Leonard's 33 lead Spurs past Trail Blazers
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points to lead the short-handed San Antonio Spurs to a 110-90 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night at Moda Center.
Patty Mills came off the bench to add 23 points and LaMarcus Aldridge collected 18 points, 14 rebounds and six assists for the Spurs (24-6), who won for the sixth time in seven games.
CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard each scored 16 points for the Trail Blazers (13-19), who lost their fifth straight game and for the ninth time in the last 10 outings.
San Antonio was without veterans Pau Gasol, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who were given the night off for rest.
The Spurs shot .500 from the field, .600 from 3-point range and .952 from the free-throw line. They outrebounded the Blazers 45-33 and forced 17 turnovers that resulted in 18 points.
Kawhi Leonard scored 14 points and Mills came off the bench for 11 to stake San Antonio to a 57-45 halftime lead. The Spurs were 7 of 10 from 3-point range and 12 of 12 from the line through the break. Nine Portland turnovers resulted in 13 Spurs points.
The Spurs, knocking down 10 of their first 15 shots from the field of the third quarter, cranked the lead up to 85-66, the last seven points coming from Mills. San Antonio settled for an 87-72 bulge heading into the third quarter. Portland never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
The score was tied 27-27 after one quarter. San Antonio outscored Portland 21-8 to start the second quarter to forge a 48-35 lead. The Spurs took a 12-point advantage into intermission.
NOTES: San Antonio is resting C Pau Gasol, G Tony Parker and G Manu Ginobili. "You look at the schedule and the age of the guys," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I want everybody to be ready for the stretch (of the season). We're in four games in 5 1/2 days right now. We go from Houston to L.A. to Portland back to San Antonio. The guys who have a little bit of age on them, there's no way they can do that. It's my job to make sure they can manage it correctly." ... The Spurs are starting rookie G Dejounte Murray and F Dewayne Dedmon. ... Popovich's grade for his Spurs at this point of the season: "B-minus or C-plus. We have seven or eight new guys. It's a work in progress. Pretty inconsistent. We haven't played a lot of 48-minute games. We have a long way to go. Everybody is willing. It's a hard-working crew. But we just have so many different combinations with all the new guys, it's taken time to put that together." ... Portland F Evan Turner (ankle) will miss his third straight game.