Season 50, Game 33
San Antonio 110, Portland 94
27-6, 2nd in the West
As the 2016-17 Spurs are wont to do, they let a subpar team stick around for nearly three quarters before asserting their will and pulling away for a blowout win. Without superstar Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio leaned on Danny Green and Jonathon Simmons – not the white-hot LaMarcus Aldridge – to put the Portland Trailblazers in their place en route to a 110-94 win.
(Photo by Mark Sobhani/NBAE via Getty Images)
While Kyle Anderson got the start in place of the ailing Leonard, it was Simmons who took advantage of the extended minutes, finishing the game with a team-leading 19 points and an emphatic “GET OFF MY LAWN” dunk in his 30 minutes of action.
RIP Pat Connaughton.
It’s New Years Eve so we’ll keep this short, but other cool things besides that Simmons dunk happened last night, including…
• Green scored 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point land. Nice to see him firing and hitting those shots in addition to being a historically great defender.
• Aldridge only scored 8 points on 2-of-3 shooting (what?) and the Spurs still won handily.
• The not-so-disposable Tony Parker poured in another 18 points.
• Manu Ginobili is still Manu Ginobili. He scored 14 off the bench, including a sweet pair of 3 pointers.
• David Lee (my new favorite Spur, after much skepticism) was a perfect 4-for-4, to go along with 2 offensive rebounds, 2 defensive rebounds, and assist and a steal. Everything except for a block!
And, what the hell, here’s another Vine of the dunk that buried Connaughton last night.
Happy New Year and GO SPURS GO!
