Trail Blazers at Spurs
The Portland Trail Blazers avoided elimination for at least one more game and will attempt to keep their season alive when they visit the San Antonio Spurs for Game 5 on Wednesday. The Trail Blazers made some changes to their rotation in Game 4 to catch the Spurs off-guard and dominated the final 17 minutes to pull within 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. Portland is attempting to become the first NBA team in history to recover from a 3-0 deficit and win the series.
San Antonio let it slip away and barely attempted to recover on Monday, sitting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker for the entire fourth quarter in the 103-92 loss. The Trail Blazers have been missing something off the bench with Mo Williams (groin) down, but Will Barton stepped up with 17 points in 30 minutes in Game 4 while Thomas Robinson added nine points and five rebounds. “We did what we needed to do and we’re looking forward to going to San Antonio and keep competing and keep playing our basketball,” Portland coach Terry Stotts told reporters.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TNT
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS: Portland held a lead for just 33 seconds total in the first three games of the series but took control at the end of the first quarter and held off the Spurs the rest of the way in Game 4. The big run came at the end of the third quarter, when Nicolas Batum converted a four-point play and buried another 3-pointer to spark a 20-7 surge. “We just played with a lot more energy,” guard Damian Lillard told reporters. “Usually we come out and we’re fighting from behind. We’ve had good third quarters every game, but (Monday) we had a lead going into the third, so it was a little bit different.” Batum finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists and is embracing the challenge of digging out of the 3-0 hole. “Like we said, why not us? It’s never been done before,” Batum said.
ABOUT THE SPURS: San Antonio is not worried about the Trail Blazers coming back and is ready to close things out in Game 5. “We have to treat Wednesday’s game like it’s a Game 7,” Parker told reporters. “It’s a big game for us. We worked hard the first three games to be in that position.” Parker outplayed Lillard in each of the first three games but was held to a series lows of 14 points and one assist in Game 4 before sitting out the final 14 minutes-plus. Portland tried out Batum defensively against Parker and kept the speedy guard from getting into the lane at will as he had in the first three games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Lillard is the first player in NBA history to record 25 or more 3-pointers and 50 or more free throws in his first 10 postseason games.
2. Spurs G Danny Green is 4-of-18 from 3-point range in the series.
3. Portland is the last team to force a Game 7 after being down 3-0 in a series, falling to the Dallas Mavericks 4-3 in the first round in 2003.