Crunch-time DeMar DeRozan moves Spurs closer to playoff chance

On the biggest possession of arguably the biggest game remaining on the Spurs’ schedule, DeMar DeRozan got the ball on the left wing and licked his chops.

The New Orleans defender assigned to defend him was an undrafted rookie named Naji Marshall. The Pelicans were bringing no double-team help.

Far be it from DeRozan to tell anyone else how to do his job, but he believed this to be a mistake.

“If you want to stay on the island with me,” DeRozan said, “I’m going to be the one to get the pineapple first.”

“Whatever the hell that means,” DeRozan added with a chuckle.

What it meant Saturday: The Spurs can probably put off any immediate thoughts of an island vacation at the end of the regular season.

The Pelicans can probably start planning theirs.

DeRozan’s step-back jumper over Marshall gave the Spurs a three-point lead with 34.2 seconds remaining.

The Spurs held on for a 110-108 victory at the Smoothie King Center that solidified their bid to at least qualify for the play-in tournament that will decide the Western Conference’s final two playoff seeds.

When/where: 6 p.m. Monday; Capital One Arena, Washington

TV/radio: KMYS; WOAI-AM 1200, KXTN-AM 1350 and FM 107.5 (Spanish)

PROBABLE STARTERS

Spurs: PG Dejounte Murray (6-4, 4th year), SG Derrick White (6-4, 4th), SF DeMar DeRozan (6-6, 12th), PF Keldon Johnson (6-5, 2nd), C Jakob Poeltl (7-1, 5th)

Wizards: PG Raul Neto (6-1, 6th year), SG Russell Westbrook (6-3, 13th), SF Bradley Beal (6-3, 9th), PF Isaac Bonga (6-8, 3rd), C Alex Len (7-0, 8th)

RESERVES

Spurs: G Patty Mills (6-1, 12th year), F Rudy Gay (6-8, 15th), G/F Lonnie Walker IV (6-4, 3rd), G/F Devin Vassell (6-5, 1st), F/C Drew Eubanks (6-9, 3rd) F Gorgui Dieng (6-10, 8th), G Tre Jones (6-1, 1st), F Keita Bates-Diop (6-8, 3rd), F Cameron Reynolds (6-7, 2nd), G Quinndary Weatherspoon (6-3, 2nd). Inactive: Trey Lyles (right ankle sprain)

Wizards: F Davis Bertans (6-10, 5th year), F/C Daniel Gafford (6-11, 2nd), F Anthony Gill (6-8, 1st), F Rui Hachimura (6-8, 2nd), F Chandler Hutchison (6-7, 3rd) C Robin Lopez (7-0, 12th), G Garrison Mathews 6-7, 2nd), G Ish Smith (6-0, 11th), G Cassius Winston (6-1, 1st). Inactive: Demi Avdija (ankle fracture), Thomas Bryant (ACL)

COACHES

Spurs: Gregg Popovich

Wizards: Scott Brooks

STAT LEADERS

Spurs: Points, DeRozan, 21.2; rebounds, Poeltl, 8.0; assists, DeRozan, 7.2; steals, Murray, 1.6; blocks, Poeltl, 1.8

Wizards: Points, Beal, 31.1; rebounds, Westbrook, 11.1; assists, Westbrook, 10.9; steals, Westbrook, 1.3; blocks, Gafford, 2.0

NOTABLE

In defeating the Wizards 121-101 on Jan. 24 at the AT&T Center, the Spurs racked up 27 assists and a 20-3 edge in fast-break points. The Spurs are 39-10 all-time against Washington in San Antonio but 23-24 on the road against the Bullets/Wizards.

White is just the fourth player in Spurs history to record 2,000 points, 600 rebounds and 600 assists in their first 200 games. The others are Alvin Robertson, Willie Anderson and Manu Ginobili.

DeRozan has put together 11 straight seasons of scoring 1,000-plus points. Westbrook and LeBron James are the only other players to score more than 1,000 in every season since 2010.

Tom Orsborn

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At 30-29, the Spurs are in ninth place heading into Monday’s game at Washington. They need to finish only in the top 10 to secure a spot in the play-in.

The 11th-place Pelicans dropped to 26-34, with the Spurs holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.

If the Spurs go only 6-7 over their final 13 games, New Orleans would have to go 11-1 to supplant them.

“It was big for us, with them right behind us and us continually trying to move up every time we get on the court,” DeRozan said. “Down this last stretch of games, we need every single game.”

It was who DeRozan who came up biggest for the Spurs in New Orleans, scoring 32 points to go with eight assists.

Returning to the court after a one-game absence while nursing a thigh contusion, DeRozan was in attack mode from the opening tip and finished 12 of 12 from the foul line.

An hour and a half before tipoff Saturday, coach Gregg Popovich wasn’t fully confident DeRozan was going to be able to play.

DeRozan was.

“There wasn’t no doubt,” DeRozan said. “It was just sore. I’ve played through worse.”

The Pelicans would have preferred DeRozan keep his contused quadriceps on ice for another night.

In barreling toward his ninth 30-point game of the season, DeRozan added to his reel of late-game heroics.

DeRozan ranks among the top five players in the NBA in “clutch scoring,” which the league defines as points coming in the final five minutes of a game that is withing a five-point margin.

He tacked nine more to that ledger Saturday, bringing his season total to 111 clutch points.

The players ahead of DeRozan on that list are Portland’s Damian Lillard, Chicago’s Zach LaVine, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox.

“He seems to never get tired and he’s always ready to go,” Popovich said. “He has the ball. He wants to score. He loves being in that situation.”

Given DeRozan’s propensity for clutch scoring, it is a wonder more teams do not aim to get the ball out of his hands in those moments.

Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t alone in allowing DeRozan to go one-on-one with a game on the line.

After DeRozan won an April 11 contest against Dallas with a step-back jumper similar to the one he swished over Marshall, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle publicly second-guessed himself for not calling to double-team the Spurs star.

Count DeRozan among those baffled more teams don’t send extra bodies at him in the clutch.

“I’m still curious as to why they don’t double,” DeRozan said.

With the game on the line Saturday, DeRozan conjured his end-game magic again.

Having led most of the night, the Spurs found themselves behind by five points with 3:51 to play.

Derrick White made a 3-pointer to pull the Spurs within two. Then DeRozan went to work.

He started his blitz by going right at Zion Williamson, driving through the Pelicans’ Herculean All-Star for a basket and foul with 2:35 on the clock.

“A lot of times I just try to pick on different defenders and put them in situations they’re probably not accustomed to being in,” DeRozan said. “Just understand my creativity being out there. How I can be aggressive. How I can use different players’ aggression against them.”

Moments later, DeRozan supplied another pair of go-ahead points, sinking two free throws.

On the Spurs’ next possession, he wiggled for a short paint jumper to give his team a three-point cushion with 1:16 to play.

“Down the stretch, when we went to him every time, he made big shots and made big plays for us,” White said. “He was huge for us down the stretch, and he’s been huge for us all year honestly.”

With the Spurs in need of one more basket Saturday to even begin to exhale, the ball went to DeRozan again.

This should have surprised nobody.

“He’s the best on our team at that,” Popovich said. “So that’s who you go to.”

The Spurs knew it. The Pelicans knew it. The guy selling hot dogs at the Smoothie King Center knew it.

One of these days, teams will look to double-team DeRozan in these situations.

Instead, there was DeRozan, staring down an undrafted rookie, rising in the game’s most crucial moments — and leaving with another pineapple to add to his collection.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN