Advertisement

Spurs 101, Pacers 79

SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Spurs celebrated the Big 4-0 in an appropriate manner.

Tim Duncan had 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead San Antonio to a 101-79 win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night at the AT&T Center. The victory lifted the Spurs to 4-0 for the first time in the 40 years since moving to the city.

Gary Neat added 17 points, Stephen Jackson 12 and Danny Green 10 for San Antonio. DeJuan Blair, seeing his most extensive action this season, had 14 and 11 rebounds.

San Antonio's 20-point, first-half lead was whittled down to 10 when Indiana's Paul George hit a 15-foot jumper to start the third quarter. However, the Spurs regrouped and moved the lead back up to 23 on a Tiago Splitter layup with a minute and a half left.

It was almost a repeat performance of Saturday night, when San Antonio gave up a 19-point lead to the Utah Jazz but won 110-100.

The hot-shooting Spurs were dominant in the paint, scoring 52 points, and they continued their high offensive output, shooting 47 percent from the field.

The Pacers, who beat the Sacramento Kings on Saturday in double overtime, fell to 2-2.

Indiana struggled from the field, shooting 34 percent and making just six of 20 attempts (30 percent) from 3-point range.

Former Spurs guard George Hill led the Pacers with 15 points. David West had 10 points and 11 rebounds, while George chipped in 14 points.

The Pacer were forced into 19 turnovers, which the Spurs turned into 18 points. Indiana leads the league in turnovers at 20.7 per game.

San Antonio went on a 15-0 run that spanned the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter, and it led 47-38 at halftime.

The Spurs were up by as much as 20 when Duncan hit a 6-foot jumper with 3:11 left in the half.

Indiana, which went scoreless the first five minutes of the second quarter, scored the last 11 points of the quarter to cut into the lead.

Hill lead all scorers with 12 in the first half.

San Antonio was 4-for-6 from behind the arc before the break.

NOTES: Hill played two seasons with San Antonio before being traded for the draft rights to Kawhi Leonard. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich remains a fan of Hill, "I watch him closely. We were jumping out of our seats when he made the shots a couple of games ago to win the game for them. We were thrilled," Popovich said. ... Pacers forward Danny Granger, who has yet to play this season, remains sidelined with a sore left knee. The timetable for his return remains unknown. ... Indiana guard Sam Young got his first start of the season, taking the place of Gerald Green. ... Duncan recorded his 734th career double-double, the most among active NBA players.