Final Score: Spurs mostly dominate, beat Celtics 101-89

The Spurs opened up a 25-point lead early in the fourth, but a 16-0 run from the Celtics shortly after cut the lead to just seven with four and a half minutes left to play. Tony Parker was reinserted and the Wee Frenchman helped the team quickly push the lead out to a comfortable 14. Tim Duncan remained on the bench and the Spurs closed out a never-quit Celtics squad that has been playing well lately.

Your Spurs improve to 43-25 for the season and if Dallas loses to Memphis, which seems likely with a 9-point deficit with three minutes left, they will move into the sixth seed, two games back of the four seed in the loss column.

Quick Notes:

• Matt Bonner was hit below the belt by Marcus Smart, who was ejected with a flagrant 2, and got as mad as you'll ever see him. I almost believe that he was willing to get into a fight over it.

• Tim Duncan was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and hit his 10,000th field goal (congrats to the Stone Buddha.) Big Fun stuffed the rest of the stat sheet with six boards, three assists, two steals and a block.
• 5-23: The Spurs couldn't find the bottom of the net from deep on Friday night. I miss the times when shooting 35% was disappointing.
• The Spurs racked up a phenomenal 31 assists on their 38 field goals (81.5%.) They're defensive rebounding wasn't so great, but I bet the Spurs index will still be relatively high.
• After a couple of ho hum performances, the league's steal leader, Kawhi Leonard, played great in this game. He swiped three steals, went on a 13 point run for the Spurs in the third quarter and finished with 22 points, seven boards, a couple of assists and a team high +/- of +23.

Up Next:

The Spurs enter a tougher five-game stretch starting on Sunday in Atlanta against the Hawks. Then they get to play Dallas twice, OKC and Memphis. That should be fun.