De’Aaron Fox racked up 27 points and Luke Kornet scored 12 of his 20 points in fourth quarter to help the visiting San Antonio Spurs outlast the Washington Wizards 124-113 on Sunday.
Not counting their loss to New York in the NBA Cup final last week, the Spurs captured their sixth straight game for the first time since March 2019.
The Spurs took a 20-point lead into halftime and were up by 24 in the first minutes after the break before Washington roared back, outscoring the visitors by eight in the third period to pull to within a dozen points heading into the fourth.
But San Antonio had plenty left in the tank, never allowing the Wizards closer than nine points in the final period. Kornet (who also had 12 rebounds) scored six straight points over a 50-second stretch ending with 7:08 to play during which the Spurs stoked their lead back to 19 points before Washington took a final swing, pulling to within nine points on four different occasions but never closer.
Kornet’s dunk with 1:51 remaining expanded the Spurs’ lead back to 11 points, and they were able to hold on from there.
Stephon Castle had 18 points and 11 assists for San Antonio while Victor Wembanyama — coming off the bench for the fifth straight game — added 14 points and 12 rebounds. Harrison Barnes also had 14 points, with Keldon Johnson scoring 12 off the bench and Devin Vassell hitting for 11.
Bub Carrington led the Wizards with 21 points while Tre Johnson tied a career high with 19 points. Tristan Vukcevic added 18 points, CJ McCollum had 15 and Kyshawn George scored 14.
The first quarter went back and forth with three ties and seven lead changes, the last of which came when Jamir Watkins hit two free throws with 12.9 seconds to play in the period to give the Wizards a 28-26 advantage.
San Antonio swept to the front for good on a pair of free throws by Castle early in the second quarter, part of 18-4 run that landed the Spurs a 47-36 lead after Wembanyama’s alley-oop dunk at the 7:48 mark of the period. San Antonio dominated the rest of the quarter, going up 69-49 on Castle’s steal and breakaway windmill dunk to end the half.
Fox paced the Spurs with 15 points before halftime while Wembanyama added 14 points and nine rebounds, Castle had 12 points, and Barnes scored 10.
Vukcevic led all scorers with 16 points in the first half.
