Spurs shackle Warriors, stay perfect on home turf
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs continued their dominance at home, even against the NBA’s most dominant team.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 13 rebounds, and the Spurs beat the Golden State Warriors 87-79 on Saturday night to remain perfect at the AT&T Center this season and extend their home winning streak over the defending champions to 33 straight regular-season games.
The Spurs held the Warriors to a seasonlow point total, using a bruising defense to slow Stephen Curry in a tense showdown between the league’s top two teams.
“They’re a great team, they’re the bar in the NBA and it just felt good to win tonight,” Aldridge said.
San Antonio (59-10) moved within three games of Golden State (62-7) for the league’s top seed with two meetings remaining in April.
In Miami, LeBron James has yet to win at American Airlines Arena since leaving Miami and that trend continued as the Heat got 24 points from Dwayne Wade and defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 122-101.
Wade reached a significant milestone in a game the Heat never trailed. Midway through the third quarter, he became the 41st NBA player with 20,000 career points.
James had 26 points on 13-of-20 shooting from the field and added three rebounds and three assists as Cleveland (49-20), which leads the Eastern Conference, lost for just the third time in the past 11 games.
The Heat (40-29) are 4-0 in Miami since James left the team to return to Cleveland. The Cavaliers are 3-0 against the Heat in Cleveland during that same span.
Heat point guard Goran Dragic had 18 points and 11 assists and shooting guard Joe Johnson added 18 points.
Miami also got 19 points off the bench from rookie shooting guard Josh Richardson, who made 4 of 6 3-pointers. Heat reserve center Hassan Whiteside added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
In other results, Denver stunned Charlotte, 101-93; Detroit thwarted Brooklyn, 115-103; Oklahoma held off Indiana, 115-111; Washington thumped New York, 99-89; Atlanta crushed Houston, 10997; Chicago defeated Utah, 92-85; and the Memphis Grizzlies downed the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-102.