The San Antonio Spurs(26-28) had a golden opportunity to gain some ground in the Western Conference standings on Friday night against the Portland Trailblazers(32-23). Portland was without their leading scorer Damian Lillard(hamstring). However, behind C.J. McCollum’s 29 points and 22 from Norman Powell, the Blazers defeated San Antonio 107-106 at AT&T Center.
DeMar DeRozan led the Spurs with 26 points, and Dejounte Murray became the fourth Spur to record three triple-doubles in a single season when he had 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists on Friday night.
San Antonio led most of the game and led by as much as 16 points in the third quarter, but Portland closed the third quarter on a 24-8 run to close the gap to two entering the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was a back and forth affair, which included seven lead changes, and the Blazers went up for good when Norman Powell made a driving layup with 22.8 seconds left. San Antonio had one final chance to take the lead, but DeRozan would miss a baseline jumper, and Jakob Poeltl would miss the follow at the buzzer.
DeRozan had a few words with the officials after the game. According to DeRozan, Poeltl was fouled on his shot at the end of the game.
‘It looked liked when Jakob(Poeltl) got the rebound, he got hit,” DeRozan said. “It looked like a foul to me.”
Foul or no foul, the Spurs lose another home game and continue to struggle at AT&T Center, where they are now 12-18. Maybe some good news for the Spurs as they go on the road to battle the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. San Antonio is 14-10 away from home, but beating Suns, who have the second-best record in basketball, won’t be easy.
San Antonio, who has lost seven of their last nine games, also continues to dip in the standings. They are now the 10th seed in the Western Conference and are one game behind the Warriors for the 9th seed. The Spurs are two games up on the 11th-seeded New Orleans Pelicans, so it’s starting to get a little tight for the Spurs in terms of their playoff spot. Teams 7-10 will be compete in a play-in tournament
