Written by Michael Marot at NBA.com
Eventually, LaMarcus Aldridge came through, too.
Together, the new faces of the Spurs produced a familiar result – a 110-06 victory at Indiana for another milestone moment. With their 42nd victory, the Spurs extended their streak of consecutive winning seasons to a league-record 20.
”It was a heck of a competitive game,” coach Gregg Popovich said. ”It was real physical and aggressive. I thought both teams played real well. I’m obviously thrilled with a win on the road. It could have gone either way.”
The Spurs have had a winning record every season since Tim Duncan was a rookie in 1997-98, this one coming after his retirement. Utah had set the record with 19 straight winning seasons from 1985-2004.
So, of course the Spurs did it their way.
They struggled early, gave away the lead in the fourth quarter after it looked like they might pull away and then had to grind it out with a 13-4 closing run after the Pacers retook a 97-94 lead with 4:08 left.
Leonard made 13 of 23 shots including two 3-pointers and finished with 32 points, six rebounds and four steals, including the one that sealed it. It was his fifth straight 30-point game.
”I’m just trying to win,” Leonard said.
Aldridge, like most of the other Spurs, looked weary on the second game of a back-to-back. He finished 7 of 22 from the field with 19 points – roughly half coming in the final 6 1/2 minutes, when the Spurs needed everything he could muster to avoid losing consecutive games for the third time this season.
Paul George scored 27 points and Myles Turner had 22 for the Pacers, who have lost four straight – three on their home court.
They missed five free throws in the final 5:17 and turned the ball over after Turner came up with a steal with 29 seconds left in a four-point game.
George’s 3 with 21 seconds left cut the deficit to 107-104, but the Spurs closed it out at the free-throw line to rebound from their loss in New York on Sunday.
”San Antonio played San Antonio ball,” George said. ”They screen, they move the ball. I thought we had great looks and an opportunity to win this game, multiple occasions to pull away. But at the end of the day, they played San Antonio basketball.”
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