Hornets 86 - 100 Spurs
Final
  for this game

Duncan, Spurs saddle Bobcats with streak-breaking loss

Mar 11, 2009 - 5:40 AM SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- Tim Duncan scored 18 points to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 100-86 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night.

Duncan added 11 rebounds as the Spurs halted the Bobcats' franchise-record winning streak at six.

Tony Parker and Roger Mason added 21 points apiece for the Spurs, who pulled away with a run late in the fourth quarter.

"It was a very good win against a heck of a team that had won six in a row," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Coach Brown has them playing as good as anyone in the league. It was a wonderful win."

Raja Bell and Emeka Okafor each scored 16 points for the Bobcats, who are looking to make the playoffs for the first time since joining the NBA in the 2004-05 season. Charlotte (28-36) fell a game behind eighth-place Chicago (29-35) in the Eastern Conference standings.

"I just thought they really turned up the heat on us," Bobcats coach Larry Brown said. "They turned up the intensity defensively and made shots at the end of the game. That and we really got killed on the boards. I mean they really murdered us on the backboards and I think that was the difference in the game."

Raymond Felton had 15 points and Gerald Wallace 14 for Charlotte.

San Antonio outscored Charlotte, 29-15, in the fourth quarter. The Spurs used a 13-2 run that Mason capped with a 3-pointer to take a 93-82 lead. Mason added another three to make it 100-86 and put the game away.

"I got some great looks got some great screens by KT (Kurt Thomas) and felt good out there," Mason said.

Charlotte had a three-point lead after the first quarter and was tied with San Antonio at the half and heading into the fourth quarter. The Bobcats came up short but made an impression.

"They've been playing very good basketball," Parker said. "Playing very hard and very physical, very typical of a Larry Brown team. They're adding pieces and going in the right direction and they showed tonight that they can compete and they played good basketball."

"I think they executed down the stretch and we didn't," Bell said. "We made a lot of mistakes, defensively, coverages and they made us pay."






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