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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The San Antonio Spurs are rounding into
playoff form with a month to spare.
|  | | Derek Anderson scored 17 points to help the Spurs to victory. |
San Antonio won its ninth straight game Friday night as Tim
Duncan scored 29 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead the Spurs
to a 95-86 win over New Jersey.
San Antonio has the NBA's best record since January 23rd with a
23-4 mark. With 17 games remaining until the playoffs begin, San
Antonio (46-19) maintains a half-game lead over Utah for home-court
advantage in the Western Conference.
"We're not really looking that far ahead right now, but we are
playing some of our best basketball of the season right now,"
Duncan said. "We are starting to peak at the right time and we
just have to keep up the intensity."
In the 1999 lockout-shortened season, San Antonio went 19-3 to
end the regular season with the league's best mark (37-13) and went
on to win the NBA championship.
After a sluggish first half ended with the Spurs leading 45-39,
San Antonio used a 16-4 run at the end of the third quarter to
build a big lead and then hung on late for the win.
Derek Anderson started the third-quarter spurt with a drive to
the basket for a layup, then lobbed an alley-oop pass to Samaki
Walker for a dunk to give the Spurs a 68-50 lead.
After two free throws by Anderson, Duncan finished off the
impressive run by taking a pass from Avery Johnson for an easy
layup, hitting an 18-footer from the top of the key and then
burying a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to give San Antonio
a 77-54 lead.
Duncan scored 12 points in the third quarter and played only
three minutes in the fourth.
New Jersey rallied with a 21-4 run in the fourth and closed to
90-84 on three free throws by Keith Van Horn with 46.7 seconds
remaining, but the Spurs made six of eight free throws down the
stretch to seal the win.
"We were executing early on, we just couldn't get anything to
fall, " said Van Horn, who finished with 15 points before fouling
out with 25 seconds to play. "We didn't want to give up late. We
had a lot of guys in that don't get a whole lot of playing time
working real hard to get us back into the game."
Stephon Marbury scored 10 fourth-quarter points to lead the late
New Jersey surge. Coming off a 34-point game in Houston on Thursday
night, Marbury had 20 points on 7-of-20 shooting.
"Our defense was good in the second half and we really did a
good job clamping down on Stephon Marbury," San Antonio head coach
Gregg Popovich said. "They limited him early in the second half
and that got our energy up."
The Spurs have now held seven of their last eight opponents
under 90 points.
Game notes
San Antonio activated forward Malik Rose, who had been out
since mid-February with a hip injury, and placed forward Ira Newble
(sprained finger) on injured reserve. ... Tim Duncan had upped his
league-leading double-double mark to 53 games with a 15 point, 10
rebound effort in the first half. ... San Antonio improved to 27-6
at home while New Jersey fell to 7-28 on the road.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
New Jersey Clubhouse
San Antonio Clubhouse
RECAPS
Indiana 103
Atlanta 97
Sacramento 100
Philadelphia 79
LA Lakers 101
Washington 89
Cleveland 114
Charlotte 109
Orlando 103
Vancouver 99
Seattle 90
Chicago 80
San Antonio 95
New Jersey 86
Boston 87
Denver 83
Portland 90
Utah 87
LA Clippers 94
Golden State 76
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