Dejounte Murray and Jakob Poeltl combined for 37 points in three quarters to help the San Antonio Spurs coast to a 134-104 victory over the Houston Rockets Tuesday night.
Murray had 19 points and 10 assists and Poeltl had 18 points with nine rebounds by the end of the third quarter, and neither played after that with the Spurs up by 31.
“We managed to find our rhythm early in the game and it really carried over for the rest of the game,” Poeltl said.
Houston led early in the first quarter, but the Spurs soon took over and were up by 15 at halftime. A 39-point third quarter put the game out of reach on a night San Antonio scored a season-high 82 points in the paint and shot a season-best 57.4 percent.
The win comes after the Spurs dropped consecutive games to Brooklyn and Philadelphia at home.
San Antonio was up by 15 with about 8 ½ minutes left in the third quarter before using an 8-0 run with all the points in the lane, to extend it to 83-60 two minutes later. Houston had two turnovers in that stretch to help the Spurs pad the lead.
Jae’Sean Tate made Houston’s first points in almost 2 ½ minutes on a layup after that, but the Spurs used a 10-3 spurt to make it 93-65 with four minutes left in the third. Murray and Drew Eubanks had four points each to power that run.(AP)