SAN ANTONIO -- For one quarter, San Antonio looked as if it might have taken the woeful New York Knicks for granted.

But the other three quarters -- highlighted by 29 points from Kawhi Leonard and double-doubles by LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol -- made the difference as the Spurs gathered themselves and dispatched the Knicks 106-98 on Saturday night at the AT&T Center.

San Antonio (56-16) won its fourth straight game but had to work harder for this one than it wanted, especially after forging a 20-point lead in the second quarter.

New York did little in the first half and trailed by 18 points at intermission before rushing back into the game by outscoring San Antonio 31-17 in the third quarter. The Spurs hit only eight of their 27 shots in the quarter.

The Spurs put away the Knicks in the middle of the fourth quarter with a 11-4 run keyed by 3-pointers from Patty Mills and Leonard. New York never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.

"We had one period there where we had a bad combination," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "We couldn't make a shot and our defense got a little bit poor at the same time, and that's when New York made its run. Nobody's immune from that, but I thought we hung pretty tough."

Gasol had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs. Aldridge hit for 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Tony Parker and Mills added 10 points apiece and Dewayne Dedmon pulled down 13 rebounds for San Antonio, which crawled back within two games of idle Golden State for the best record in the NBA and the Western Conference.

Gasol said the Spurs understood it was time regain their focus once the Knicks had pulled close in the fourth quarter.

"The mindset was for us to get back into it, to start defending and getting stops and getting locked into the game," Gasol said. "And we were able to do that."

The Spurs have 10 games left in the regular season, with seven of those games against teams in line for the playoffs, beginning Monday at home against Cleveland.

"These (last 10 games) are opportunities for us to get ready and to see where we are at," Gasol said. "At this point, we just have to build the right habits so when we start our playoff run we are ready to go, we are sharp and we are locked in and we know what we are playing for."

New York (27-46) was led by Willy Hernangomez's 24 points and 13 rebounds. Derrick Rose also scored 24 points, Mindaugas Kuzminskas hit for 19 and Kristaps Porzingis added 12 points for the Knicks, who lost five straight games and eight of their past nine.

"In the third quarter, the effort was there," Rose said. "We were giving the second and third effort that got us back in the game. But then the Spurs just played like the Spurs.

"There might have some letdown from them after they built their big lead, but a little of that was us, too, getting into the ball and challenging shots."

San Antonio played the majority the third quarter with the same level of lethargy New York showed for most of the first half. That allowed the Knicks to cut the Spurs' lead to 76-72 on back-to-back baskets by Hernangomez (the second with 35.3 seconds left) before Ron Baker's driving layup with 5.9 seconds left sent New York to the fourth quarter down by only four with the game well within reach.

"The Spurs are long and they were tough on us on the boards," Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said. "That's a great team over there. We came out in the third quarter and didn't play tentative, and there are always runs in a game and that happened to be our run in the third quarter. And then San Antonio tuned it up a little bit and made the plays."

NOTES: On Saturday, the NBA suspended injured Knicks C Joakim Noah for 20 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy. The suspension will start when Noah, who has been out since Feb. 4 and had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Feb. 27, is "eligible and physically able to play" in either a regular season or playoff game, the league said. The suspension would then continue into the 2017-18 season. ... The Spurs held out Danny Green for rest. ... San Antonio G Dejounte Murray missed his eighth straight game with a left groin injury. ... New York was without F Carmelo Anthony, who did not play for his second straight game because of a sore left knee. ... Next up for the Knicks is Monday's home game against Detroit. San Antonio hosts Cleveland on Monday.