San Antonio Spurs thump Portland Trail Blazers, clinch top seed in West – NBA Recap
The San Antonio Spurs recorded yet another victory by a margin of 20 plus points, this time out doing themselves to hand Portland a 124-89 hammering. This is the Spurs 8th win in a row and they have locked the top seed
in the Western Conference after the win, the 4th time they have done so in the last14 seasons.
The Trail Blazers were playing with an injury depleted roster as LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Jamal Crawford and Joel Przybilla did not play. In their absence, Portland was no match for the charging Spurs, who did not trail
at any point in the game and led by as many as 37 points.
Tim Duncan had 18 points and 8 rebounds, going 8 of 13 from the field. Danny Green had a perfect night, going 6 of 6 from the field, 4 of 4 from the distance and 2 of 2 from the foul line to score 18 points. Wesley Matthews had
24 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals to lead the Trail Blazers.
"It's great to have No. 1 (seeding in the playoffs), but it doesn't mean anything. It's great to have the home court advantage and it's great to be in that situation, but as we showed last year somebody can sneak up and take you
out just as easily. We're glad to have it. We will be prepared for our first-round opponent. Hopefully we'll get a much better effort” said Tim Duncan after the game.
The Spurs had three 30 plus point quarters and one in which they scored 28. They outscored Portland in each quarter, adding to their lead as they went along. The Spurs set the tone early in the game with an 8-0 run on the back
of two three’s from Green. Two minutes later a 17-4 burst followed and the game was pretty much decided by the end of the first quarter at 31-18. San Antonio launched one attack after another and never allowed the Trail Blazers a sniff.
Tony Parker had 13 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists for the night. The Spurs bench was big for the night, with James Anderson, Gary Neal and Stephen Jackson combining to score 35 points off the bench.
J.J Hickson had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Portland, but was 5 of 15 from the field. Raymond Felton had 13 points and 7 assists, but he too struggled from the field, going 5 of 16 for the game. Nolan Smith added 10 points and
dished 5 assists coming off the bench for Portland.
The Spurs shot an amazing 59.3% once again, and were a remarkable 12 of 22 from beyond the arc. They managed 10 more free throws attempts than Portland at 21, and scored on 16 of those.
The Trail Blazers were dominated on almost every segment of the game. The Spurs outnumbered them 47-38 in rebounds, 34-19 in assists and 8-5 in blocks. Kawhi Leonard struggled to find his footing in the game for the Spurs, managing
only 2 points and 2 rebounds from 1 of 4 shooting in nearly 20 playing minutes.
San Antonio have two games remaining, both on the road against Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors. It will be interesting to see if the Spurs can finish off the season with consecutive victories.
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