Even shorthanded, the San Antonio Spurs keep finding ways to win.
On Monday night, Richard Jefferson stepped up big. He hit a 3-pointer with 6.5 seconds left – only his second field goal all night – as the Spurs pulled out a 106-102 victory over the Utah Jazz .
It was San Antonio’s 11th straight win – the longest streak in the NBA – and the seventh consecutive on this nine-game road trip. San Antonio (23-9) hasn’t lost on the road since Jan. 29 in Dallas.
“I haven’t been shooting the ball particularly well of late … and even passed up one shot with about a minute to go,” Richard Jefferson said. “But I was blessed the (3) went in.”
Tony Parker scored 23 points to lead the Spurs, who were without key players Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter , both expected to miss two weeks because of injury.
“When you have guys that go down, I think sometimes it helps guys re-focus knowing you have less room for error,” Jefferson said. “Everybody has to contribute.”
Without Splitter to provide a spark off the bench, Matt Bonner came through in the clutch with five 3-pointers. He finished with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
“Matty was great. Matty was key for us tonight,” said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, who finished with 20 points. “He was able to spread the floor and hit some shots and continue to score points for us when we really needed it.”
Al Jefferson scored 20 points to lead the Jazz (15-16), who fell below .500 for the first time since Jan. 2, but he couldn’t get a mid-range jumper to fall with 29 seconds left.
Paul Millsap added 16 for Utah, and Devin Harris 15. Josh Howard, in the starting lineup because of an injury to shooting guard Raja Bell, had 12 points.
San Antonio trailed by as many as eight points in the first half and 10 in the third quarter before rallying.
“Persistence,” Duncan said. “We stuck with it. They did make a (13-0) run. We came out in the second half and didn’t play well for those first couple of minutes. They got themselves a lead, but we knew there was a lot of game left. It kind of shows the character of this team, how we’ve been playing over the last 10-15 games. We’re really starting to turn that corner.”
The Jazz, forced to practice Monday morning despite arriving back from Houston at 10:30 a.m., played with much more intensity than they did in a blowout loss to Houston on Sunday.
In the end, they still lost – and have dropped seven of their past nine.
“Tough loss,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. “I thought our guys fought hard, especially after last night. We had a chance at the end. We just didn’t get the plays at the end.”
The Spurs led 56-53 at halftime, but the Jazz opened the second half on a 13-0 run.
The Spurs fought back, with Bonner hitting his fifth 3-pointer and making three free throws after being fouled on his next 3-point attempt.
And Parker had 11 assists to go with his 23 points.
“Tony’s an All-Star,” Gregg Popovich said of his veteran guard. “He had another magnificent game – scoring, finding people, playing tough, being a leader. He was good.”
The bad continues to be injuries for Ginobili.
“It’s killing him,” Popovich said. “He just came back, played in a couple of games and was beginning to get in shape, get a rhythm and then he goes down again. He’s pretty depressed about it. Hopefully the team can be over it and realize he and Tiago (Splitter) are going to gone for a while.”
Ginobili suffered a strained left oblique in Saturday’s 103-100 victory at the Los Angeles Clippers . An MRI on Monday confirmed the injury to Ginobili, who had played just his fourth game since missing 22 with a broken left hand. He will remain in San Antonio for the remainder of the Spurs’ road trip.
Ginobili led the Spurs against the Jazz in the first meeting with 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting.
Splitter, who had averaged 13 points off the bench in his previous five games, traveled with the team to Salt Lake City but also is out two weeks with a strained right calf.
