SAN ANTONIO -- The first eight minutes of Golden State's 110-98 win over San Antonio on Wednesday at AT&T Center belonged, emphatically, to the Spurs.

The ensuing 40 minutes were owned by the league-leading Warriors.

Stephen Curry scored 29 points, 13 in the pivotal third quarter, and the Warriors' gritty defense made the plays to turn a 22-point deficit into a message-delivering victory in a slugfest between the top two teams in the NBA.

Curry's shooting in the third quarter pushed the Warriors ahead, and fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson's nine points in the first five minutes of the fourth kept them there.

Golden State hit just two of its first 12 shots and trailed 29-7 with 3:29 remaining in the first quarter.

"We were actually getting stops early in the game, but San Antonio got one offensive rebound after another," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "Our defense, which was already pretty good, really kicked in and we started rebounding better. That was important."

The Warriors also got a huge performance off the bench from former Spurs forward David West, who poured in 11 of his 15 points in the final quarter.

Golden State (61-14) expanded its lead over the Spurs to 3 1/2 games in the race for the league's best record. The Warriors have seven games to play, while San Antonio (57-17) has eight.

"It was a big win, obviously," Curry said. "Everything was kind of stacked against us after that first quarter. We just couldn't get a rebound and couldn't create any flow on offense because of that. Every game is different, but you can't let go of the rope. Whether it ends with a win or a loss, you can't ever feel you're out of it. We have what it takes to win all sorts of ways."

The victory came one night after Golden State's 113-106 win on Tuesday in Houston. Kerr was satisfied with the work his team did in winning both legs of the Texas Two-Step.

"That's as tough a back-to-back as you're going to find in terms of playing two of the best teams in the league on the road," Kerr said. "Our guys are tough, competitive and they're pretty good."

Thompson ended up with 23 points and Andre Iguodala added 14 for the Warriors, who have won nine straight games since losing to San Antonio on March 11. Curry added a game-high 11 assists.

Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs with 19 points on 7-of-20 shooting. Pau Gasol scored 18 points off the bench, and LaMarcus Aldridge and Danny Green scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, for San Antonio, which had a five-game winning streak snapped.

"They executed better than we did," Green said. "Defensively we had some errors, and they take advantage of them and make you pay. We have to do a better job of scrambling, talking an communicating. We've gotten some leads and we've blown it a couple of times just with sloppy play."

The Spurs jumped on Golden State early, roaring to the first 15 points as Green hit a trio of 3-pointers in the initial four minutes. The lead bulged to 23-3 at the 5:01 mark, but Iguodala poured in seven of the final nine points of the quarter to allow Golden State to creep to within 33-17.

Golden State eventually found its stride, and Shawn Livingston's jumper at the 3:30 mark tied the game at 45 and washed away the Spurs' early momentum. The Spurs led 57-54 at halftime behind 14 points from Green, 12 from Aldridge and 10 from Leonard.

Curry paced the Warriors with 14 points while Thompson added 11 (all in the second quarter) and Iguodala hit for 10. After its rancid beginning, Golden State actually outshot the Spurs 45.2 percent to 42.6 percent.

Thompson's 3-pointer in the second minute of the third quarter gave the Warriors a 59-57 lead, and Curry's bomb from beyond the arc pushed the advantage to 62-57. A runout dunk by Curry with 8.9 seconds to play in the quarter granted the Warriors an 84-77 cushion heading into the final quarter.

"Golden State's a great defensive team," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I thought they were a little sloppy defensively (in the first quarter) but they got it back, certainly. All their switching bothered us. We didn't get great ball movement. That's why they're the best team in the league."

NOTES: San Antonio was the last Western Conference team to hand the Warriors three losses in a season. The Spurs swept Golden State 4-0 in 2013-14. ... Golden State's bench has scored 50 or more points in six games this season (twice against Portland), with the last time on March 11 at San Antonio when the Warriors' reserves tallied 54 points. ... Next up for the Warriors is a Friday home game against Houston. San Antonio hits the road for a battle with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.