Trail Blazers-Spurs Preview

By ALAN FERGUSON
Posted Apr 22 2012 11:39PM

The San Antonio Spurs have said for weeks that earning the No. 1 seed for the Western Conference playoffs wasn't their main concern.

The Spurs, though, can wrap up that top spot by beating the short-handed Portland Trail Blazers, losers of a season-high five in a row, on Monday night.

San Antonio (47-16) has been focusing on the playoffs for much of this month as coach Gregg Popovich has given his starters fewer minutes. Tim Duncan sat out Sunday's home game against Cleveland, but that didn't prevent the Spurs from cruising to a seventh consecutive win, 114-98.

Manu Ginobili had a team-high 20 points off the bench and was one of 10 San Antonio players who were on the court for at least 18 minutes.

"Any time we get a chance to rest Tim (Duncan) and Tony (Parker) doesn't play that much, and we get away with a win, that's always a plus," said Stephen Jackson, whose 17 points were his most of his current stint with the Spurs. "As long as we take care of business and continue to build and not take steps back, we'll be all right."

Coupled with Oklahoma City's double-overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, the win put the Spurs 1 1/2 games ahead of the Thunder atop the West. They also own the tiebreaker over Oklahoma City thanks to a 2-1 record in the season series. San Antonio is one-half game behind of Chicago for the best record in the NBA.

"We want to clinch as soon as possible," Ginobili said. "(Monday) we have a good game here, so we're going to trying to play our best and keep improving. We have room for improvement, where we can pick up the aggressiveness. We want to try and set the pace for the playoffs."

The Spurs will seek that clinching win against a team that dealt them their most lopsided defeat in nearly 15 years. Some of the key Blazers players from that 137-97 victory on Feb. 21, though, might not be available for this contest.

LaMarcus Aldridge, who led Portland with 21 points in the Feb. 21 rout, is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his right hip. Nicolas Batum missed Saturday's 93-89 loss at Memphis with tendinitis in his left quad, and Joel Przybilla and Raymond Felton were also out again.

Despite only dressing nine players, Portland (28-36) nearly completed a rally from a late 12-point deficit before Wesley Matthews' 3-point attempt with five seconds left was blocked by the Grizzlies' Rudy Gay.

J.J. Hickson had a team-best 23 points for the Blazers, while Jamal Crawford chipped in 21.

"We are missing a lot of key guys from our team, but guys are out there getting better. The young guys are getting better," guard Jamal Crawford said.

The Spurs' 99-83 win in Portland's last visit to the AT&T Center on Jan. 13 snapped a three-game overall skid in the series. Tony Parker had 12 of his team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter of that victory.

Portland hasn't suffered six straight losses since Nov. 20-Dec. 3, 2010.

Spurs lock up West's top seed with rout of Blazers

By PAUL J. WEBER
Posted Apr 24 2012 12:01AM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) The San Antonio Spurs have locked up another No. 1 seed.

Now comes trying not to blow it again.

Tim Duncan scored 18 points in what might have been his last game before the playoffs start this weekend, now that the Spurs have clinched the top spot in the Western Conference after beating the Portland Trail Blazers 124-89 on Monday night.

The Spurs won their eighth straight but won't care about the streak or little else with two now-meaningless regular season games left. All that will matter is their Big Three reaching the postseason fully healthy for the first time since 2008, and that likely means an easy week ahead for Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

"It's great to be in that situation, but as we showed last year, someone can sneak up and take you out easily," Duncan said. "Hopefully we get a much better effort this year and do a much better job this year, and we stay away from those injuries."

After cruising to the No. 1 spot last season against all expectations, the Spurs bowed out as just the fourth top seed to lose in the first round. This latest one - their sixth top seed in the Duncan era - is somehow even more surprising. Two days before Duncan turns 36, the NBA's standard-bearers beat out the young Oklahoma City Thunder for ultimate home-court advantage.

Wesley Matthews had 24 points for the Trail Blazers, who lost their sixth straight and have one game left in a tumultuous season in which the franchise effectively hit the reset button.

J.J. Hickson had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Portland. Raymond Felton scored 13 points and Jonny Flynn had 10 on a night when the injury-depleted Trail Blazers again only used nine players.

"If we knew we were going into the playoffs, of course we're going to keep playing," Matthews said. "But now, short-handed, nine players - I'm never going to say I'm looking forward to not playing basketball. But the season's winding down for us and we got one more left."

San Antonio could also know its first-round opponent as early as Tuesday. That's when Phoenix plays at Utah in a game that could decide the No. 8 seed.

Danny Green also had 18 points for the Spurs, while Parker scored 13 and Stephen Jackson and Gary Neal both added 12.

Neal left in the fourth quarter clutching his shoulder after colliding with Portland's Kurt Thomas. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said X-rays were negative and called it a stinger.

Duncan wouldn't predict how Popovich would set his lineup the rest of the week to prevent any other scares.

"Obviously, we don't want to do to go into a game somebody get hurt from some silly play," Duncan said.

Portland is skidding toward a merciful end of its first season out of the playoffs in four years. Their losing streak is at a season high and interim coach Kaleb Canales - who grew up two hours south in the border city of Laredo - was humiliated in his homecoming.

"It was a great challenge for us coming in, playing a team that had a lot to play for tonight. We're getting thrown into the fire and we just didn't respond on the defensive end of the floor," Canales said.

It was the Trail Blazers' most lopsided defeat since Canales took over in March after Nate McMillan was fired. Before the game Canales, the NBA's first Mexican-American coach, played down the emotion of being home with a caravan of friends and family watching in the stands.

Not to mention working down the bench from the coach who taught him basketball basics as a kid.

Canales is 33. Popovich, when he was an assistant under then-Spurs coach Larry Brown in the late 1980s, would join other Spurs coaches and players on promotional bus tours along the Texas border to drum up interest. Popovich still recalls one of the youngsters at a stop outside a Laredo grocery store.

"I taught him all he knows as far as dribbling skills are concerned in the parking lot at the H-E-B," Popovich said.

Notes: The 35-point win tied for San Antonio's biggest blowout this season. ...Canales said he cold-called Spurs general manager R.C. Buford while trying to get his break in the NBA. Buford had nothing for him, but Canales said he was nice enough to call back.

Notebook: Spurs 124, Trail Blazers 89

Posted Monday April 23, 2012 11:55PM

By Tim Price, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Tim Duncan and Danny Green combined to play 41 minutes and together they scored 36 points to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 124-89 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday at AT&T Center in a game that clinched top seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

San Antonio (48-16) has two games remaining, finishing up on the road at Phoenix (Wednesday) and Golden State (Thursday). But the team will be watching tomorrow night's Phoenix-Utah game, for Utah can clinch the No. 8 seed and face the Spurs in the playoffs with a win.

The Trail Blazers (28-37) continue to hobble in to finish the season. Playing tonight without injured LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Jamal Crawford and Joel Przybilla, Portland has lost six in a row and eight of nine.

QUOTABLE: "It's great to have No. 1 (seeding in the playoffs), but it doesn't mean anything. It's great to have the homecourt advantage and it's great to be in that situation, but as we showed last year somebody can sneak up and take you out just as easily. We're glad to have it. We will be prepared for our first-round opponent. Hopefully we'll get a much better effort."
-- Duncan.

THE STAT: San Antonio shot 60 percent in the first quarter. But the Spurs did not let up. They shot 36-of-61 from the floor (59 percent) the rest of the way.

TURNING POINT: The Spurs led by as many as 17 during what would turn out to be a 31-18 first quarter, but still the Blazers cut it to single digits when Luke Babbitt hit a 3-pointer 3:15 into the second quarter and made it 37-28. But within the next 1:05, the Spurs got 3-pointers from Green and Gary Neal and finished the half by outscoring Portland 26-13. San Antonio led by 22 at halftime.

QUOTABLE II: "We gave up three 30-point quarters. Any time you get 34 assists (the Spurs did), that's a big number. It didn't look pretty and we didn't pay attention to detail, which led to (San Antonio hitting) 12 3s."
-- Portland interim head coach Kaleb Canales.

HOT: Green had a good game going last night against Cleveland by hitting 5-of-8, including 3-5 from the 3-point line, but played only 18 minutes because of an inadvertent poke in the eye. He still only played 14 1/2 minutes against Portland, but went 6-of-6 from the floor with four 3-pointers. For his past five games he's gone 22-of-32 from the floor including 13-17 (76.5 percent) from the 3-point line.

NOT: Wes Matthews was 3-of-13 in the first half and ended up scoring 24 points on 24 shots. But his starting backcourt mate Raymond Felton started cold, going 3-of-13 before finishing 5-of-16. Felton, a 40-percent shooter on the season, was playing in his first game since missing the previous three because of a sore Achilles' and a family matter.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Duncan had 18 points and eight rebounds, but it's anyone's guess how much he will play in the remaining two games.

INSIDE THE ARENA: Canales grew up in Laredo, about a two-hour drive down IH-35 from San Antonio, and he had about 300 tickets for his family, including his parents, and friends for tonight's game. ... The Spurs, on "fan appreciation night," recognized 104-year-old Theresa Sanchez, who was wearing a team shirt in the arena tonight.

GOOD MOVE: The insertion of Boris Diaw into the starting lineup actually takes some pressure to create offensively off Tony Parker. The Spurs had a season-high in assists, yet Parker had only six. Diaw also had six.

BAD MOVE: With the clock ticking down the final seconds of the first half, Neal drove up the floor and eyed a 3-pointer from four of five feet beyond the line. Felton threw his hands in the air, but he also jumped toward Neal and was called for the foul on the 3-point attempt with .5 left on the clock. Neal made all three foul shots.

ROOKIE WATCH: Nolan Smith played 34 minutes for a Blazers team missing four key contributors tonight. He hit 5-of-12 shots, scored 10 points and had six rebounds and five assists. ... Kawhi Leonard played almost 20 minutes but went 1-of-4 from the floor and scored only two points.

NOTABLE: It's the second-straight season the Spurs have won the top-seed in the West. But everyone knows what happened with that distinction last year, a first-round loss in the playoffs to Memphis. ... Since the 1997-98 season San Antonio has been a conference top-seed an NBA-best six times (the Lakers have done it four times and Detroit three). ... Neal left the floor late in the third quarter when he collided with Kurt Thomas on a screen. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said after the game it appeared Neal has a stinger because X-rays were negative.

UP NEXT: For the Trail Blazers, Thursday @ Utah. For the Spurs, Wednesday @ Phoenix, Thursday @ Golden State.

• Trail Blazers: Williams, Williams
• Spurs: Joseph

• Trail Blazers: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #24 Mike Callahan, #42 Eric Lewis, #34 Kevin Cutler
• Attendance: 18581
• Duration: 1:57