Blazers hang on down stretch to edge Spurs

[555666]

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Humiliated in their opener by the Lakers, the Portland Trail Blazers lived up to expectations that have been heaped on the young team by finally beating the San Antonio Spurs.

But just barely.

Michael Finley's shot at the buzzer for San Antonio rimmed out and the Blazers edged the Spurs 100-99 Friday night.

The victory snapped a 12-game San Antonio winning streak in the series between the two teams. Nate McMillan had never defeated the Spurs as Portland's coach.

"When he missed the shot, I couldn't believe it. I was thinking overtime or something because it just didn't feel right. But I looked up and realized that we had finally beaten the Spurs," guard Brandon Roy said.

With the score tied at 93, Roy hit a pull-up jumper for the Blazers, but San Antonio's Roger Mason answered with a 22-footer to tie it again.

After Rudy Fernandez missed one of two free throws, Tony Parker's reverse layup with 1:29 left gave the Spurs their first lead of the second half at 97-96.

Roy made a pair of foul shots to put the Blazers in front before LaMarcus Aldridge hit a shot from the top of the key to make it 100-97 with 35 seconds left.

After Parker hit a pair of free throws, Travis Outlaw's bank shot for the Blazers missed. Mason took the ball to the other end and had a clear path until a pair of Blazers bore down on him -- and he passed off to Finley, who missed as the buzzer sounded.

"I had a really good opportunity to knock it down," Finley said. " I had a great look at it. But I rushed it a little bit and it didn't feel good when it left my hands."

Roy had 26 points and seven assists for the Blazers, who were without 7-foot center Greg Oden, who sprained his right foot in the season opener against the Lakers.

Tim Duncan led the Spurs with 27 points and 10 rebounds, while Parker had 24 points and 11 assists.

The Spurs lost their home opener, 103-93 to the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. San Antonio has had to adjust to playing without Manu Ginobili, who had offseason ankle surgery and wasn't expected to return until December.

The Spurs were also without forward Fabricio Oberto for the second game because of treatment for an irregular heartbeat.

Portland went up 38-33 in the first half on Nicolas Batum's 3-pointer, but the Blazers could not extend the lead until the final minute, when Roy's layup made it 48-42.

Roy's desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer was good and Portland took a 51-45 lead into the break.

Roy hit a 21-foot jumper and the Blazers entered the final quarter with a 78-70 lead. The Blazers led by 12 points.

While Oden's injury and the season-opening 96-76 loss to the Lakers diminished some of the hype surrounding the young Blazers, one fan in the sellout crowd lofted a sign that read "I never stopped believing."

Channing Frye hit a jumper to give the Blazers their biggest lead at 82-72, then followed with a dunk. But Ime Udoka and Mason each answered with a 3-pointer, and Duncan made a layup to narrow it to 84-80 for the Spurs.

Finley's 3-pointer with just more than four minutes left pulled the Spurs to 89-88. San Antonio went on to tie it at 93 on Parker's layup with three minutes left.

Oden, who is expected to be out two to four weeks, had a boot on his foot but did not have a noticeable limp when he arrived at the Rose Garden. He watched the game in street clothes from the bench.

Portland played a good game until they nearly let San Antonio steal the game. I still can't believe Finley missed that shot, he had a good look at it. I thought Poppovich would call a time-out to draw up a play, there were like 10 seconds left to play... Not saying it was a bad decision, but I thought he would call time-out.

 

[.GR]

Roy and Aldridge played great.
Really liked what I saw out of Batum also.