SAN ANTONIO — The Spurs cooled off the red-hot Wizards with a hard fought win, 146-143 in overtime.
Bradley Beal put up 45 points, but came up short on the final shot to tie at the buzzer. DeMar DeRozan led the way for the Spurs with 37 points and 10 assists, helping San Antonio survive an injury to Derrick White and a 9-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
White left with a rough-looking right ankle sprain and did not return. Six Spurs other than DeRozan scored in double figures, and both Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson had over 20. Murray finished with a career-high 17 boards.
Recap
Overtime
DeMar DeRozan drove and kicked to Keldon Johnson in the corner, who drove in for a tough scoop.
Beal scored at the rim to tie, giving him 39. On the other end he reached into DeMar's breadbasket, giving him a pair of free throws. He came back and scored despite step-for-step defense by Dejounte Murray.
Murray came down the other end, pulled up in the soft underbelly of the mid-range, and swished it. When the Wizards tied it back up, Murray came back down and did the same thing.
Beal picked up a technical at a critical point, giving DeRozan a free throw to put the Spurs up three. Len got a putback, and the Wizards got a stop.
Beal took it right at Poeltl and missed, but got the board and put it back.
Keldon caught in the corner, drove in and laid it up once more. Murray ripped a steal, but couldn't convert. After a Westbrook miss, Murray snagged rebound number 17, a career high.
The Spurs had the ball and the lead with 19 seconds to play and 16 on the shot clock. Washington trapped DeRozan, and four seconds ticked off before a timeout by the Spurs. They trapped him again and fouled. On the next inbound, Patty Mills got it and went to the line up one with 5.3 seconds left.
He swished both, and the Wizards called time to draw up a look for the tie down 146-143.
Beal had 45 points, got the ball, created a solid look at a three, but missed it short.
San Antonio won 146-143 behind 37 points and 10 assists from DeRozan.
Fourth quarter
Former Spur Davis Bertans hit a three to open the final stanza, and Westbrook got a bucket and got to the line a few times to give the Wizards a quick 9-point lead, their largest of the game.
Drew Eubanks rolled and got a tough layup, hitting a free throw as well. Rudy Gay got a switch, isolated, and bullied his way to the rim. Gay blocked Westbrook, who was so mad he picked up a technical.
Gay hit that, then another shot to cut the Wizard lead to four, but Washington kept scoring.
Keldon Johnson crammed a ferocious putback, then drove in for a layup. Poeltl came back in, and immediately picked up his fifth foul.
DeRozan attacked off a closeout, drove all the way in for a lefty scoop and-1. Len hit a corner three, but DeMar came right back and pulled up in close for a bucket.
Poeltl secured a rebound, got fouled, and hit both of them to make it a one-point game. Dejounte Murray drove in on the pick and roll, pulled up on the big man, and gave the Spurs their first lead of the fourth quarter at 119-118.
Westbrook answered in transition, drawing a timeout with just under four minutes to play. Pop drew up a play that resulted in a pretty contested three for Patty Mills, who hit it.
Beal came back the other way to tie it.
DeRozan came back, broke down the defense and dished to Poeltl underneath.
Beal answered with another layup to tie.
Mills came off another screen and hit another tough triple.
Beal drove and kicked to the corner for another three to answer.
On Patty's third try he missed, and Russell Westbrook scored in the paint toput the Wizards up 129-127.
DeMar drove and kicked to Murray, who drove back in and tied it with a floater.
Westbrook pulled up with DeRozan in his grill and swished it. DeRozan came back and created space for a paint jumper he hit.
After stopping Westbrook in close, DeRozan hunted for his shot and hit it from the top of the key, putting the Spurs up 133-131 with 21.8 to play.
Beal attacked in pick and roll, got to the rim, and finished to tie it at 133 with 15.8 left. Coach Pop took a timeout to draw up a winning look.
DeMar took it up, took a tough spinning fade from the elbow, and it jiggled in and out at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
Third quarter
Washington opened on a 6-2 run to take the lead, punctuated by a Bradley Beal transition scoop that forced a timeout by Coach Pop to get things back on track.
DeMar DeRozan and Keldon Johnson swished a pair of jumpers to put the Spurs back in front.
After leaping for a shot contest, Derrick White twisted his right ankle in a bad way as he landed on Jakob Poeltl's foot. White struggled to put any pressure on it and appeared to be in a great deal of pain.
Washington seized on the momentum, building an 86-79 lead while attacking Poeltl, who played more conservatively with those three fouls before he picked up a fourth and went to the bench. DeRozan crammed a dunk, then got back to the rim with a transition eurostep, making it 88-85 Washington.
Drew Eubanks finished a few attempts right at the rim, but San Antonio struggled to get stops.
The Spurs went to Rudy Gay multiple times in the post against Bertans, who forced him into the tough shots he's good at hitting.
Westbrook turned it over a few times, and Murray came flying in for a putback dunk.
It was tied at 95 heading to the fourth.
Second quarter
Both teams struggled to score for the first few minutes before Rudy Gay knocked down an elbow pull-up. The Wizards cut it to a deuce, but Gay hit a triple.
Derrick White drew a charge on the always aggressive Russell Westbrook, then dumped it down to Drew Eubanks for a hook shot.
Wizards reserve Anthony Gill was impactful off the bench, notching 13 early points. He also drew the third foul on Jakob Poeltl, sending him to the bench with over 9 minutes left in the half.
Bradley Beal came back in and crammed a poster dunk to cut San Antonio's lead to one. Keldon Johnson answered on a drive, but Beal came right back for another score at the basket.
Gorgui Dieng came in off the bench, hitting a layup and a three.
Murray grabbed the third offensive board for San Antonio in one possession, putting it in from the free throw line to give the Spurs a 59-53 lead.
DeRozan and Derrick White helped build the largest lead of the game at 65-58, but Washington closed to make it 65-62 at the break.
First quarter
Bradley Beal started the game with three tough buckets, hitting a fader and attacking the rim through contact twice.
Jakob Poeltl finished with touch on a roll, and hit the free throw as he continues to improve in that area. Derrick White hit him underneath for a floater.
Dejounte Murray drove in from the arc and floated one in, later setting White up for the same play. DeMar DeRozan posted up, faded away on a spin, and tied it at 12.
Beal hit another, but Murray pulled from mid-range to answer. Beal pumped, got Poeltl in the air, and hit the shot through him to send Jak to the bench with two early fouls.
Keldon Johnson caught in the corner, drove to the rack, and finished the layup with a foul.
Murray hit an in-between shot and one at closer range, giving him a team-high 10 points.
DeRozan got to the line repeatedly, and he found both Patty Mills and Rudy Gay for open threes. He hit a floater to put the Spurs up six, and they led 38-34 after a quarter behind his 8 points and 3 assists.
San Antonio Spurs vs. Washington Wizards
When, where: Monday, 6 p.m., Washington, D.C.
All-time series record: Spurs lead 62-34
Last season: Teams split series 1-1
Season series: Spurs lead 1-0
Last meeting: Spurs won 121-101, January 24, 2021
Wizards' last game: Won vs. Magic, 135-100
Spurs' last game: Won vs. Heat, 106-91
Wizards' last 10 games/streak: 9-1, won 8
Spurs' last 10 games/streak: 6-4, won 2
Wizards' injury/inactive report: Deni Avdija, OUT (leg); Thomas Bryant, OUT (knee); Rui Hachimura, active (knee); Robin Lopez, OUT (ankle).
Spurs' injury/inactive report: Rudy Gay, active (back); Lonnie Walker, active (headache); Trey Lyles, OUT (ankle).
The Wizards are one of two opponents with losing records that the Spurs will face in their final 13 games of the season, and Washington has won eight games in a row behind Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook.
Cleveland did San Antonio a favor last night, giving the Wiz all they could handle and forcing Beal and Westbrook to play 39 and 36 minutes respectively in a difficult, physical contest.
Washington is in the heat of their own playoff race, and they've had the pedal to the metal for a couple of weeks. Still, this seems like one of those games where they'd be at increased risk of running out of gas.
Before the game, the Spurs announced that both Lonnie Walker IV and Rudy Gay would be available to play.
Coach Gregg Popovich said he had spoken to former San Antonio sharpshooter Davis Bertans.
"He's done great," Popovich said, noting that he had a tough start to his career in terms of injuries. "He's done a fantastic job, I just saw him coming in, he showed me pictures of his two kids. He's got it all set, his priorities, he's happy, he's doing well, he's gonna have a great NBA career, so I'm thrilled for him."
Spurs beat Pelicans 110-108 in crucial game behind DeRozan's heroics
In their biggest game of the year so far, the San Antonio Spurs were able to scrap, stick with it, and beat the Pelicans on the road in New Orleans behind a clutch 32-point game from DeMar DeRozan.
With the win, San Antonio climbed to 30-29 on the year and made it incredibly difficult for the 26-34 Pelicans to catch them for a spot in the play-in game. The Spurs are now 4.5 games ahead of New Orleans with 13 games remaining. Now ninth in the West, they're just a half-game behind Memphis for eighth and 2.5 games behind Dallas in sixth. If the Silver & Black can get there, that would be a guaranteed playoff spot.