Even a late rally couldn’t end the longest losing streak of Tim Duncan’s career. Kevin Martin scored 33 points, including nine in overtime, and the Houston Rocketshanded the San Antonio Spurs their sixth straight loss with a 119-114 victory on Friday night.San Antonio hadn’t dropped six in a row since April 10-20, 1997, and the big lead it held atop the Western Conference continues to dwindle over the hard-charging Los Angeles Lakers.
The Spurs lead the Lakers by only 1½ games with another meeting scheduled.
“We’re going to see what we are made out of, if we can dig down deeper,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’ll see if we are worth the way we played this season or not.”
The Rockets withstood the Spurs’ best comeback efforts in the second half.
“In my mind, that might be the best one we’ve had all year because you have this team [Spurs] come in here and they lost five in a row, which they haven’t done in decades,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “They are fighting the Lakers for the best record.”
The Spurs, down by 11 points late in the third quarter, forced overtime on a free throw by Duncan with 18 seconds left in regulation that tied it at 108.
Martin took over in overtime, scoring nine of Houston’s 11 points.
Luis Scola had 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Rockets, Kyle Lowry added 14 points, and Chuck Hayes had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
“It was a great game,” Scola said. “The Spurs are the best team in the NBA. There’s not one season where they don’t play great. It’s always a fun game to play. It’s always a big game. It’s a rivalry match. Because of all those things I like to play against them.”
The Rockets are three games behind Memphis for the No. 8 playoff spot in the West.
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