By Tony Jones

| The Salt Lake Tribune

At the end, you just knew what was going to happen.

Was there anyone in EnergySolutions Arena on Monday night surprised that the Spurs pulled away for a 106-102 win over the Utah Jazz?

Photos

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At a glance

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Spurs highlights

Key moment » Richard Jefferson hits a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining to give San Antonio a 105-100 lead.

Key stat » Tony Parker continues the trend of opposing point guards having great nights against the Jazz with 23 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.

What it means » The Spurs now own an NBA best 11-game winning streak.

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Did anyone doubt San Antonio’s ability to execute mercilessly in the last five minutes with good possession after good possession?

And did anyone think the Jazz would be able to hold on to an 11-point second-half lead?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you clearly don’t know the Spurs. Especially these Spurs. While most of the basketball world is itching to hand the Western Conference title to Oklahoma City, San Antonio keeps grinding away. While OKC is flashy, shiny and undeniably good, the Spurs are on an NBA best 11-game winning streak and beating impressive teams in the process.

The impressive thing? San Antonio doesn’t care. Tim Duncan would rather talk dental work than winning streaks. That focus is what could make the Spurs a very dangerous team down the stretch.

"The winning streak is great, but we’re not even thinking about it," Duncan said. "We’re going to play it one game at a time. However it works, it works. We’ve had a good stretch, now we’ve got a couple more games to end strong before the All-Star break."

Duncan and Tony Parker have been the leaders and the stalwarts, as always, especially with Manu Ginobili injured for the majority of the season. And on Monday night, the two were excellent, with Parker scoring 23 points and Duncan dropping in 20 to go along with seven rebounds.

But the Spurs, who have been a veteran team for so long, have added an infusion of youth in the likes of DeJuan Blair, Gary Neal and Kawhi Leonard.

Against the Jazz, San Antonio was unrelenting. The Spurs kept coming when they fell behind by double-digits in the third quarter. They put themselves in position to win the game, and made all of the important plays down the stretch to secure the victory.

Richard Jefferson hit the key 3-pointer to give San Antonio an insurmountable lead. Neal hit a big shot, and the Spurs got defensive stops when they needed to.

"This team has a lot of mental toughness," San Antonio head coach Greg Popovich said. "It’s a professionalism and a mental toughness, knowing that the game is 48 minutes and you just keep playing. That’s your responsibility to each other and you have to feel it and believe it."

tjones@sltrib.com