De’Aaron Fox led all scorers with 24 points and Stephon Castle flirted with a triple-double to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 123-113 win over the Indiana Pacers on Friday in Indianapolis.
Dylan Harper complemented Castle’s 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists with 22 points off the bench. Keldon Johnson chipped in with 16 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
The Spurs improved to 10-3 this season without star Victor Wembayama, who was sidelined with left knee soreness.
Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Andrew Nembhard added 19 points and Micah Potter finished with a career-high 16 points in his first start of the season as Indiana dropped its 11th in a row.
San Antonio seized control with strong starts in the third and fourth quarters. The Spurs used a 9-0 start to take a 77-58 lead in the third quarter, which equaled their largest lead of the night. The Pacers made their run late in the third. Indiana cut the lead down to 91-85 on a TJ McConnell layup with 54 seconds left.
Behind seven points from Johnson, the Spurs opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 103-87 lead with 9:10 left.
The Pacers responded with a 6-0 run on a Siakam 3-point play and a Ben Sheppard 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 103-93.
Harper and Johnson then went on a 7-0 run, which included Johnson’s third 3-pointer of the quarter, to give the Spurs a 110-93 lead.
After the Pacers got as close as 115-107 on Potter’s 3-pointer, Fox answered with a 3-pointer to give the Spurs an 11-point advantage with 2:07 remaining to put the game out of reach.
The Spurs shot 61.5% (16-for-26) from the floor in the second quarter, capped by a Luke Kornet alley-oop dunk over Aaron Nesmith with 10 seconds left in the half. Kornet finished off the 3-point play to give the Spurs a 71-56 lead.
Bennedict Mathurin hit a mid-range jumper at the buzzer to cut the Pacers’ deficit to 71-58 at the half. San Antonio, however, had already done most of its damage, outscoring Indiana 41-27 in the second quarter.
