SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs are on the short list with the Brooklyn Nets for the NBA's hottest teams over the last two months, and they held off Brooklyn in a down-to-the wire test at AT&T Center, 117-114.
The game featured 13 ties and 18 lead changes.
Leading 92-90, the Nets got an inside score from Ed Davis and a free throw from Treveon Graham before Rodions Kurucs forced a steal and D'Angelo Russell fed DeMarre Carroll for the fast-break finish and a 97-90 lead.
But the Spurs outscored Brooklyn 13-4 over the next four minutes to take a 103-101 lead with just over four minutes to go.
Joe Harris twice vaulted the Nets into the lead with a pair of 3-pointers 33 seconds apart, but the Spurs scored the next six points to go up 112-109 with 90 seconds to go.
After Russell scored on a drive for Brooklyn, LaMarcus Aldridge converted a three-point play to put the Spurs up 115-111 with 51.1 seconds to go. A Shabazz Napier 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left cut the deficit to one point.
Russell led the Nets with 25 points and nine assists. Harris and Carroll each had 18, Napier had 15 with seven assists and Jarrett Allen had 14.
Davis had 11 rebounds and Kurucs grabbed 10.
A 10-0 run late in the second quarter had the Nets within one of the Spurs at halftime.
San Antonio jumped out to an 18-11 lead midway through the first quarter on the strength of an 11-0 run. Allen and Kurucs scored in the paint to bring Brooklyn within three, but San Antonio followed with an 11-2 run capped by three Patty Mills free throws for a 29-17 lead.
Two Russell 3-pointers kept the Nets within 29-25 going into the second quarter, and when Russell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson opened up the second half with scoring drives, the Nets had a 12-0 run and were knotted at 29.
San Antonio stretched its second-quarter lead as large as seven points and was up 45-39 with five minutes to go in the half. But the Nets responded with a 10-0 run, going up 49-45 as Allen blocked DeMar DeRozan's shot off a drive to initiate transition, finishing at the other end off a feed under the rim from Napier.
The Nets were up 51-48 before the Spurs notched the half's final four points to take a 52-51 lead at halftime.
A 38-point third quarter put the Nets up 89-85 going into the fourth. Trailing 82-81, the Nets put together an 8-2 run to go up by six before DeRozan closed the quarter with two free throws.
UP NEXT
The Nets are in Orlando on Saturday before returning to Brooklyn for a three-game home stretch against Milwaukee on Monday, Denver on Wednesday and Chicago on Friday.