The Portland Trail Blazers overcame a 16-point deficit in the second half and got 29 points from CJ McCollum to win 107-106 at San Antonio on Friday night while playing without Damian Lillard.
The Spurs took a 106-105 lead with 27 seconds left when Portland forward Robert Covington stole the ball from Lonnie Walker IV in the backfield. Covington went down left from the court and then went to a backlog of Norman Powell, who went up for a layup but touched the ball while it was on edge by Spurs center Jakob Poeltl. The shot went in anyway and Poeltl was asked for goal kick, which gave the Blazers a 107-106 lead with 22.8 seconds left.
On the Spurs’ final possession, they received three strokes. First, DeMar DeRozan shot a basic jumper who missed, but the setback batted until the ball landed in the hands of Rudy Gay, who missed a deep try. The ball bounces high from the edge and is batted by Poeltl to the basket, but misses the buzzer.
While Lillard nursed a thigh muscle injury – his status for Sunday in Charlotte is unknown – the Blazers needed others to pick up the score. Powell scored 22.
Simons comes off the bench to score 16.
“If you get such a win on the road and you come from 16, I think you have to make a lot of contributions from different people,” said Portland coach Terry Stotts.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The Blazers in sixth place (32-23) picked up some field on fourth-place Los Angeles Lakers (34-22) who led them by 1 1/2 game in the West Conference points ladder. Fourth place Denver (36-20) won 129-99 in Houston.
“I think for us it’s just about taking care of business with 17 games left,” McCollum said. “Every game is going to be important to us. Clearly, we do not want to play in the play-in-game, so we must continue to try to separate from the seven seeds. ”
Seventh place is Dallas (30-24 that kicks in Friday).
IT WAS OVER then
The Spurs started early to rise 27-17 with 3:57 left in the first quarter. But the Blazers stepped back and scored the final five points of the quarter. McCollum hit a try and then Carmelo Anthony made an 18-foot jumper at the buzzer to decorate the Spurs’ lead to 31-28 at the end of the first quarter.
The Blazers scored 12 points from McCollum in the quarter and shot 46.5%. However, the Spurs shot 58.3%.
Simons hit a try and then Anthony made a leap to level the game at 33-33. A while later, Simons makes three more to give the Blazers a 38-35 lead.
The Spurs dominated the last few minutes of the quarter and led 57-48 at halftime.
The Spurs rose 66-50 early in the third quarter and led 77:52 with 4:56 left. It looked like San Antonio would run away with the game, but the Blazers prevented that by ending the quarter with a 21-8 stretch that cut their deficit to 85-83 in the fourth quarter.
Stotts credited the game to Simons, Anthony and Enes Kanter for pulling the team out of a big hole in the third quarter.
“They got us back in the game with a little bit of everything,” Stotts said. ‘With their shots, with their rebounds. We just started playing much better in the third quarter. ”
McCollum, who scored 14 points in the first half, had nine in the third quarter. Powell added seven.
The Blazers managed to take an 87-85 lead, but the Spurs came back and took a 92-87 lead. This led to Powell scoring a try, and then Covington also scored a try and so did the Blazers lead 93-92.
Simons stole the ball and went off the field for a powerful dunk that made the score 95-95 with 5:12 left in the game.
Jusuf Nurkic, after a defensive stop, managed a ride to the hoop to give the Blazers a 97-95 lead, but the Spurs responded with two baskets from DeRozan to take a 99-97 lead. Portland called a timeout with 3:34 on the clock.
The game sat at 101-101 when Derrick White hit a try with just over two minutes left to make the score 104-101.
This led to the wild last seconds.
“Getting a win without Dame was very important,” Stotts said. “The way we 16 came back was important. It was important to find a way to complete a match. I think there were a lot of positive things from this game. ”
PREPARED AND POSTPONED
Powell made 8 of 17 shots to score 22 points and also had four assistants.
McCollum made 13 of 26 shots and led the team in the score and with six assists. Kanter had 10 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes.
Simons made 5 of 10 shots (4 of 8 on tries) within 30 minutes.
“He made big shots, fired in time to give us juice,” Powell said of Simons.
Dejounte Murray had a triple-double for the Spurs with 13 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds.
Portland’s bench outscored San Antonio’s 39-29.
DRAWN UP AND FIZZLED
Derrick Jones Jr. started in place of Lillard but struggled, he missed both of his shot attempts and ended up without points in 19 minutes.
Patty Mills is 0 of 6 from the field for the Spurs and finishes with zero points and three assistants.
The Spurs scored 62 points in the paint, compared to 42 for the Blazers.
THE FOLLOWING (Blazers schedule)
The Blazers continue their journey at 4pm Sunday in Charlotte (27-28). The Hornets lost 130-115 to the Brooklyn Nets (38-18).
– Aaron Fentress | [email protected] | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
Subscribe to Oregonian / OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories