THE STORY: The Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs will see a lot of one another the next few days, beginning with Friday’s game in Portland. The two teams square off again Monday in San Antonio with both teams playing a game on Sunday – the Trail Blazers visit Oklahoma City and the Spurs visit Memphis. Portland has defeated San Antonio six of the last seven meetings and had beaten the Spurs five straight times before San Antonio recorded a victory in December. Both teams appear solidly entrenched for the Western Conference playoffs. The Spurs are en route to being the top seed while Portland is in sixth place with 11 games to play.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FSSW, KGW.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (41-30): Portland has won four of five games and trounced the Washington Wizards 111-76 on Tuesday. The Trail Blazers allowed 17 or fewer points in each of the final three quarters, posted a season-best 14 steals and limited Washington to 37.1 percent shooting. Gerald Wallace had 28 points and eight rebounds, Nicolas Batum had 22 points and 12 rebounds and LaMarcus Aldridge scored 22 points. Wallace’s scoring output was his highest in 13 games since being acquired from the Charlotte Bobcats. Center Marcus Camby missed the contest with an ankle injury but expects to play against San Antonio. Portland is 25-10 at home.
ABOUT THE SPURS (57-14): San Antonio opened a three-game road trip with a 115-112 loss to Denver on Wednesday. Gary Neal scored 25 points for the Spurs, who were playing their first game without forward Tim Duncan, who sprained his left ankle against Golden State on Monday. Duncan won’t be back until sometime in April. Tiago Splitter moved into the starting lineup and had four points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes. Antonio McDyess picked up the inside slack with 13 points and 12 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. DeJuan Blair was back from a wrist injury and had eight points and six rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. San Antonio is 24-11 on the road.
WHO'S HOT/WHO’S NOT: Batum is averaging 19.3 points over the last four games. San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili is averaging 24 points and has made eight 3-pointers over the last two games. Portland guard Brandon Roy has made just 5 of 25 shots while averaging 4.3 points over the past four contests. Spurs forward Richard Jefferson is averaging just 7.6 points over the last five outings.
KEY STATISTIC: Portland has allowed just 87 points per game over the last 10 games and held three teams to 76 points or fewer. The Trail Blazers give up 94.7 on average. San Antonio scores 103.6 per game.
SEASON SERIES: The teams have split two meetings. San Antonio notched a 95-78 home victory over Dec. 12 and Portland also won at home, 99-86 on Feb. 1.
KEY INJURIES: SAN ANTONIO: F Tim Duncan (ankle). PORTLAND: C Marcus Camby (ankle).
KEY TRENDS: Home team is 9-2 against the spread in the last 11 meetings.
San Antonio has played over in 11 of its last 16.
Portland has covered in five of the last six meetings between the two teams.
LAST WORD: “You want to play because this is fun basketball. We haven’t clinched a spot in the playoffs yet and every game right now seems like a playoff game in a playoff atmosphere.” – Portland center Marcus Camby to reporters Thursday on why he plans to play against the Spurs despite an ailing ankle.
