Notebook: Spurs 107, Warriors 101

Posted Friday April 27, 2012 2:01AM

By Geoff Lepper, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Patty Mills set career highs with 34 points and 12 assists for his first NBA double-double and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Golden State Warriors 107-101 Thursday to close the regular season on a 10-game winning streak.

The Spurs (50-16), who finished the year on a 38-7 run, swept their season-ending, all-road back-to-back despite letting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker stay home from the trip. San Antonio had already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and will face Utah in a first-round playoff series beginning Sunday.

DeJuan Blair had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Spurs, who reached 50 wins for the 13th consecutive season, a league record.

Chris Wright, an undrafted rookie making his first NBA start, scored 25 points with eight rebounds -- both career highs -- to lead the Warriors. Golden State became the first NBA team to start five rookies -- Wright,Mickell Gladness, Charles Jenkins, Klay Thompson and Jeremy Tyler -- since at least the 1970-71 season, when Elias Sports Bureau began tracking the stat. All five of the rookies scored in double figures.

With the loss, the Warriors (23-43) dropped into a tie for the seventh draft slot with Toronto. The teams will have a random drawing Friday to see who gets the No. 7 spot and who gets No. 8. The drawing is critical to Golden State because if the Warriors' first-round pick is No. 8 or worse, it must be given to Utah to complete a trade from 2008.

QUOTABLE: "That's one they won't put in the Hall of Fame, I'm sure."
-- San Antonio assistant coach Mike Budenholzer, who was filling in for head coach Gregg Popovich. Popovich stayed behind with Duncan, Ginobili and Parker to prepare for the postseason.

THE STAT: The high-flying Wright may have had only 12 field goals on the season before Thursday, but he went 11-for-14 against the Spurs, with seven of those being dunks.

TURNING POINT: Mills dropped back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the fourth quarter to break open what had been a 95-all tie. San Antonio never looked back.

HOT: Mills, a product of nearby St. Mary's College, topped his hours-old career high of 27 points -- set in Phoenix on Wednesday -- with another standout performance in place of Parker. Mills dropped 14 points in the first quarter, then came on strong in the fourth with 12 points to

QUOTABLE II: "It was such a rare opportunity. Chances don't come up very often where you send your three big dogs back to San Antonio. I was very pumped."
-- Patty Mills

BAD (BUT GOOD) MOVE: Although the Warriors steadfastly maintained they weren't tanking over the last few weeks, Golden State's substitution pattern certainly had the effect of blunting the team's attack Thursday. Coach Mark Jackson benched his starting backcourt of Thompson and Jenkins -- who combined for 33 points and 13 assists through three periods -- for the final 12 minutes, and the Warriors could manage only 19 points in that time, helping seal the result. If Golden State had beaten the Spurs, they would have had a roughly 10 percent chance of keeping their first-round pick (by jumping into the top three). If the Warriors can win their random drawing Friday, that number jumps to approximately 72 percent.

ROOKIE WATCH: Gladness had career highs in points (14), rebounds (nine) and minutes (39) for the Warriors.

NOTABLE: In addition to Duncan, Ginobili and Parker, starting small forward Kawhi Leonard was also held out. Starting shooting guard Danny Green and key big man Tiago Splitter played less than eight minutes and were shut down at halftime. . . . James Anderson, taking over for Leonard, had 19 points and seven boards for the Spurs. . . . Mills, who didn't join San Antonio until March 27 after starting the season in China, became just the 13th NBA player to go for a 30-point/10-assist game this season.