Saunders said JaVale McGee and Mike Miller were called away yesterday. Saunders and at least seven players have been questioned about what happened with Arenas, who was suspended indefinitely last week. . . .
The NBA fined two teams $10,000 apiece for violating the rule preventing players from standing for long periods of time in front of their bench. The teams were not identified in a memo sent to all teams.
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