Stephen Curry scored 29 points and Kevin Durant added 26 as the Golden State Warriors extended their dominance over the Los Angeles Clippers with a 133-120 victory yesterday.
 The Warriors beat the Clippers for the ninth straight time, despite the injury absences of Draymond Green, Zaza Pachulia, Shaun Livingston and David West. Green was held out with a left shoulder contusion suffered in Wednesday’s home win over the Charlotte Hornets.
 “We’ve got a deep team and all the guys fit into their roles and execute our gameplan, our identity, every night no matter who suits up,” Curry said after the Warriors won their fifth straight.
 They shot 52.5% from the field, and while their 14 three-pointers didn’t approach the stunning 21 they put up against the Hornets, it was still an impressive follow up. “We’d rather be healthy,” Curry said. “But to have a showing like this in a back-to-back, with so many guys out, is a big-time night.”
 Curry’s only three-pointer in the first half was his 200th of the season, making him the first NBA player to hit 200 or more from beyond the arc in five straight campaigns. He finished with three treys, connecting on 11 of 23 overall from the floor and also handed out 11 of the Warriors 38 assists.
 Durant had 10 assists and eight rebounds for the Warriors. Klay Thompson scored 21 points as seven Golden State players scored in double figures. Blake Griffin scored 31 points and pulled down eight rebounds, but the Clippers have now lost five of their last seven.
 In San Antonio, coach Gregg Popovich tied the league record for most career wins with a single club with the Spurs’ 102-86 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Popovich’s 1,127 victories with the Spurs tied the mark of former Utah coach Jerry Sloan, who was at the helm of the Jazz from 1988-2011 and took them to back-to-back Western Conference titles in 1997 and 1998.
 Popovich, who has the most wins of any active coach in the league, characteristically downplayed the achievement. “When you get all those wins it’s just a longevity thing more than anything,” he said. “So I’m thankful for having the job for a while.”
 Kawhi Leonard led seven Spurs players in double figures with 19 points. That matched his lowest point total in his past 10 games, but that hardly mattered as the Spurs’ balanced attack got the job done. Dewayne Dedmon added 13 points while Patty Mills, David Lee, Davis Bertans and Danny Green contributed 12 each.
 In Washington, John Wall scored 16 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter as the Wizards ran their home winning streak to 16 games with a 116-108 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Bradley Beal drained five three-pointers en route to 23 points for the Wizards, who haven’t lost at home since a December 6 setback against Orlando.
 Since December 1, the Wizards are an Eastern Conference-best 23-9 including six straight wins and 13 victories in their last 15 games. Even so, their arena was packed with Lakers fans, a fact not lost on Wall.
 “Hearing the crowd get up and make big Lakers chants just made me mad,” said the point guard recently selected for a fourth straight NBA All-Star team. “I do what I have to do to try and get a win for us.”
 After the Lakers closed within three points on a layup by Jordan Clarkson with 1:49 to play, Wall drained a brace of mid-range jump shots to rebuild the lead. “We gave ourselves a chance to win against a very good team,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “John Wall being the player he is stepped up and made some huge shots.”
 In Houston, Tim Hardaway Jr. erupted for 23 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter as the Atlanta Hawks rallied to shock the Rockets 113-108. The Hawks erased a 20-point deficit in the final period as Hardaway’s heroics ensured that teammate Dwight Howard came away with a win in his first return to Houston, where he played three years for the Rockets.
 Rockets guard Eric Gordon’s three-pointer pushed the hosts’ lead to 97-77 with 8:28 left in the game. The Rockets had closed to 99-86 when Hardaway caught fire, converting a three-point play and a three-pointer around an alley-oop by Howard.
 Another three-pointer from Gordon pushed the Rockets lead to 104-96, but Hardaway went on another tear, capped by a soaring drive with 41.8 seconds left that put the Hawks up 111-108. A dunk by Hawks reserve DeAndre Bembry capped the comeback.
 “I remember telling everybody to get three or four straight stops, and lucky enough we were able to get three-point field goals made after the stops,” said Hardaway, whose 33 points, on 12-of-18 shooting, were a career high. “You’ve got the clock in your favour because you’re getting stops and get them in the penalty.”
 Rockets guard James Harden scored 18 of his game-high 41 points in the third quarter, including 12 in the opening two minutes of the period. It looked as if that barrage was enough to put the Rockets on the path to victory, but apart from Clint Capela’s 22 points and nine rebounds Harden received too little help from his teammates.
 “Frustrating, frustrating,” Harden said. “Honestly, it was all of us. We just let them get too many open shots, get confidence... it was a let-down in the fourth.”
 Howard scored 24 points and pulled down 23 rebounds with two blocked shots. “Tim was making crazy shots, so we kept trying to find plays to get him attacking the basket,” Howard said. “That’s what I kept telling him: attack, attack, attack. He just started to open up everything after he started doing that.”