Norman Powell made a driving layup on a pass from Robert Covington with 22 seconds left, and the Portland Trail Blazers rallied from 16 points down in the third quarter to beat the San Antonio Spurs 107-106.
The Trail Blazers trailed 66-50 with 9:26 left in the third quarter. They outscored the Spurs 57-40 the rest of the way.
The Spurs had the ball down 1 after a timeout, but Jakob Poeltl missed a 17-foot jumper at the buzzer that would have put them ahead.
During clutch time, the Trail Blazers outscored the Spurs 12-11. Powell scored 6 of the Trail Blazers’ 12 on 3 for 4 shooting. In the fourth quarter, Anfernee Simons had 2 steals, one of them leading to his driving dunk that tied the game at 95, and the Trail Blazers scored 2 points off them. With 27 seconds left, Covington stole the ball from Lonnie Walker IV, and Powell’s driving layup off it put the Trail Blazers ahead 107-106.
CJ McCollum had 29 points (12 in the first quarter) and 6 assists. Powell added 22 points, and Simons scored 16 points off the bench.
For the Spurs, DeMar DeRozan had 26 points (16 in the paint) and 10 assists. Drew Eubanks scored 15 points off the bench. Poeltl had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks on 8 for 11 shooting.
The Spurs outscored the Trail Blazers 62-42 in the paint. The Trail Blazers’ starters were outscored 41-21 in 13 minutes together.