DYLAN HARPER canned the decisive jumper with 9.1 seconds to play as part of his career-high 22 points and the visiting San Antonio Spurs outlasted the reeling New Orleans Pelicans, 135-132, on Monday.
The Spurs were up by 20 points at halftime, but New Orleans rallied to take a 102-100 edge to the final period. San Antonio retook the lead on Julian Champagnie’s 3-pointer with 8:55 to play and slowly built the margin back to eight points on a Keldon Johnson trey with 5:29 left.
The Pelicans drew within 129-127 on an alley-oop dunk by Trey Murphy III with 1:40 remaining and took the lead on Murphy’s 3-pointer with 59.4 seconds left.
After De’Aaron Fox hit a jumper to put San Antonio up by a point, Derik Queen capped a career-high 33-point effort with a driving layup to give New Orleans a 133-132 lead with 30 seconds to play.
Harper then canned his clutch jumper to push the Spurs back in front. Queen missed a 3-point attempt and Fox grabbed the rebound, was fouled and sank two free throws with 1.1 seconds to play.
The Pelicans’ Saddiq Bey had a 3-point attempt to tie rim out at the buzzer. — Reuters
