http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/f...rs-stun-spurs/
San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker defends against Portland Trail Blazers' LaMarcus Aldridge (12) during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011, in Portland, Ore.
PORTLAND — Two power forwards stepped onto the court before tip-off. One was a two-time regular-season MVP, three-time Finals MVP and four-time NBA champion. The other was the one worth paying to see.
Two teams stepped onto the court before tip-off. One owned the best record in the NBA and was on pace to become the second 70-win team in league history. The other was the one that dominated.
LaMarcus Aldridge and the Trail Blazers took predictability Tuesday and pile-drove it through the Rose Garden floor, trouncing the Spurs, 99-86.
It’s probably premature to say that this win marked a turning point for Portland (26-22), but it is impossible to say that the Blazers weren’t turning heads.
Was this the biggest game of the year?
“It has to be,” he said. “This is the best team in the league and I don’t think anybody else could say that because they actually have the record to prove it.”
Aldridge did a little proving himself Tuesday. His career-high 40 points against the league’s best may have been the closing argument for his All-Star case. His dominance over Spurs forward Tim Duncan may have been the latest testimony suggesting he is among the NBA’s power-forward elite.
Aldridge received a standing ovation from the home crowd when he checked out with 1:03 remaining in the game, but the most poignant gesture may have came from the man who was most vehemently rooting against him — Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
“Pop shook my hand after the game,” said Aldridge, who scored 16 points in the first quarter, went 16 for 23 from the field and tallied 11 rebounds. “He’s never shaken my hand before, so I’ll take that as a good sign.”
The Blazers outscored the Spurs 28-15 in the fourth quarter and led by as many as 15 points. But there was little au e early on.
San Antonio (40-8) nabbed three offensive rebounds on the opening possession and jumped out to an 11-4 lead. It took a five-point advantage into halftime, and then the Blazers exploded.
Lost amid Aldridge’s prowess was Portland guard Wesley Matthews, who scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half.
Hidden behind Aldridge’s supremacy was Andre Miller, who posted 18 points and nine assists.
Buried beneath Aldridge’s masterpiece was the fact that Portland shot 50.7 percent from the field, 87.5 percent from the free-throw line and committed just 10 turnovers.
But Aldridge, quite simply, had a monopoly on the spotlight Tuesday.
He mixed and matched jump shots and post moves throughout the game. He hit 8 of his 9 free throws and tossed in three steals for good measure.
Perhaps the game’s definitive play came midway through the fourth quarter, when after the Blazers missed three consecutive 3-pointers, Aldridge scooped up the offensive rebound, laid it in, and put his team up by four.
“He had a decent game, didn’t he?” said Popovich, who will coach the Western Conference All Star team later this month. “I think we held him to 40, or 35. ... I stopped counting it after a while. I don’t know what it was. Obviously he had a great game.”
The Blazers have struggled in the fourth quarter throughout the season, particularly against the league’s better teams. And when Spurs guard Manu Ginobili tied the game on a pull-up 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter, it appeared that Portland fans might be seeing more of the same.
Nope. Not this time. Not even close.
“Constant reminders to play and make plays. I said that definitely every time out,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “I thought tonight we played San Antonio, we weren’t watching like we did in the Boston game. It just showed that it can happen.”
Tuesday marked the second time this season the Blazers have beaten a team that currently has 30 wins, the first coming via a victory over the Magic in early December.
But Portland can’t savor this too long considering it plays six of its next seven games on the road, including the Nuggets in Denver tonight.
Ginobili led the Spurs with 17 points, Duncan added 15, and center DeJuan Blair pitched in 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Blazers center Chris Johnson, who was called up from the Developmental League last week, scored the first two points of his NBA career with two free throws.
The blind squirrel will find a nut occasionally. When a good player has a career night you are in trouble.
On top of that -
SA's two best players (Manu and Parker) had wretched shooting percentages.
Spurs could not shoot from the field nor at the line (not many free throw taken either).
34 points in the second half won't cut it.
A lousy game for SA. Blazers are now within 14 games of SA with 34 to go. Congrats Tlong.
Somewhere Raptor fans are sobbing...
We dumped this game to help keep the Suns out of the playoffs.
He pissed in our Cheerios and there's nothing we can do about it. At least he's a Longhorn.
Maybe Aldridge will live up to his contract after all.
Not cool, guys.We dumped this game to help keep the Suns out of the playoffs.
Wow, I was just thinking of you...
The Suns are going to have to play stellar ball from here on out if they want to make the playoffs. And even if we do, I'm not looking forward to a rematch against the pissed-off, recently-swept Spurs.
And the Suns are much worse, so...
Tim looked like crap.
I know he's sandbagging, but when we need him to be that superstar and man up against another star big.......give a little bit Tim..............please.
cool.
Yeah...Amare always gave us fits...we're so glad he's in the East now.
Kudos to Aldridge and the Blazers... keep it up.... if you can!
Next night, Aldridge couldn't break 20 pts while losing to Nuggs
Tim was limping big time on Monday. Blair is too damn short for consistent double double play and Tim and Antonio are too long in the tooth to give us great games on a nightly basis and Pop obviously doesn't like Splitter and Bonner is a shooting guard when he plays. To get a trophy this season we need one more athletic big.
Blair looked pretty damn good to me in the 1st half, he was cleaning up boards and putting em in on putbacks. And then Pop proceeded to reward him by benching his ass for most of the 2nd half....
We have a pretty good lineup for the style we are playing now for the regular season. I am a little bit concerned going against these good teams that start a couple of young and/or athletic bigs. Tim is not the same Tim we've grown accustomed to anymore and Blair and Antonio are too little for 7 game series against teams like LA and Boston. Hopefully Pop can get us to come around defensively by playoff time since there is not anyone on the screen we can trade for to give us one more big that can help us when everyone sloys it down in the playoffs. Tiago seems to be another Ian needing lots of work. Not much help this year though.
Since when did Spurs fans start claiming Dice was undersized?
Hey if Dice can give us 25 minutes a night in the paint and hold these other bigs to normal numbers and not the career nights they are having against him, Blair and Tim then I'm all for it. Right now we are set up for a 3 point shooting team and/or somewhat of a run and gun team. This style has not been good for teams to go all the way. Even the old Showtime Lakers had bigs like Kareem to handle the paint.
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