SAN ANTONIO — Point guard Tony Parker scored 24 points and forward Kawhi Leonard poured in 20 points, 16 after halftime, as the San Antonio Spurs shrugged off an early case of the doldrums to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-95 on Thursday in a possible NBA Finals preview.
Eighteen of Parker’s points came in the first half, when just about every other San Antonio player was struggling. The second half belonged to Leonard, the league’s reigning defensive player of the year, who also held Cavaliers forward LeBron James to seven points after halftime.
San Antonio has now won its first 23 home games of the season, the most by a Western Conference team to open the season since Portland won its initial 26 home games in 1977-78.
The victory also allowed the Spurs to extend their regular-season victory streak to 32 games, dating back to an overtime loss to the Cavaliers last March, and granted them their best-ever start after 41 games in franchise history.
Leonard also pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for the Spurs (35-6) and reserve forward David West scored 13 points, including two huge baskets in the first 1:07 of the fourth quarter to give San Antonio a lead it would not relinquish. Reserve guard Manu Ginobili added 10 points for the Spurs.
Cleveland (27-10), which had its eight-game win streak snapped, placed all five of its starters in double-figure scoring.
The Cavaliers were led by James’ 23 points while center Tristan Thompson added a season-high 18 points and 13 rebounds, guard J.R. Smith scored 17 points, point guard Kyrie Irving hit for 16 points and forward Kevin Love contributed 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Cavaliers blitzed to a 10-2 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the game behind five points apiece from Love and Smith. San Antonio missed three of its first four shots and looked out of sync but found its stride via a 9-2 run that cut the Cleveland advantage to 13-11 at the 5:39 mark. But the second half of the final five minutes belonged to the Cavaliers, who built as much as a 15-point lead before settling for a 32-20 advantage after 20 minutes.
The second quarter began at a break-neck pace and San Antonio scored six of the quarter’s first nine points to climb back to within 35-26. James took over the game in the middle of the quarter, scoring three straight inside baskets to help keep the Spurs at bay. Parker’s short jumper with 1.9 seconds to play brought San Antonio to within 50-44, the closest it has been since the game’s first two minutes, and set the stage for the second half.
San Antonio opened the third quarter on a 13-4 run and took its first lead of the game, at 57-50, at the 7:50 mark on a 3-pointer by Leonard, who had seven points in the spurt. The rest of the quarter featured seven ties and six lead changes as the two teams jockeyed for position and energy for the stretch run.
The Spurs’ reserve guard Kyle Anderson canned a jumper with 13 seconds to play to give San Antonio a 72-70 lead but Cleveland reserve guard Matthew Dellavedova poured in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Cavs the final says heading to the fourth quarter.
Two buckets by West in the first 1:07 of the fourth quarter granted San Antonio the lead again and Parker followed with a finger-roll layup to put the Spurs up 78-75. San Antonio guard Danny Green then hit two of three free-throw chances, reserve guard Patty Mills drained a 3-pointer over Australian countryman Dellavedova and Leonard went to the hole for another layup and suddenly the Spurs were up 87-77 with 6:16 to play.
NOTES: Spurs G Tony Parker scored a season-high 31 points in 32 minutes of San Antonio’s 109-99 win at Detroit on Tuesday. … The Spurs finished 1-1 against the Cavaliers last season. In the first meeting, San Antonio posted a 92-90 win at Quicken Loans Arena on Nov. 19. Cleveland then picked up a 128-125 overtime victory at the AT&T Center on March 12. In that game, G Kyrie Irving produced a career- and NBA season-high 57 points. … The Spurs have trailed for just 54 seconds in 264 minutes played in fourth quarters at home this season. … A 110-107 overtime win over Dallas on Tuesday gave Cleveland a 4-0 record on its current six-game road trip. It’s the first time since December 1994 that the Cavaliers have won four consecutive games on the same road swing. … Cavaliers F Tristan Thompson has played in 324 consecutive regular-season games dating to Feb. 10, 2012, which is the longest active streak in the NBA. His streak is 122 more games than the next-longest active streak (Sacramento G Ben McLemore, 202).