SAN ANTONIO _ Now winners 10 consecutive times over the Timberwolves, the five-time NBA champion Spurs did so with a determined second half driven by their defense and rebounding.
The Wolves ended in Texas a four-game, eight-day trip that began right there in Houston a week ago Saturday and did so with a 2-2 record. They opened and ended it with losses but won games at Sacramento and Utah in between as they chase Denver and others for the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff spot.
League MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard scored 20 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, when the Spurs built a six-point lead and outscored the Wolves 14-7 in those final five minutes.
Once trailing by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, the Spurs muscled their way back into the game slowly. They knocked a 12-point halftime deficit down to eight by third quarter's end before they started the fourth with a 13-6 run that helped them pull within a point twice midway through the fourth quarter.
Leonard's hook shot from the lane gave the Spurs their first lead all night, at 80-78 with 2:45 left in a fourth quarter when the Wolves had far too many 24-shot clock violations and too few defensive rebounds.
The Wolves regained a brief one point lead before the Spurs tied the score at 81 with 1:38 after both young Wolves star Andrew Wiggins and veteran Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge each made one of two free throws. The game went to overtime tied at 83 after Leonard's potential winning shot missed near the final buzzer.
Wolves big man Karl Towns' kept his consecutive streak of 20-point games going with a 24-point, 14-rebound game while Wiggins saw his end at a club record 19 games after he shot 6-for-23 from the field and scored 17 points.
The last time Wiggins didn't score 20 points in a game was the last time the Wolves played in San Antonio, a 122-114 loss way back in mid-January when he made just three of eight shots and scored a mere 10 points.
Since then, he moved by Kevin Love and Kevin Garnett on his way to the longest streak of 20-point games by a Timberwolves player. He also shot 50 percent and averaged 27.3 points in those 19 games until it ended Saturday.
Meanwhile, Towns kept his streak of consecutive 20-point games alive and did it by halftime, when he had made eight of his first 12 shots from the field, scored exactly points and grabbed eight of his rebounds while the Wolves built a 55-43 lead at the break.
They did so then despite the Spurs putting the clamps on Wiggins, alternating two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Leonard to everyone from Pau Gasol to Danny Green and Kris Anderson on him at times.
Wiggins made just two of nine shots and scored six points in that first half, but the Wolves' offense hummed without his scoring thanks to Towns' work and Ricky Rubio's continued command running the show.
The Wolves scored the game's first seven points and the Spurs scored the next seven, but from there the Wolves pushed away, building leads of 22-11 and 26-14 by the end of the first quarter.
They did so with defense that made the Spurs labor and the Spurs didn't help themselves any by missing five of their first six free throws.
At one point in the second quarter, the Spurs were shooting 36.8 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Go figure.
The Spurs won 101-98 in overtime Friday night at New Orleans in a game that not only went to extra time, but also brought them home later than normally because of an 8:30 p.m. start for ESPN. Meanwhile, the Wolves spent the evening off in San Antonio, having not played since Wednesday's victory at Utah.
Maybe that's why the Spurs started the game not even being able to make a foul shot.
They heated up in the third quarter, however, starting off with newly named starting center Dewayne Dedmon rather than Leonard or LaMarcus Aldridge outworking the Wolves for rebounds and second-chance points.
The Spurs pulled within five points twice in the third quarter, including with 45 seconds left, until reserve power forward Nemanja Bjelica's clutch three-pointer just three-tenths of a second before the third quarter buzzer sent the Wolves to the final quarter with a 70-62 advantage.
