Patty Mills scored 21 points, and Dejounte Murray racked up 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists for a triple-double as the San Antonio Spurs halted a two-game losing streak with a 121-101 win over the visiting, short-handed Washington Wizards on Sunday.
The game was the first for Washington since Jan. 11 as six players were quarantined because of COVID. Five of those players, Deni Avdija and Rui Hachimura, both starters, as well as Ish Smith, Davis Bertans, and Troy Brown, are still out; the sixth, Moe Wagner, was listed as available but did not see the court on Sunday.
San Antonio led by eight points heading into the fourth quarter, expanded that lead to as many as 11 with 8:27 to play and ran away down the stretch via a 15-1 run.
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Seven San Antonio players scored in double figures as Lonnie Walker IV added 16 points, LaMarcus Aldridge hit for 15, Devin Vassell tallied 14 points, and Rudy Gay and Keldon Johnson had 13 each.
Bradley Beal, the NBA’s leading scorer, had 31 points, four below his season average, for the Wizards. Jerome Robinson added 16, and newly signed Alex Len finished with 11 points.
Russell Westbrook, back on the court after missing Washington’s two most recent games with a left quadriceps injury, scored just nine points.
Washington led by as many as 10 points early on before settling for a 26-23 edge after 12 minutes of play. The lead changed hands six times in the second quarter, which ended with San Antonio owning a 48-47 advantage. Beal paced all scorers with 11 points in the half.
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Johnson led the Spurs with eight points while Murray had nine rebounds in the half, all on the defensive end. San Antonio committed just two turnovers over the first two quarters as nine players saw at least 10 minutes of court time in the half.
The Spurs took control in the middle of the third quarter, expanding their lead to as many as eight points and then using a Mills 3-pointer and free throw with 0.7 seconds left to carry an 85-77 advantage to the final quarter.
–Field Level Media