MIAMI- Led by Kwahi Leonard's 22 points and 9 rebounds, the San Antonio Spurs handled the injury-plagued Miami Heat, 95-81, on Tuesday nigt at the American Airlines Arena.
Besides producing on the offensive end for the defending champs, Leonard also did a masterful job iof holding Heat star Dwyane Wade to just 5 points on 11 percent shooting ( 1-9 Fg) shooting in the second half.
Goran Dragic scored 19 points while Mario Chalmers and Hassan Whiteside added 10 apiece for Miami, which clung to seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 34-40 record.
The Heat played without the services of Loul Deng( knee), Udonis
Haslem (flu), Shabazz Napier (hip), Josh McRoberts ( knee) and Chris Bosh( lung), who was ruled out for the season.
After leading by just 5 at halftime, the Spurs stretched their lead to 21 in the second half. Tony Parker finished with 16 points and 5 assists and Tim Duncan delivered another double-double performance with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Miami went on a 12-2 mini-run to cut the deficit to 10 with 3 minutes and 32 seconds left in the ballgame but the Spurs held Miami to just 6 points the rest of the way to preserve the win.
The Spurs will travel to Orlando for their second game of of a back-to-back while the Miami Heat will travel to Cleveland to face Lebron James and the Cavaliers Thursday.
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