SAN ANTONIO, United States // Tiago Splitter and the Spurs got out to a fast start, then hung on for a bumpier second half against the disorganised Los Angeles Clippers.
Splitter had a season-high 22 points before he was hurt, Tim Duncan added 19 points and 11 rebounds, and San Antonio beat Los Angeles 116-92 Saturday night in their first game without injured All-Star Chris Paul.
Tony Parker had 17 points, Manu Ginobili added 15 points and Kawhi Leonard had 10 points for San Antonio (26-8).
Splitter left with 9:37 remaining, injuring his right shoulder after charging into Ryan Hollins’ chest.
Jamal Crawford scored 24 points, Blake Griffin had 19 points and Darren Collison added 14 points and six assists starting in place of Paul, who separated his right shoulder Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks.
Los Angeles (23-13) gave up 70 points in the first half for the second consecutive night, but rallying proved tougher to do against a 35-point lead than the three-point deficit they faced against Dallas.
“It’s easier to do it once you play so bad the game before because you know the mistakes you made,” Ginobili said. “We were really sharp from the beginning; our first half was great. Then we kind of stopped a little bit, but the first half was fun to watch. Everybody sharing the ball, attacking, being quick, rotations real sharp, really good first half.”
While the Clippers understandably stalled without their leader, who is expected to be out three to five weeks, the rest of their game disappeared, too.
“No one has to replace Chris’ anything,” Griffin said. “Not his voice, not his game, nothing. Everybody does things differently. We don’t have any other guys that talk like Chris. It’ll work just fine. In the second half we were communicating with each other. That’s all we needed. We didn’t need anyone to talk like Chris. That would be our biggest mistake, is to try to replace him with someone or something.”
Los Angeles had just one rebound in the first quarter while allowing San Antonio to score a season-high 37 points.
“In the first half we looked more AAU,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “The ball stuck. I bet half the time it was one pass, shot; one pass, shot.”
After Collison’s jumper with 2:20 left in the first, Los Angeles didn’t score again until Matt Barnes’ layup with 9:40 left in the half. San Antonio extended their lead to 70-35 at the half, a season high for point in an opening half.
OTHER SATURDAY RESULTS
Heat 110, Magic 94
Veterans Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade both scored 20 points in leading the Miami Heat (25-8) to a 110-94 victory over the Orlando Magic (10-23).
Bosh made all nine of his shots and collected six rebounds. Wade made eight of his 15 shots and added six rebounds and four assists.
Veteran forward Rashard Lewis, in a rare start, scored a season-high 18 points in 27 minutes, helping the Heat work through a below average game by LeBron James who had 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, making just five of 13 shots.
Pacers 99, Pelicans 82
Forward Paul George scored 24 points to rally the Pacers (26-6) to a 99-82 come-from-behind win over the New Orleans Pelicans (15-17).
Guard Lance Stephenson added 19 points, 14 that helped spark the Pacers’ second-half surge.
The Pacers managed to overcome a dismal 35 percent shooting from the field during the opening quarter with the help of their bench during the second quarter to slowly start chipping away at the Pelicans’ 27-15 first quarter lead.
Bulls 91, Hawks 84
Forward Mike Dunleavy scored 20 points off the bench to lead the Chicago Bulls (14-18) to a 91-84 victory over the Atlanta Hawks (18-16).
Forward Luol Deng added 17 points and the Bulls had three players produce double-doubles.
Deng grabbed 11 rebounds, while forward Taj Gibson and center Joakim Noah both finished with 10 points and 12 boards.
Guard Jeff Teague and forward Paul Millsap led Atlanta with 16 points each.
Thunder 115, Timberwolves 111
Oklahoma City small forward Kevin Durant scored 23 of his season-high 48 points in the fourth quarter as the Thunder (26-7) rallied for a come-from-behind 115-111 victory at Minnesota (16-17).
Durant’s 18-footer with four seconds to play gave the Thunder a 113-111 lead.
Minnesota had a chance to win the game when power forward Kevin Love was fouled on a three-point attempt with 2.2 seconds to play.
Love missed the first two free throws and turned the ball over when his missed shot did not hit the rim.
Center Nikola Pekovic led the Timberwolves with 31 points and 11 rebounds. Love scored 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to record his 29th double-double in 32 games.
Nets 89, Cavaliers 82
The Brooklyn Nets (12-21) suffered another third-quarter letdown but survived to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 89-82.
Guard Deron Williams had 21 points and six assists, guard Paul Pierce had 17 points and five assists and forward Andray Blatche came off the bench to score 12 points for the Nets.
Guard Dion Waiters scored a game-high 26 points, guard CJ Miles had 19 points and eight rebounds for the Cavaliers (11-22).
Suns 116, Bucks 100
Gerald Green replaced the missing Eric Bledsoe in the starting lineup and scored 24 points while Channing Frye had 22 points with seven rebounds as Phoenix (20-12) made easy work of NBA-worst Milwaukee (7-26).
Goran Dragic chipped in 15 points and six assists in the winning effort. Brandon Knight led the Bucks with 25 points and eight assists, with OJ Mayo adding 20 points off the bench.
76ers 101, Trail Blazers 99
Portland (26-8) suffered their third loss in five games as Thaddeus Young led all scorers with 30 points on 14-for-20 shooting to give Philadelphia (12-21) the victory.
Evan Turner also scored 23 on 9-of-20 shooting and Michael Carter-Williams had 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the 76ers.
LaMarcus Aldridge filled up the stat sheet for the Blazers with 29 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and five blocks. Portland’s normally effective backcourt of Damian Lillard and Wesley Matthews combined to make just 10 of their 32 shots.
Bobcats 113, Kings 103
Kemba Walker scored 30 points and distributed 6 asssists and Al Jefferson had 27 points and nine rebounds to lead Charlotte (15-20) over Sacramento (10-22).
The Kings fell despite double-doubles from DeMarcus Cousins (26 points, 11 rebounds), Rudy Gay (17, 10) and Jason Thompson (15,14). Isaiah Thomas also nearly added another, with 21 points and eight assists.
Charlotte outshot Sacramento, however, 54.2 percent to 45.7.
