Parker and Spurs defeat Washington

Manu Ginobili added 22 points, scoring 16 in the fourth quarter, for the Spurs, who continue to lead the Western Conference standings. Tim Duncan added 16 points and 14 boards for San Antonio, which has won three straight and four of five.

Gilbert Arenas had 31 points and eight assists and Antawn Jamison had 26 points and eight boards for the Wizards, who have dropped two in a row and saw their lead on the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race shrink to one-half game over Milwaukee. The Bucks beat the Indiana Pacers, 96-89, on Saturday night.

Caron Butler had 21 points and nine boards for Washington, which ended a six- game road trip 3-3.

Down 74-69 early in the fourth quarter, the Spurs went on a 13-5 run to take the lead. Nazr Mohammed drained a pair of free throws with just over five minutes gone in the stanza to cap the surge.

San Antonio later went ahead 87-82 on a Parker bucket, but the Wizards rallied to tie the game at 90-90 on a Butler basket with just over three minutes left.

However, Parker gave the Spurs back the lead on his team’s next possession, 92-90, and San Antonio never trailed after that. Ginobili’s three-pointer extended the advantage to 97-91 with just under two minutes to play and the Wizards never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead the rest of the way.

Mohammed ended with 12 points for the Spurs, who led 19-17 after one quarter and 40-33 at halftime.

Antonio Daniels had 11 points for Washington, which scored 39 third-quarter points to take a 72-67 lead into the final 12 minutes.

Game Notes

San Antonio earned a season-series split with the Wizards, ending a two-game slide to the team...The Spurs have won 10-of-13 in this series...San Antonio shot 46.1 percent from the floor and hit 30-of-41 free throws...Washington hit 50.7 percent of its shots and went just 18-of-29 from the charity stripe...Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was hit with a technical foul midway through the third quarter for arguing with officials.