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SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- The San Antonio Spurs' defense was at it again. Tim Duncan had 26 points and 12 rebounds as the Spurs shut down the Portland Trail Blazers and extended their winning streak to nine games with a 97-79 victory. During their streak, the longest current run in the NBA, the Spurs have been getting it done defensively, holding four foes to 80 points or less. They came in eighth in the league in defense, allowing 92.2 points per game. Duncan, considered among the NBA's best defensive players, has led the Spurs in scoring for five straight games. He also had few problems against nemesis Rasheed Wallace on both ends of the court. This is the second time this season that Duncan victimized Wallace. On November 3, he had 29 points and 15 rebounds in San Antonio's 106-90 victory at the Rose Garden. "Tim played a great game," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "He was creating a lot of offense for us. The guys did well. "We played good consistent defense for 48 minutes which is nice to see. They allowed us opportunities and we took advantage. David (Robinson) set a great tone and Tim and Tony (Parker) created a lot of offense and the guys reacted to that well. It was a good night." Wallace scored 15 points on just 6-of-22 shooting as Portland shot less than 33 percent (25-of-76). The Trail Blazers also fell to 2-12 when their All-Star forward does not score at least 23 points. The Spurs scored the first seven points and never looked back. They led 24-15 after the first quarter and extended it to 50-35 at halftime behind Duncan's 15 points. Portland's 35 first-half points were a season low and its shooting percentage was the lowest by a San Antonio opponent. The only time San Antonio's defense relented was in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, when Mitchell Butler's layup reduced the deficit to 76-65 with 10:22 left. "There were a couple points where we kind of let off a little bit and they kind of pulled back into it," Duncan said. "But that's the game of basketball. I thought our focus was good for a long period of time. "We have situations that we can get a lot better at. Defensively, I think we are playing pretty well. I think we are giving up a little too many offensive rebounds. There are stretches in the games where we go to sleep for a little while and let people back in the game. So there's a lot of improvement to be made." Although the Spurs were scoreless for nearly three minutes, the Blazers were unable to take advantage. San Antonio did not score again until the 8:28 mark, when it had three consecutive dunks that built the lead to 84-68 with 6:29 to go. After Butler's layup, Portland had just two shots until Derek Anderson's jumper with 5:49 left. "We had a drought and the drought put us in a hole," Portland coach Maurice Cheeks said. "They got those two big guys in the lane. I'm not really disappointed in the loss, but we were down 22 at one point and we came back. "We've got to learn how to get our defense up to par when were not scoring. Our execution on offense was much better last night than it was tonight." Ruben Patterson scored 18 points for Portland (12-12), which is at .500 for the ninth time this season. |
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