Portland Trail Blazers thrash San Antonio Spurs 137 – 97; end 11 game winning streak – NBA Recap
Portland Trail Blazers destroyed the San Antonio Spurs tonight, handing out a 137 – 97 defeat to end their 11-game winning streak, the longest in the current NBA season. The Spurs rested their veteran stars Tony Parker and Tim Duncan for the game, and the
Trail Blazers made them pay with a crushing defeat.
The Blazers led by as much as 48 points in the game and had 7 players in double digits. Among them was star forward LaMarcus Aldridge with 21 points, Nicolas Batum with 19 and Jamal Crawford with 20 while Gerald Wallace had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The terrific team performance was the perfect answer to Trail Blazers woes of late, and Aldridge was certainly pleased with the effort.
"We needed to get back on track, we needed to bounce back from that loss that we had and we did it tonight," Aldridge said.
The Spurs were missing Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter as well, but coach Gregg Popovich defended his decision to rest Tony Parker and Duncan anyway.
"It would be great if I would still be able to play Manu and Tiago tonight and still rest Tony and Tim, but that's not the case," Popovich said. "Those guys are out, but I can't run our guys into the ground when it's time for them to rest based on the schedule
and the time they've been playing.”
"That's what's going to happen if you want to put some money in the bank for later."
The weakened Spurs line-up was led by Kawhi Leonard’s game high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Danny Green added 16 points while Cory Joseph had 13.
The Trail Blazers were hot right from the word go. They launched into a huge 13 – 3 rally early in the first quarter to go up 17 – 8. San Antonio came back with a 7 – 0 burst to take the lead at 20 – 19, but they couldn’t handle Portland afterwards.
The Trail Blazers absolutely caught fire and their 22 – 3 sprint to end the 1st period left the Spurs in tatters, staring at a mammoth 41 – 23 deficit.
San Antonio looked shattered by Portland’s barrage and spent the second fragment trying to get back in the game. They were though toothless in attack and the Trail Blazers picked them off easily, the deficit only increasing as the sides went into halftime
at 66 – 43.
Portland came out of the interval in a menacing mood and a brutal 3rd quarter followed, with the Trail Blazers piling on another 37 points. They had several bursts, including an 11 – 4 early in the period and by the end were in complete control
at 103 – 65.
San Antonio knew there was no coming back, and the fourth quarter was just a formality. Spurs hopes of reducing the margin of defeat though were dashed as Portland outscored them again and the Rose Garden crowd cheered with joy as the home side closed out
a 40 point win.
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