Written by:
darbpunk
/ avg. rating: 5.0
Brandon Roy walked out of the shower after
what he called the biggest road win of his NBA career and proclaimed,
"What's our road record? We're road warriors!''
Um, Brandon, it's 19-21 - but for the young Portland Trail Blazers, they can brag about this one.
Roy
scored 26 points and Portland won in San Antonio for the first time
since 2002 with a 95-83 victory, moving the Trail Blazers into a
three-way tie with the Spurs and Houston for the third-best record in
the West with just four games remaining.
Stuck among the bottom
seeds in the playoff hunt for weeks, Portland has won six of seven to
emerge as a serious contender for home-court advantage in the first
round of the playoffs - where the Trail Blazers haven't been since 2003.
"We
won at one of the toughest teams in the league, in April, and they
needed a win,'' Roy said. "So we got to use it if we want it to be
something special.''
The slumping Spurs, who have lost four of
six, blew a 19-point lead in the first half and surrendered the season
series to Portland 3-1. Roger Mason had 18 points as the Spurs lost for
the first time since learning this week that Manu Ginobili will miss
the playoffs because of an ankle injury.
Tim Duncan, bothered by
aching knees since the All-Star break, scored four points in 24 minutes
in his first back-to-back stint in nearly six weeks. He was put back in
the game with 7:40 left with the Spurs down by seven, then was pulled
after he appeared stiff while awkwardly reaching for a loose ball
seconds later.
The Spurs had been holding out Duncan in
back-to-backs since March, trying to keep the two-time MVP fresh for a
postseason that figures to be even tougher now without Ginobili.
"I
didn't like the way he (Duncan) moved on a loose ball, so I just pulled
him,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He went tonight because he
felt good. When I thought he didn't, that's when I decided to pull
him.''
Tony Parker, who scored 17 points, acknowledged the Spurs
were up against a team "younger and more athletic than us.'' Parker
said Popovich didn't want Duncan to play in the back-to-back at first.
"People
don't realize Timmy's been playing on one leg for like a month and a
half,'' Parker said. "We can't pay attention to that. We just have to
take a challenge and play harder. In the playoff there is no
back-to-back, so that's good for us.''
The Spurs are in danger of
letting home-court advantage in the first round slip away after holding
the second-best record in the West for most of the season. San Antonio,
which has another big West showdown Friday against Utah.
Portland,
meanwhile, is surging. One night after struggling early at Memphis, the
Trail Blazers again came out flat in falling behind by 19 before
storming back to wrap up a four-game road swing at 3-1. They also won
in San Antonio for the first time in 12 tries.
LaMarcus Aldridge
scored 20 points, and Joe Przybilla had 17 rebounds. It was the 50th
win for Portland, a mark the Trail Blazers haven't reached since
2002-03.
"Getting 50 games, that's a big goal,'' said Greg Oden,
who had eight points and eight rebounds. "We just want to keep on
winning, trying to get home court for the playoffs.'' The Trail Blazers
did it by slowly erasing a huge first-quarter deficit that had the game
taking on the early look of a blowout.
Hitting 70 percent of its
first-quarter shots, San Antonio jumped to a 39-20 lead before the
Trail Blazers began slowly inching back. Portland ended the first half
on a 25-8 run, punctuated by Steve Blake's half-court heave at the
buzzer that swished in and closed cut it to 49-47.
A free throw
by Roy with 3:35 left in the third gave Portland its first lead since
the opening minutes. Aldridge hit a running finger roll the next time
down to push the lead to three and led the rest of the way.
"It looked like we wanted this game,'' Portland coach Nate McMillan said. "We played hard and we got it.''
Notes:
The Spurs are 18-16 without Ginobili in the lineup this season and
32-12 with him. ... The Spurs promoted G Marcus Williams from their
D-League team in Austin and waived Malik Hairston before the game.
Williams, a former Arizona standout, averaged a triple-double in three
games last week for the Toros. ... Former Spurs great David Robinson
watched his first game courtside since being elected to the Hall of
Fame this week. The crowd treated him to an extended standing ovation.