Los Angeles Lakers

Spurs beat Lakers in final Duncan-Kobe meeting

Published Feb. 20, 2016 1:04 a.m. ET

foxsports

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Tony Parker scored 25 points in the San Antonio Spurs' 119-113 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night in the final matchup between Kobe Bryant and longtime Western Conference adversary Tim Duncan.

Bryant is retiring at season's end with the Lakers way out of the playoff picture at 11-45. Bryant and Duncan have each led their clubs to five NBA titles and have at least one league MVP award to their credit -- in addition to MVP of the Finals and All-Star game MVP.

Bryant had 25 points in 29 minutes, and Duncan finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds to help San Antonio complete a four-game season sweep. The Spurs (46-9) are three games behind defending champion Golden State in the race for the league's best record.

Spurs scoring leader and first-time All-Star Kawhi Leonard missed his second straight game because of tightness in his left calf.

The Spurs, whose six-game winning streak ended Thursday night with a 105-86 loss to the Clippers, led 60-49 at halftime after scoring a season-low 34 first-half points against the Clips.

The Lakers trailed by as many as 15 before slicing it to 101-94 on a four-point play by Lou Williams with 5:44 remaining. Bryant reported back in before the free throw, then hit an 11-footer a minute later to pull Los Angeles within four. But the Lakers got no closer.

Bryant, who is retiring at season's end, played his 61st regular-season game against the Spurs. The NBA's third leading career scorer, averaged 23.6 points, 4.2 assists, 5.3 rebounds and was 42.6 percent from the field. Bryant's highest-scoring game against San Antonio was 44 points on Feb. 14, 2003, in a 103-95 Lakers loss.

TIP-INS

Spurs: Duncan, who turns 40 on April 25, needs four blocked shots to become the fifth player in NBA history with at least 3,000. That list includes Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Mark Eaton -- all of whom were at least 7 feet tall. Duncan is 6-11. ... The Spurs need three more road victories to extend their NBA-record streak of consecutive winning seasons on the road to 19. ... San Antonio is 27-1 against teams with losing records and 19-7 against everyone else. ... The Spurs are 11-0 this season in the second game of back-to-back sets, and 21-1 in Game 2 going back to Dec. 26, 2014. The only blemish was a 110-99 loss at Golden State. ... The Spurs finished .54.5 percent from the field, and are 25-0 when shooting .50 percent or better. ... San Antonio is 5-1 since Manu Ginobili left the lineup with a groin injury that required surgery.

Lakers: The first time Bryant played against Duncan was Dec. 5, 1997, when Duncan scored 19 points and Bryant had 17 off the bench in a 98-88 Lakers win at the Forum. ... One award Bryant doesn't have that Duncan does the Naismith College Player of the Year (Wake Forest) trophy. Bryant jumped straight to the NBA out of high school and is 2 years and 4 months younger than Duncan. ... The Lakers came in last in the NBA in field goal percentage (41.2), 3-point shooting percentage (31.5), assists (18.2) and rebounds allowed per game (47.1). ... The Lakers have to go no worse than 9-17 the rest of the way to keep Byron Scott from matching the worst record of his 15-year coaching career. He was 19-63 in his first season with Cleveland (2011-12).

UP NEXT:

Spurs: At Phoenix on Sunday.

Lakers: At Chicago on Sunday.