An irresistible force meets an immovable object Friday when the Portland Trail Blazers arrive in River City to take on the San Antonio Spurs.
Portland, which is opening up a six-game road trip tonight, has won eight of nine over the Spurs, a perennial contender that is an NBA-best 7-0 at home this season. The Blazers' record against San Antonio over the past three seasons is easily the best in the NBA.
Portland comes in on a bit of a down note, however, after losing its first game as the host this season, a 107-104 setback to Orlando on Wednesday. Jamal Crawford ended with 24 points and five assists for Portland in that one. LaMarcus Aldridge added 23 points and eight boards and Gerald Wallace had 15 points and five assists.
"When you play so hard like that, there are good things in your team's future," said Crawford. "We didn't throw in the towel at all. We continued to fight and continued to play hard."
Portland, which is 1-2 as the visitor on the year, will also face Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Toronto and Detroit before returning to Rip City.
San Antonio continues its Jekyll and Hyde type season, staying perfect at the At&T Center on Wednesday with a 101-95 overtime victory over South Texas rival Houston. Conversely the Spurs are 0-4 on the road.
Richard Jefferson's three-pointer with over a minute left in the extra frame lifted San Antonio against the Rockets. Jefferson ended with a trio of three- pointers in the game for a total of nine points for the Spurs, who improved to 7-0 at home for the first time since the 2007-08 club, which began 13-0.
Tony Parker added a season-high 28 points, eight assists and five rebounds for San Antonio, which continues to play without star swingman Manu Ginobili (broken hand) and snapped a two-game skid.
"I'm happy with that one. It was a tough one," Parker said. "Houston is a very physical team and they played great tonight. Everybody had to play great and it was a great win for us. We needed it."
Rookie Kawhi Leonard got his first start and scored 11 points with eight rebounds. Tim Duncan, meanwhile, donated 17 points, moving past Larry Bird for 27th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. The big man also had 11 boards, five assists and three steals.
"I'm still a big part of this team and I want to be a leader of this team," Duncan said. "I want to be a leader on and off the floor. I want Pop [coach Gregg Popovich] and the rest of the guys to count on me to do that and I'm ready for that."
Duncan will have an opportunity to climb another spot tonight, as the former MVP sits just 15 points behind Gary Payton's total of 21,813.
San Antonio will finish a three-game homestand against Phoenix on Sunday.
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