Trail Blazers snap Spurs win streak

Posted 7:02AM on Thursday 28th March 2002 ( 23 years ago )

The Portland Trail Blazers learned something from an embarrassing loss and taught the San Antonio Spurs a lesson in defense. Two days after squandering a 25-point lead in the fourth quarter and losing to Memphis, the Trail Blazers limited Tim Duncan to 10 second-half points and beat San Antonio 98-93 Wednesday night, ending the Spurs' 13-game winning streak. ``It was really just a reality check for us, to let us know we're not invincible,'' Bonzi Wells said of the loss to the Grizzlies. The Spurs, who had the longest winning streak in the NBA this season, learned the same lesson. Wells scored 24 points, and Blazers Shawn Kemp, Ruben Patterson and Dale Davis teamed in the second half to limit Duncan, who scored 24 points in the first two quarters, including 17 in the first period. ``Tim Duncan started out on fire. Seemed like we had no answer for him, but in the second half Shawn and Dale really took it personal and really made him work for everything,'' Wells said. Duncan had 34 points and 11 rebounds for his 57th double-double of the season, and David Robinson added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Portland's defense limited San Antonio to just 38 percent shooting in the fourth quarter. The Spurs committed nine turnovers and were outscored 25-6 in second-chance points. ``They were all over the glass, and they killed us with offensive rebounds,'' Duncan said. ``That's why we lost the game.'' Davis added 19 points for the Blazers, who were without leading scorer Rasheed Wallace, who left in the first quarter with a sore lower back. San Antonio slipped to fourth in the Western Conference playoff race, a half-game behind Dallas and two games behind West-leading Sacramento. ``We gave up more than 20 second-chance points and 23 points off turnovers,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ``It's a miracle that we were even in the game.''

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