By ASSOCIATED PRESS
INGLEWOOD, California (AP) — De’Aaron Fox scored 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 118-99, on Thursday night, April 2, without Victor Wembanyama in the lineup to win their 11th in a row.
Wembanyama was rested on the second night of a back-to-back. He had 41 points and 18 rebounds in a 127-113 win at the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.
The Spurs had six players in double figures, including Stephon Castle with 20 points and Dylan Harper with 19 off the bench.
San Antonio kept alive its hopes of catching Oklahoma City for the top spot in the West. The Spurs improved to 27-2 since Feb. 1 and 11-5 when Wembanyama doesn’t play.
Kawhi Leonard scored 24 points to lead the Clippers with his 53rd consecutive game of 20 or more points. Bennedict Mathurin added 18 points off the bench and John Collins had 15. The loss dropped them to the ninth spot for the play-in tournament with their second straight loss after winning five in a row. Portland moved into eighth after a 118-106 win.
The Spurs led by 26 points in the first half. They shot 72% from the floor early in the second quarter, opening with an 11-2 run and hitting 20 of their first 28 shots.
The Clippers rallied in the third when they outscored the Spurs 34-19. Mathurin had 10 points and Leonard eight as the Clippers closed with a 14-4 run to trail 87-78 going into the fourth.
But the Spurs quickly regained the momentum. Castle scored eight of their 10 points in extending the lead to 99-84.
Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder routed the Los Angeles Lakers, 139-96, in a game in which NBA leading scorer Luka Doncic left due to injury.
Only six times in their storied history have the Lakers been defeated by more points. They fell six points short of their worst margin of defeat ever — a 49-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks in 2017.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning league MVP, got the best of his matchup with Doncic — one of Gilgeous-Alexander’s top competitors for this season’s award. Doncic had scored at least 40 points in five of his previous seven games, but he finished with 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting from the field and 1-for-7 shooting from 3-point range against the Thunder’s suffocating defense.
Doncic left the game with a left hamstring injury in the middle of the third quarter. Lakers coach JJ Redick said he will have an MRI on Friday.
Austin Reaves scored 15 points and LeBron James added 13 for the Lakers.
Isaiah Joe added 20 points and made six 3-pointers as Oklahoma City shot 53.9% to turn a matchup between two of the league’s hottest teams into a blowout. The Thunder have now won 16 of 17. The Lakers had won four straight and 13 of 14.
It was a critical game for Oklahoma City. The Thunder entered the night two games ahead of San Antonio in the race for homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with six games remaining.
Earlier, Jalen Duren had 22 points and 14 rebounds, Daniss Jenkins scored 26 points and the Detroit Pistons beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 113-108, as both teams were without a superstar.
Minnesota ruled out All-Star guard Anthony Edwards, listing his right knee injury and an illness, about 90 minutes before tipoff. The Pistons announced earlier in the day that Cade Cunningham would be out at least another week to recover from a collapsed left lung.
Edwards and Cunningham will be ineligible for NBA postseason awards because they can’t reach the 65-game minimum. The Pistons went on an 11-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to take control and improved to 7-2 without Cunningham since March 17.
Minnesota’s Julius Randle finished with 27 points, Ayo Dosunmu and Naz Reid scored 19 points each and Mike Conley scored all 14 of his points in the first half. Detroit’s Ausar Thompson, the Eastern Conference defensive player of the month, had a career-high nine assists to go along with nine rebounds and seven points.
