San Antonio hit the 50-win mark for the first time since the 2016-17 season, with Victor Wembanyama’s two-way brilliance leading the Spurs past the LA Clippers on the road.
Victor Wembanyama scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Stephon Castle added 23 points and eight assists and the San Antonio Spurs continued their late-season surge with a 119-115 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday at Inglewood, California.
Devin Vassell put up 20 points and De'Aaron Fox added 18 as the Spurs improved to an NBA-best 18-2 since the start of February.
San Antonio took charge in the second quarter, when it outscored Los Angeles 37-15.
Second in the Western Conference standings, the Spurs moved within three games of the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder.
Darius Garland totaled 25 points and 10 assists as the Clippers played without leading scorer Kawhi Leonard, who sprained his left ankle in a loss to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday.
Jordan Miller added a career-high-tying 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Bennedict Mathurin scored 16 points and John Collins added 11 as Los Angeles fell to 7-3 since the start of March.
The Clippers were aggressive early, taking a 13-1 lead and holding a 17-3 advantage 4:30 into the game.
Los Angeles led 37-29 after the first quarter.
Wembanyama scored 11 points in the second quarter as the Spurs shot 51.9% from the floor, forced eight Clippers turnovers and had a 15-7 rebounding advantage while taking a 66-52 lead into halftime.
The Spurs led by as many as 24 points (87-63) with 4:52 remaining in the third after a 3-pointer from Harrison Barnes before the Clippers rallied within 92-82 heading into the fourth quarter.
Los Angeles pulled within 105-98 on a put-back underneath by Miller with 5:24 remaining, and Mathurin cut the Clippers' deficit to 108-102 on a layup with 4:15 left.
A Garland 3-pointer with 38.7 seconds left got Los Angeles to within 115-111 before the Spurs put it away by sinking four free throws in the final 30.4 seconds.
The loss dropped the Clippers to 4-11 without Leonard this season.
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