By ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victor Wembanyama had 27 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks as the San Antonio Spurs rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 117-112, on Friday night, March 6.
Kawhi Leonard had 30 points and nine rebounds for Los Angeles, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.
San Antonio (46-17) has won 14 of 15 and is second in the Western Conference.
After defending a missed 3-pointer by Leonard, Wembanyama broke free for an uncontested dunk that gave the Spurs a 113-112 lead with 16 seconds left. Clippers forward Nicolas Batum turned the ball over on the ensuing possession when his foot crossed the boundary while inbounding the ball. Stephon Castle closed out the win by rebounding his own missed free throw and converting a layup with 1 second remaining.
After trailing 75-50 in the third quarter, the Spurs opened the fourth with an 18-5 run to take their first lead since the opening minutes.
Wembanyama blocked Kris Dunn’s reverse layup, creating a fast break that ended with an alley-oop dunk by Carter Bryant. Devin Vassell followed with a 3-pointer for a 99-97 lead.
Julian Champagnie finished with 20 points and nine rebounds for the Spurs, and De’Aaron Fox had 19 points and nine rebounds.
Brook Lopez had 26 points for the Clippers.
Lopez had nine points in the first quarter on a series of floaters, fadeaways and step-back jumpers.
The Clippers took a 56-39 lead with 4 1/2 minutes left in the first half. The lead stretched to 22 points over the next four minutes.
San Antonio shot 38% from the field and 30% on 3-pointers in the first half to trail 66-46 at the break, its biggest halftime deficit of the season. The Spurs have led at the half in 42 of their 63 games.
Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown had 24 points, seven rebounds and seven assists and the Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 120-100, in Jayson Tatum’s first game in almost 10 months after rupturing his right Achilles tendon.
Tatum had 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting, 12 rebounds and seven assists in a rust-filled 27 minutes. He played in five- and six-minute spurts in his first game since suffering the injury in during Game 4 of Boston’s Eastern Conference semifinal loss to New York in May.
Derrick White added 20 points to help Boston win for the fourth time in five games. Dallas has lost six straight.
No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, a Maine native playing his first game in TD Garden, had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists for Dallas. Klay Thompson finished with 19 points, and Naji Marshall had13 points.
Tatum missed his first six shots, including three 3-pointers. But he continued to look for his teammates and actively screening to initiate the offense.
The Celtics have 19 games remaining in the regular season, including 11 at TD Garden to try to ramp up Tatum for the playoffs.
