SAN ANTONIO — With Tim Duncan sidelined for the second straight game with a leg injury, Tony Parker scored 39 points and the Spurs defeated the Trail Blazers for an 11th consecutive time in San Antonio, 99-84 on Wednesday night.
Channing Frye scored 15 for Portland, whose losing string in San Antonio dates to 2002.
Parker sped and spun his way toward the basket for much of the game, but drew the biggest cheers when he raced upcourt to sink a running 3-pointer as time expired in the third quarter. That stretched the lead to 11, but Portland wasn’t done.
The Trail Blazers closed the gap to four in the fourth quarter on Travis Outlaw’s jumper from the top of the key with five minutes left. Matt Bonner answered with his third 3-pointer of the night, and Parker scored on three of the next four possessions to extend the lead to nine with 2:41 left.
“He was like a roadrunner blowing by us,” Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan said of Parker, who finished 17-of-27 from the floor.
Portland was also without its big man, Greg Oden, who missed his fifth consecutive game because of a bone chip in his left knee.
The Associated Press
