Portland Trail Blazers defeat San Antonio Spurs 100–92
The Portland Trail Blazers put in a strong fourth-quarter performance to cruise past the San Antonio Spurs 100-92 at the AT&T Centre in San Antonio on Monday night. The Spurs were playing without starters Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, and failed to prevent
a fourth-quarter surge by the Trail Blazers.
The game was keenly fought throughout, as the Spurs led 72-57 at the end of the third period. However, the Blazers stepped up in the fourth to overtake the depleted Spurs and handed them their third straight loss. They outscored the Spurs 33-20 in the final
quarter.
George Hill was the lone bright-star for San Antonio, as he was handed a starting spot to fill the void created by Ginobili’s absence. Hill fitted in well enough, scoring a game-high 27 points and dishing out six assists. Duncan’s replacement, Tiago Splitter,
contributed 14 points and nine rebounds in a losing effort.
Portland went on a 10–4 run to take an early lead, but San Antonio kept the game close with Hill contributing eight points. Portland was up 28–22 after the first 12 minutes of play. The Blazers then extended their lead to 51-42 in the second quarter with
a jumper by Andre Miller. However, San Antonio responded with seven points in two minutes from George Hill to close the quarter off strongly.
San Antonio Trailed 58-51 at the half time break. The Blazers shot 52 percent from the floor but turned the ball over countless times in the third to allow the Spurs to take advantage. San Antonio converted the 15 turnovers by Portland into 23 fast-break
points.
Andre Miller racked up 26 points on the night, and came up big in the last quarter, as he poured in 11 points to lead the Portland charge. Wesley Matthews kept his composure and buried some big-time free throws to aid Miller with the comeback. He went 7-of-8
from the free-throw stripe in the last five minutes.
Wesley Matthews had 19 points in the game for the Trail Blazers, followed by Gerald Wallace with 14. Nicolas Batum recorded a double-double with 10 points 13 boards.
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