SAN ANTONIO — Forward LaMarcus Aldridge scored a season-high 28 points as the San Antonio Spurs shrugged off a lackluster performance in the middle two quarters and held off the Orlando Magic 107-92 on Monday to keep their home unbeaten streak intact.
The Spurs fashioned a 15-2 run over a span of 3:37 that encompassed the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth to wrest away Orlando’s short-lived lead. Reserve guard/forward Kyle Anderson had seven of his nine points during that deciding stretch for San Antonio while reserve point guard Patty Mills hit three jumpers as part of his season-high-tying 22-point output.
San Antonio (40-8) improved to 26-0 at the AT&T Center this season, matching the 1977-78 Portland Trail Blazers for the best home start ever by a Western Conference team.
The victory also allowed the Spurs to extend their regular-season home win streak to 35 games, dating back to an overtime loss to Cleveland last March. They also matched the best ever start in franchise history after 48 games (set in 2010-11).
It was the 14th time this season that Aldridge, San Antonio’s high-profile offseason free-agent signee, has led the Spurs in scoring. Reserve guard Manu Ginobili added 13 points for the Spurs while forward Kawhi Leonard had 10 points.
Orlando (21-26) got 20 points and 10 rebounds from center Nikola Vucevic. Guard Victor Oladipo had 19 points, forward Aaron Gordon had 12 points and a game-high 16 rebounds and forward Tobias Harris scored 11 points for the Magic.
The Spurs got off to a good start, hitting four of their first seven shots and rolling to a 14-0 lead before Vucevic’s putback at the 8:25 mark gave the Magic their first points. Aldridge had 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor in the first quarter as San Antonio established a 35-24 lead after 12 minutes of play.
But the Magic cut San Antonio’s advantage to six points twice in the second quarter before settling for a 52-44 deficit at halftime. Vucevic had 12 points and seven rebounds in the half to lead Orlando while Aldridge had 16 points and Mills had 10 to pace the Spurs.
Orlando outrebounded San Antonio 28-20 in the first half and held a 13-3 advantage on the offensive glass as the Spurs played for the fourth straight game (and 11th time this season) without the inside presence of injured forward Tim Duncan.
The Magic started the third quarter with a 10-2 run to tie the score at 54-54 at the 9:33 mark and eventually took their first lead of the game, at 56-55, on a driving layup by Oladipo with 8:51 to play in the quarter. Orlando led 70-69 on a driving backdoor layup by reserve guard/forward Evan Fournier with 1:31 left in the quarter, but San Antonio ran off the final six points of the period on two jumpers from the left elbow by Mills and a pair of free throws by Aldridge.
NOTES: Spurs G Danny Green shot 49 percent (26-for-53) from 3-point range during the month of January and connected on a season-high tying six 3-pointers against Houston on Jan. 27. … Spurs assistant coach James Borrego was an assistant for Orlando from 2012-15. He ended his final season with the Magic as the interim head coach when the team fired Jacque Vaughn on Feb. 5. … The Spurs went 11-2 in the month of January, starting 10-0 in the month and setting a franchise record for best start to a New Year. The month also saw San Antonio became the first team in NBA history to record a 10-game win streak in six consecutive seasons. … Before Monday, the Magic had 15 games this season decided by five points or fewer (6-9 record) and 10 games decided by three points or fewer (4-6 record), tied for the second most in the NBA.