NBA: Spurs pay big price for OT win against Clippers

The San Antonio Spurs stretched their impressive winning streak to ten straight games, leapfrogging their opponents, the Los Angeles Clippers, in the process to take the second seed in the Western Conference, with a 103-100 overtime victory, Saturday (Sunday, PHL time) at LA. But the win came at a huge price, as they lost two of their top reserves.

Tiago Splitter has a right calf strain. He will not return to today's game vs the Clippers.

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) February 18, 2012

Manu Ginobili suffered a strained left oblique muscle in the second half of today's game. No update on him or Tiago Splitter at this time.

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) February 18, 2012

Trailing by a point, 92-91, with 29 seconds left in regulation, superstar point guard Chris Paul made two sets of free throws to put the Clippers out in front, 95-92 with 12 seconds left. Los Angeles then had a chance to seal the victory when Randy Foye came up with a steal on reserve Gary Neal of the Spurs. But off a timeout called by Clippers head coach Vinny del Negro to make sure that his team could inbound the ball properly, a pass by Paul was picked off by Neal, who redeemed himself for his earlier mistake by firing a triple with five seconds left to knot the game at 95-all. Making matters worse was the fact that the earlier time out was the Clippers' last, forcing them to travel the length of the floor for their desperation attempt, which Paul missed. It was Neal once more in the extra five minutes, as his triple with 25 seconds left broke a 98-all tie. Paul missed a lay-up attempt on the succeeding play, putting the Clippers in a situation where they had to foul. This time, after the Spurs traded Tony Parker charities with a Blake Griffin dunk, the Clips were looking to force another extra period, down three, 103-100 with seven seconds remaining. Unfortunately for them, Paul's triple with a second remaining did not connect, allowing San Antonio to escape. Parker continued to shine for San Antonio, notching a double-double of 30 points and 10 assists, his third game of 30 or more in their last five outings. Neal added 17 and Bonner chimed in 13, both coming off the bench to replace Ginobili and Splitter's contributions. Blake Griffin had 22 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Clippers, while the backcourt of Randy Foye and Chris Paul had 21 each, plus a combined 10 assists. Despite the loss, the Pacific Division-leading Clippers stayed at third with a 19-10 record. - KBK, GMA News