Trail Blazers Get Their Revenge Against the San Antonio Spurs
By Isaac Baker
The Portland Trail Blazers got off to a hot start against the San Antonio Spurs and won 121-116. The Blazers were able to hold off an epic Spurs comeback after Gregg Popovich was ejected.
The Trail Blazers lost to the Spurs 113-110 back on October 28. They got their revenge in this game!
QUARTER 1
The first quarter was the best quarter of basketball I’ve seen the Trail Blazers play so far this season. The entire starting lineup was able to do whatever they wanted to do on offense to start this game. Hassan Whiteside and CJ McCollum both started off scoring eight points a piece, while making all of their shots. CJ also had five assists in this quarter. The Spurs just looked lost and confused defending the Blazers. Portland ends this quarter with a 41-23 lead.
QUARTER 2
The Blazers continue to score all over San Antonio to start the second. The Spurs start to gain momentum about four minutes in the quarter. Patty Mills was the guy for the Spurs that provided scoring on offense and energy on defense. Portland’s offense struggled during this Spurs run and allowed them to get back into this game. At the end of the half, the Blazers had the lead 66-59. CJ McCollum had 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in the half.
QUARTER 3
Gregg Popovich was ejected shortly after the third quarter started. This allowed Tim Duncan to step in as head coach. After Pops got ejected, the Spurs caught fire. San Antonio couldn’t miss a shot and played great defense with a lot of energy. They would carry this fire and go on a 32-11 run to end the quarter with a lead 96-90.
During this quarter, the Blazers were terrible. Portland played sloppy basketball and couldn’t find a good shot. The Spurs just completely outplayed Portland here.
QUARTER 4
San Antonio continued the run into the last quarter. The Spurs were leading the Trail Blazers 101-90 with nine minutes left in the game. Finally, Portland starts to turn things around. The Blazers went on a 20-5 run with two minutes left to tie the game 111-111. After the game was tied, Nassir Little started to crank it up. Little was playing great defense and brought a ton of energy to the team. Nassir had a monstrous dunk that completely killed the Spurs spirits. After that dunk, Whiteside had a big block on DeRozan. During that play, DeRozan also fouled Whiteside in frustration and sent Hassan to the foul line. Whiteside would make both free throws and bring the lead to 116-113. The Spurs failed to score on their next possession and Dame basically sealed the game after at the free-throw line. Blazers win 121-116.
This was a very strange game. The Blazers got off to a huge lead early and looked to blow out the Spurs. Then suddenly, the Blazers couldn’t even buy a basket and the Spurs couldn’t miss a shot. Luckily CJ, Little, and Whiteside played great basketball late to win this one.