Andrew Bogut and his Golden State Warriors have won their latest battle with fierce rivals the Los Angeles Clippers 110-106 in Los Angeles.
The Warriors overcame a 40-point, 12 rebound game from Clippers power forward Blake Griffin as Stephen Curry (27) and Klay Thompson (25) got hot with their shooting in the third quarter.
As is often the case with these two sides the game was a hard-nosed, physical contest in the paint and Bogut won his battle with rival centre DeAndre Jordan.
Bogut kept the Clippers big man to three points before the Australian was fouled out with one minute, 24 seconds left in the final quarter.
The foul that benched Bogut, saw Jordan, a notoriously poor free-throw shooter, make both shots from the charity stripe.
It cut the Golden State lead to 103-102 as Bogut looked on from the bench with a wry smile on his face.
Bogut finished the game with six points, nine rebounds and five assists, while Jordan would finish with 15 rebounds and five points.
The win was the tenth straight for the Warriors, but it didn't always look likely.
The Warriors got off to a slow start as the Clippers went on a 7-0 run to start the game before leading by as much as 17 points in the second quarter.
Golden State bounced back with 13 points from Thompson and 11 points from Curry in the third, as they clawed their way back into the game and eventually over the top of the Clippers.
Thompson said the Warriors simply started the match in a slumber, the reality that they may have to face up to the Clippers in the playoffs again making them snap out of it.
"We just got really focused in the second quarter," Thompson.
"That first quarter and a half we were sleepwalking. It looked like we were playing for nothing and we realised `we might see these guys down the road' and turned it on.
"It was just a great win."
The other main difference was the deep Golden State bench, who provided 34 points with 13 from Marreese Speights a highlight, while the Clippers bench managed just 12 combined between Austin Rivers and Hedo Turkoglu.
In Miami the San Antonio Spurs kept their late-season run going as Tony Parker became the player with the most wins to feature in 1000 NBA games.
The French point guard has logged 718 wins over that stretch.
While Parker netted 16 points it was last season's finals MVP Kawhi Leonard who once again stuck it to the Heat with 22 points and nine rebounds.
Australians Aron Baynes and Patty Mills barely featured in the encounter, which saw former NBL standout James Ennis start at forward for the Heat and score seven points.
In Brooklyn the surging Nets held off the Indiana Pacers 111-106 while Detroit shocked a full-strength Atlanta Hawks 105-95.
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