Dylan Harper canned the decisive jumper with 9.1 seconds to play as part of his career-high 22 points and the visiting San Antonio Spurs outlasted the reeling New Orleans Pelicans 135-132 on Monday.
The Spurs were up by 20 points at halftime, but New Orleans rallied to take a 102-100 edge to the final period. San Antonio retook the lead on Julian Champagnie’s 3-pointer with 8:55 to play and slowly built the margin back to eight points on a Keldon Johnson trey with 5:29 left.
The Pelicans drew within 129-127 on an alley-oop dunk by Trey Murphy III with 1:40 remaining and took the lead on Murphy’s 3-pointer with 59.4 seconds left.
After De’Aaron Fox hit a jumper to put San Antonio up by a point, Derik Queen capped a career-high 33-point effort with a driving layup to give New Orleans a 133-132 lead with 30 seconds to play.
Harper then canned his clutch jumper to push the Spurs back in front. Queen missed a 3-point attempt and Fox grabbed the rebound, was fouled and sank two free throws with 1.1 seconds to play.
The Pelicans’ Saddiq Bey had a 3-point attempt to tie rim out at the buzzer.
Harrison Barnes led San Antonio with 24 points while Stephon Castle had 18 in his first game back after missing nine contests with a hip injury. Champagnie finished with 17 points, Fox had 14, Keldon Johnson hit for 12 and Kelly Olynyk added 11.
Queen pulled down 10 rebounds and dished out 10 assists for his first career triple-double. Murphy added 32 points, Bey and Herbert Jones scored 17 each and Jose Alvarado had 10 points for New Orleans, which has lost seven straight games and 16 of its past 17.
The Spurs led 35-25 lead after one quarter and stoked their lead to 25 points on Barnes’ 3-pointer off the break with 3:48 remaining in the half. New Orleans finished the second quarter with a Queen layup that sliced the deficit to 77-57 at the break.
New Orleans came roaring back in the third quarter, tying the game at 87-87 on Bey’s layup with 5:29 left in the period that capped a 15-4 run.
