Trail Blazers at Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs have put together their two best performances of the playoffs in back-to-back games to win one series and set the tone for the next. The Spurs will attempt to keep up that pace and grab a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals when they host the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2 on Thursday. Tony Parker dominated the point guard matchup over Damian Lillard in Game 1 with 33 points and nine assists.
The Spurs controlled the game from wire-to-wire in the opener, holding the Trail Blazers to 5-of-23 shooting in the first quarter and pushing the lead out to 26 points by the half in the easy 116-92 triumph. Lillard managed only four points in the first half and went 6-of-15 from the field en route to 17 in the contest while Parker got into the lane at will. “That’s a championship team,” Lillard told reporters. “They came out with a lot more energy than we did. They threw the first punch on both ends of the floor.”
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS: Portland tied for second in the NBA in 3-pointers made with an average of 9.4 in the regular season but did not connect from beyond the arc until the fourth quarter of Game 1 and went 4-of-16 in the contest. “Our offense and execution has to be better,” coach Terry Stotts told reporters. “Obviously we need to shoot the ball a little bit better. The three ball is very important to us. It’s important to our game.” Lillard made at least two 3-pointers in each of the six games in the first round but went 0-for-1 from beyond the arc against the Spurs while fellow marksman Wesley Matthews was 0-for-3.
ABOUT THE SPURS: San Antonio crushed the Dallas Mavericks 119-96 in Game 7 and felt the strong finish to the first-round series played a role in its start to the semifinals. “I think team-wise we played our best game in Game 7,” Parker told reporters. “I think (Tuesday) we did a lot of the same things. I think defensively it was one of our best games because Portland has a lot of shooters.” The Spurs held the Trail Blazers to 37.8 percent shooting in the contest while leading by as much as 29 points in the third quarter and at least 20 throughout the fourth.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. San Antonio reserve G Marco Belinelli (19 points) outscored the Portland bench (18) by himself as the Spurs bench put up 50 points in Game 1.
2. Trail Blazers F LaMarcus Aldridge started slow but finished with 32 points and 14 rebounds on Tuesday.
3. Portland committed 20 turnovers in Game 1.