Duncan scores 23, leads Spurs past Wizards 97-86
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WASHINGTON (NBA.com exclusive) -- The winningest team of the past decade started out the new one crisply.
The San Antonio Spurs, who won 70 percent of their games in the last ten years, began 2010 with a 97-86 victory over the Washington Wizards on Saturday.
San Antonio (20-11) has won five in a row and eight of its last nine, and thanks to some old friends - and some newer ones, too - they're looking as if they could challenge the best in the NBA West.
"A lot of things take time with a lot of new people," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They're steadily becoming comfortable in their roles. We still have a long way to go if we want to play with the big boys."
In the first five weeks of the season, San Antonio was just 9-9, and a month from their season-defining eight-game rodeo road trip, they're settling in nicely.
"That's the way we've played for 13 years. We haven't seen it on a consistent basis this year," Popovich said.
At the half, their coach was peeved. He yelled at his team - told them they were committing stupid fouls - and they listened. In the first half, Washington (10-21) shot 15 free throws. In the second half - just two. They acted as if they were grateful for the prodding.
"That was suggested nicely by coach Popovich," Tim Duncan said. "Very nicely."
Duncan led the Spurs with 23 points, hitting 10 of his 16 shots.
Duncan's short jumper with 6:20 to play gave San Antonio a 81-80 lead, and they finished the game on an 18-6 run.
"It was a lot of the same stuff all night," Duncan said. "We just cleaned it up [in the fourth quarter.]"
The Wizards, who had to play through the distraction of weapons allegations against star guard Gilbert Arenas, scored only 36 points in the second half, and disturbingly, they again came unglued late in the game.
Washington has lost four in a row - the third losing streak of at least four games this season. After a lackluster performance against Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Wizards coach Flip Saunders excoriated his team.
Now Saunders is faced with problems much worse than he had imagined. On Friday, reports surfaced that Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, a reserve guard who's been injured all season, pointed guns at each other in the locker room after practice on Dec. 21.
During the game, the team released a statement denouncing the use of guns, and Arenas, who said he would meet with investigators on Monday, admitted he used bad judgment in bringing weapons into the locker room, but denied threatening Crittenton.
"If you know me, you've been here, I've never done anything (that involves) violence. Anything I do is funny - well, it's funny to me," Arenas said.
Arenas, who received a tepid pre-game response from the fans, had 23 points, missing 15 of his 25 shots.
Caron Butler, who played all but 79 seconds, led Washington with 24.
The Wizards have lost nine straight against San Antonio. On Nov. 21, they lost 106-84.
"You've got to focus against a team like this. Otherwise you'll get slaughtered," Butler said. "We did a really good job. Going down to San Antonio, I think we lost by a thousand."
"Coming here and playing the way we did, that shows a lot of improvement."
Saunders was decidedly more charitable about his team's performance than he was last Tuesday.
"For the first time, we had some guys come over on the defensive end," he said. "We have to have the ability to make shots in the fourth quarter and not rely on jump shots."
The Spurs got a nice contribution off the bench from DC native Roger Mason, who's in his second season with San Antonio after two seasons with Washington.
Mason had a season-high 20 points, including all four from three-point range. Keith Bogans, another DC native, hit both of his.
"It was a good night," Mason said. "It's always fun to play in front of family and friends. More importantly, we've got a good thing going and we need to keep it going."
Duncan has been with the Spurs for their four championships, and now he's looking for a fifth.
"We're coming along. We're a work in progress," Duncan said. "There are still a lot of hiccups during the game."
San Antonio plays at Toronto on Sunday, and then has a four-game homestand.
"We're headed in the right direction, but we're not where we want to be, obviously," Duncan said.
"We need to beat some of the good teams on the road. Once we start doing that, our confidence will build."
