The San Antonio Spurs didn’t have All-Star guard Tony Parker for the second straight game but they did have Patty Mills to fill up the basket. Mills, starting in place of Parker because of back spasms, fired in 26 points and the visiting Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks for the ninth straight time, 109-100 on Thursday night.
“He’s not going to get a whole lot of rebounds or stop a whole lot of people but he’s going to shoot it,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Mills. “That’s what his skills are. He’s not afraid to shoot it that’s for sure.” Mills made nine-of-25 field goals, including six-for-11 on triples in 36 minutes.
“Whether I start or come off the bench, there’s a mentality,” Mills explained. “Shooting shots is the same.” The victory moved league-best San Antonio (61-18) within a win of an Oklahoma City Thunder loss of clinching the top-seed in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the upcoming playoffs.
Tim Duncan had 20 points with 15 rebounds, Kawhi Leonard collected 16 points and a career-best 16 boards for the Spurs, who knocked down 16-of-34 from behind the arc en route to their 21st win in the last 23 decisions.
“Kawhi’s huge for us,” Duncan said. “When he plays like he did tonight and does things we don’t always expect that’s going to be huge for us.” San Antonio trailed 51-49 at halftime despite 13 points from Mills.
The speedy Australian guard added 11 more in the third quarter, sparking the Spurs to an 83-72 advantage heading into the final frame. Trailing by as many as 16, the Mavs rallied to within 104-98 on a 3-pointer by Spaniard Jose Calderon with 1 minute 17 seconds left.
But Leonard nailed the dagger triple from the left corner with 56 ticks remaining to snap Dallas’ four-game winning streak. Monta Ellis scored 24 points while German star Dirk Nowitzki added 19 for Dallas, which dropped into a tie with the idle Phoenix Suns for the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in the West and one game up on the No 9 Memphis Grizzlies.
The Mavericks (48-32) face the visiting Suns (47-31) on Saturday and the Grizzlies (46-32) in their final regular-season games.
“We’re fighting for our playoff lives,” Mavs guard Devin Harris said. “We’ve got two games left and we feel like they’re winnable. Obviously, Saturday is huge for us. We have to come out with that type of effort knowing that our season is on the line. It’s a game that we must have.”
Nuggets beat Warriors
Kenneth Faried hit the game-winning turnaround jumper with half a second left, lifting the visiting Denver Nuggets past the Golden State Warriors (100-99).
Russian centre Timofey Mozgov led already playoff-eliminated Denver with 23 points and an NBA season-high 29 rebounds, Randy Foye scored 20 while Faried finished with 18 and 17 boards.
Stephen Curry scored 24 points, Klay Thompson had 21 for the Warriors, who blew a 20-point first-half lead and failed to clinch a Western Conference playoff berth.
