INGLEWOOD, California — Victor Wembanyama had 21 points and 13 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs overcame an early 14-point deficit before blowing most of a 24-point lead and recovering to hold off the Los Angeles Clippers 119-115 on Monday night.

Stephon Castle had 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds to lead the Spurs (50-18), who reached 50 wins for the first time since 2016-17 and trail the first-place Thunder by three games in the West. Devin Vassell added 20 points.

Kawhi Leonard watched from the bench. The NBA's sixth-leading scorer sat out with a sprained left knee, as his side came up short.

Despite the loss, the Clippers are still in the fight to secure a spot in the play-in tournament.

Darius Garland led six Clippers in double figures with 25 points and 10 assists. Jordan Miller had 22 points off the bench, which outscored the Spurs' reserves 57-30.

After the Spurs ran off seven in a row to lead 115-102, Garland scored seven of the Clippers' nine points to get within four with 38 seconds remaining, but the Spurs made four straight free throws to preserve the win.

The Spurs led by 24 points in the third before the Clippers closed with a 16-3 run to trail by 10 going into the fourth.

The Spurs started slowly, missing eight of their first nine shots, while the Clippers surged to a 17-3 lead. They shot 65 percent from the floor in the opening quarter, hit five of seven 3-pointers and made 10 of 12 free throws.

San Antonio turned things around in the second. The Spurs erased all of their 14-point deficit, helped by 15 straight points over the end of the first and start of the second periods. In the second quarter, they outscored the Clippers 37-15 to lead 66-52 at halftime.

San Antonio has now won 18 of its last 20 games.

"They pushed us in the first quarter, and, sometimes the basketball is not working," Wembanyama said.

"So we had to get nasty a little bit."

Lakers go six straight

In Houston, Luka Doncic scored 36 points as the in-form Los Angeles Lakers powered to a sixth straight victory with a 100-92 defeat of the Rockets.

A crucial showdown between the third and fourth-ranked Western Conference teams ended with the Lakers pulling away in the final minute of the fourth quarter to claim an impressive win on the road.

The victory gives the Lakers (43-25) a valuable cushion over the Rockets (41-26) as they jostle for postseason positions in the West.

Doncic was once again instrumental in dragging the Lakers over the line, while a hard-nosed defensive effort kept the Rockets' scoring in check.

LeBron James finished with 18 points and Austin Reaves hit 15, while Jabari Smith Jr led Houston's scoring with 22 points.

"We held them to 92 points, which for this team is pretty awesome. We did a great job defensively," Doncic said.

"We could have done better, but all that matters is that we got the win. We've got to keep this going."

Celtics pushing Pistons

In the battle for Eastern Conference supremacy, the Boston Celtics maintained their pursuit of the top-ranked Detroit Pistons with a 120-112 defeat of the visiting Phoenix Suns.

The game that unfolded was a high-scoring personal duel between Boston's Jaylen Brown and Phoenix's Devin Booker. Brown scored 41 points and Booker 40, before the Celtics finally clinched the victory.

Brown was backed by 21 points apiece from Jayson Tatum and Derrick White, while Payton Pritchard once again demonstrated his sharpshooting talent from the bench with 19 points — 15 of them coming from three-pointers.

Boston's second straight victory left it on 45-23, three-and-half games behind leader Detroit (48-19). Phoenix slipped to 39-29 and is seventh in the Western Conference, just outside the automatic playoff places.

Kerr gets 600th win

Kristaps Porzingis scored 30 points, De'Anthony Melton added 27 and the Golden State Warriors snapped a five-game losing streak with a 125-117 victory over the Washington Wizards on Monday night, earning coach Steve Kerr his 600th career victory.

Golden State led by 17 in the second quarter, before the Wizards fought back to within two.

It was 64-57 at the half.

Golden State led by 15 early in the fourth, before the Wizards made one more push. They could draw no closer than five.

Trae Young scored 21 points in 21 minutes for Washington, which has now dropped 12 games in a row.