Harrison Barnes scored 24 points and Dylan Harper added 22 as the San Antonio Spurs held off the New Orleans Pelicans 135-132 on Monday night in the Smoothie King Center.
Stephon Castle had 18 points, Julian Champagnie scored 17, De’Aaron Fox had 14, Keldon Johnson scored 12 and former Pelican Kelly Olynyk scored 11 for the Spurs (16-7).
Rookie Derik Queen had 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the Pelicans while recording his first career triple-double. Trey Murphy scored 32, Herb Jones returned from an eight-game absence due to a strained right calf to score 17, Saddiq Bey had 17 and Jose Alvarado put in 10 to lead the Pelicans (3-22), who lost their seventh game in a row and will face the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night.
Jones had three points and an assist, and Queen added six points as New Orleans scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to trim the Spurs’ lead to 77-68.
Barnes made a layup for San Antonio to curb the Pels’ momentum, but Queen scored 10 more to help the Pelicans inch in front, 91-90.
The score was tied four times before Queen made two free throws for the last of his 21 points in the third quarter to give New Orleans a 102-100 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Jones scored the Pelicans’ first six points of the fourth to help them take a 109-107 lead, but the Spurs scored the next eight points to take a six-point lead.
New Orleans went 4½ minutes without making a field goal and San Antonio went on a 10-1 run to take a 117-110 lead midway through the period.
Murphy made a dunk and a 3-pointer to give New Orleans a 130-129, and the lead changed hands three times after, the last on Harper’s game-winning drive with 9.1 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Pelicans inbounded to Alvarado, who drove to the basket and kicked back to Queen, who missed a 3-pointer. Fox made two free throws and Bey missed an attempted tying 3-pointer at the buzzer for the Pelicans.
Alvarado made a 3-pointer to pull the Pelicans within 26-23 before the Spurs closed the first quarter with a barrage from beyond the arc. Champagnie made consecutive 3-pointers, and Fox added one during a 9-2 run that gave San Antonio its biggest lead, 35-25, at the end of the period. The Spurs made 5 of 8 3-pointers and New Orleans made 2 of 8.
Champagnie and Fox continued the hot shooting by making consecutive 3-pointers to start the second quarter. Micah Peavy’s dunk provided the Pelicans’ first points, but Barnes scored eight and Harper had seven of the 11 he would score in the period as San Antonio took its biggest lead of the half, 68-43.
New Orleans crept within 17 points twice before the Spurs held a 77-57 halftime lead after making 11 of 19 3-pointers compared to 4 of 17 for the Pelicans.
