SAN ANTONIO _ Presented with the chance to deliver a knockdown punch to a San Antonio Spurs team already almost staggering, the Minnesota Timberwolves lost convincingly 117-101 Saturday at AT&T Center.
With a victory, the Wolves essentially could have won a fifth season series _ an important end-of-season tiebreaker, if needed_against a Western Conference opponent battling them for a precious playoff spot.
Instead, the Wolves' two-game winning streak ended while the Spurs won their third game consecutively for the first time since Christmas.
Instead of putting win the season series' tiebreaker with the Spurs and putting two games between themselves and the five-time NBA champions, the two teams now are tied with identical 40-30 records.
Trailing by nine points early, the Spurs ran away with the game late thanks to veteran forward LaMarcus Aldridge's 39-point, 10-rebound performance and a stretch from late in the first quarter until late in the second when the Spurs made 19 consecutive field goals without a miss.
Aldridge won the matchup of big men, outscoring Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns 39-23 on a night when San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich predicted a tussle underneath the basket.
Towns is a unique player _ a first-time All Star at the tender age of 22 _ because of his ability to score just about anywhere on the floor, including consistently from beyond the three-point lead.
Aldridge is a six-time All Star with a deft mid-range game who has helped the Spurs keep their season together with chewing and baling wire _ not to mention plenty of veteran moxie _ without injured star Kawhi Leonard.
Neither stepped outside much to showcase their perimeter skills Saturday, each opting instead to battle on the block during a game that had some of the feel of a playoff game.
Aldridge proved nearly unstoppable around the basket, winning a battle of big men you don't see like that much anymore.
"They both do a good job down in that area," Popovich said before the game. "You don't see as many people doing that as in the past. I think a lot of kids growing up would rather shoot threes than go down and battle it is more a war down there. It's very physical, overly physical. Big guys end up beating each other up down there while with two perimeter players, it gets called much quicker.
"I'm not sure why that is, but I guarantee you that's the way it is. These two guys tonight I'm sure would agree with that, too, because they face it every night."
The Spurs on Saturday continued to play on without Leonard, their All-Star and two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year who has played just nine games this season and none since mid-January.
Sidelined almost all year by a quadriceps injury that the Spurs now list as "return from injury management" while Leonard's own medical people haven't yet cleared to him to play again.
Without him, the Spurs went 3-11 _ a record so very unlike them _ from January's end until they beat Orlando on Tuesday and New Orleans on Thursday. That was their first winning streak _ two games, it was _ since they beat Sacramento and Denver consecutively to end January.
On Saturday, the Spurs trailed the Wolves 15-7 and 22-13 in the game's first 8{ minutes before their reserves and Aldridge reverse course against a Wolves' second unit that for the third consecutive game featured a three-guard lineup with Tyus Jones, Jamal Crawford and Derrick Rose.
That lineup got blitzed in last Sunday's matinee victory over Golden State and played Washington's reserves to a draw in Tuesday's fourth-quarter comeback victory there.
By halftime, Rose was a minus-10 in plus-minus ratings if you're a believer in such things and Crawford and Jones each were minus-10 while the Spurs went from being unable to make shots to not missing.
The Spurs started the game 2-for-11 from the field and then made 19 consecutive field-goal attempts from late in the first quarter until late in the second quarter.
They didn't miss a shot from the time Pau Gasol made a short turnaround hook shot with 1:42 left in the first quarter until Aldridge missed with 2:23 left before halftime.
In that time, the Spurs went from trailing 24-15 into a 57-44 lead.
