SAN ANTONIO — Manu Ginobili scored 16 points and Tony Parker had 14 points and 12 assists to help San Antonio beat Houston for the second time in three days, 86-73 Saturday night.
The win was the Spurs' sixth straight and lifted the defending NBA champions within a half-game of Midwest Division-leading Dallas.
Rasho Nesterovic scored 14 points, and Hedo Turkoglu had 13 for the Spurs, who never trailed in the game. Tim Duncan scored a season-low eight points on 2-for-10 shooting, but had 12 rebounds.
Steve Francis paced Houston with 17 points, 13 of them in the second half. Yao Ming and Jim Jackson each had 11 points.
Houston, which trailed by as much as 16 in the first half, was within striking distance at 48-41 midway through the third quarter.
Bruce Bowen made a 3-pointer and a 14-footer on San Antonio's next two possessions to set off a 14-4 run, capped by a short jumper by Robert Horry that gave the Spurs a 63-45 lead. The Rockets didn't get any closer than 11 points after that.
On Thursday night in Houston, the teams set a modern NBA record for fewest points in a half (55) in the Spurs' 71-67 victory, and it looked for a while like the Rockets were still stuck in the same scoring rut.
Nesterovic scored the Spurs' first six points, and for the first quarter, his four baskets doubled the total for the entire Rockets team.
Cuttino Mobley made a 14-footer from the right corner at 9:08 and Maurice Taylor scored on a putback at 3:11 for Houston, which trailed 21-8 after one period.
Ginobili hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the second quarter, but Yao followed that with a 3-point play to start a 14-3 run that pulled the Rockets to 27-22 at 6:47.
Houston got to 34-31 on a 3-pointer by Jackson at 2:09, and got the ball back on a steal by Mobley. But Yao missed a 5-foot hook, and San Antonio finished with a layup by Bowen and Duncan's only basket of the half, a 17-footer at the buzzer to make the score 40-33.
MAGIC 105, HAWKS 102: At Atlanta, Tracy McGrady capped a late rally with a 20-foot jumper.
Shammond Williams finished off the comeback with a steal and five free throws, helping the Magic win for the third time in four games after losing 19 straight. McGrady had 30 points.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 25 for the Hawks, who have lost seven of their last eight games. Stephen Jackson added 20 points and Dion Glover had 19.
Atlanta led 96-88 after Abdur-Rahim made two free throws with 3:24 left, then went about three minutes without scoring.
CELTICS 105, CAVALIERS 98: At Cleveland, Paul Pierce scored a season-high 41 points and stole the ball from LeBron James in the final minute to help the Boston Celtics win their fifth straight game.
James scored a season-high 37 points, but Cleveland's rookie star missed a 3-pointer in the last two minutes and was stripped by Pierce with 15 seconds to go.
Boston has won 12 in a row over Cleveland.
Pierce, who scored 33 points in a win over Toronto on Friday night, added nine rebounds and six assists — his biggest a feed to Jiri Welsch, whose 3-pointer with 1:19 remaining made it 100-94.
KNICKS 95, NUGGETS 88: At New York, Antonio McDyess scored a season-high 15 points against the team that traded him nearly 18 months ago.
McDyess made his first start since March of 2002, replacing Kurt Thomas (sore knee) on New York's front line. McDyess, playing his seventh game since coming back from a knee injury, scored seven points in the final four minutes to win for the first time with his new team.
Frank Williams ran the point for New York during the entire fourth quarter, finding McDyess on a backdoor cut for an alley-oop layup that gave New York an 89-83 lead with 1:01 left. The Nuggets got no closer than five the rest of the way.
Carmelo Anthony led Denver with 25 points, and Marcus Camby added 12 points and 12 rebounds in his first appearance at Madison Square Garden since the Knicks sent him to Denver as part of the five-player trade that brought McDyess to New York.
GRIZZLIES 110, NETS 63: At Memphis, Tenn., Bonzi Wells had 22 points in the Memphis Grizzlies' most lopsided victory in franchise history.
The Nets scored the fewest points of any Grizzlies opponent, and came within a point of matching their own futility record.
The Grizzlies ran away in the final period, building their biggest lead at 110-62 on a dunk by Stromile Swift.
Memphis had six players in double figures, including Mike Miller and Swift with 18 each. Miller also had seven assists.
BULLS 86, PACERS 75: At Chicago, Jamal Crawford and Kirk Hinrich scored 18 points apiece and the Chicago Bulls used a 16-0 third-quarter run to beat the Indiana Pacers.
The Bulls, breaking a four-game losing streak and improving to 2-4 since Scott Skiles became coach, beat the top team in the Eastern Conference with their second-half hustle and the inside play of Marcus Fizer, who had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Jerome Williams, who added 10 points and 15 rebounds.
BULLS 86, PACERS 75: At Chicago, Jamal Crawford and Kirk Hinrich scored 18 points apiece and the Chicago Bulls used a 16-0 third-quarter run to beat Indiana.
The Bulls, breaking a four-game losing streak and improving to 2-4 since Scott Skiles became coach, beat the top team in the Eastern Conference with their second-half hustle and the inside play of Marcus Fizer, who had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Jerome Williams, who added 10 points and 15 rebounds.
Indiana, tied for the most road wins in the NBA with nine, got 23 points from Ron Artest, including the Pacers' first 10 in a 15-point fourth quarter. Jermaine O'Neal added 19, but missed all five of his second-half field-goal attempts and scored just one point in the final two quarters.
Indiana was within eight with just under five minutes to go before the Bulls ran off eight in a row to secure the victory.