It wasn't supposed to be this easy, but the San Antonio Spurs wanted to remind the Atlantic Hawks that they're still the defending NBA Champs.
Brazilian big man Tiago Splitter scored a season-high 23 points, Kawhi Leonard had 20 with 10 assists and the visiting Spurs spanked the East-best Hawks 114-95 on Monday (AEDT) for their third straight win.
"We played well, we shared the ball and tried to find the shooters outside," said Splitter, whose club shot a sizzling 56 per cent from the field in the wire-to-wire beat-down.
"We had a good game against a great team."
But the win came at a cost with Aussie centre Aron Baynes suffering a right ankle sprain in the first half.
It is unclear how long Baynes will be sidelined.
Frenchman Boris Diaw netted 17 points, Danny Green added 15, while Tim Duncan contributed 12 for the Spurs (44-25), who moved a game ahead of Dallas for the sixth playoff spot in the West.
"We're just looking at what we're doing," said Diaw, "but we have to keep an eye on that."
Paul Millsap scored 22 points and Dennis Schroder had 18 for Atlanta (53-17), who suffered their season-high third straight loss.
"San Antonio was very, very good today," said Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, who spent 19 seasons as an assistant to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
"They did a lot of things at a high level and we didn't match that."
Elsewhere, Russell Westbrook had 12 points, 10 rebounds and career-high-tying 17 assists for his 10th triple-double of the season, sending the Thunder past the visiting Heat 93-75 for a third straight win.
Enes Kanter had 27 points and 12 rebounds for Oklahoma City (40-30), who moved three games ahead of New Orleans for the final West playoff spot.
Dwayne Wade and Slovenian Goran Dragic scored 12 points apiece for Miami (32-37) who remain seventh in the East playoff race.
Chris Paul and Blake Griffin scored 23 points apiece, DeAndre Jordan grabbed 16 rebounds, and the Clippers (46-25) jumped into the fourth playoff spot in the West after rolling the visiting Pelicans 107-100 for a fourth straight win.
Anthony Davis topped New Orleans (37-33) with 26 points and 12 rebounds after missing two games with a left ankle sprain.
LeBron James scored 28 points, JR Smith buried seven triples en route to 23, and the visiting Cavs (46-26) dominated the second half, 64-37 to beat Milwaukee Bucks 108-90.
In other games, Denver beat Orlando 119-100, Toronto beat New York 106-89 and Charlotte Hornets beat Minnesota 109-98, Sacramento beat Washington 109-86, Phoenix beat Dallas 98-92 and the Lakers beat the 76ers 101-87.
Share
