NBA Game Summary - San Antonio at Portland

Portland, OR (Basketball News) - Brent Barry scored a season-high 23 points, including 7-of-8 from beyond the arc, as the San Antonio Spurs cruised past the Portland Trailblazers, 98-79, at the Rose Garden.

Manu Ginobili scored 16 points and Tony Parker added 14 points for the Spurs, who now move one game ahead of the idle Dallas Mavericks for the lead in the Southwest Division. Tim Duncan had a quiet evening, scoring only six points while grabbing seven rebounds and assisting on six for San Antonio, who have now won six of their last seven.

"Road wins are always great," said Spurs head coach Greg Popovich. "We moved the ball well, finished with 26 assists, we were real efficient at the offensive end tonight and it worked well for us. Offensively, we moved the ball, got a lot of people to participate, and thats great. Tim not scoring, he doesn’t care. He had six assists tonight and led the team."

Juan Dixon scored a game-high 24 points while Steve Blake and Zach Randolph each added 11 for the Trailblazers, who have now dropped seven straight games.

"We were just out manned," said Portland head coach Nate McMillan. "They’re the world champs and we just couldn’t match up. They basically spread the floor tonight and ran two sets. They allowed their guards---Parker and Ginobili---to penetrate and they shot 12 for 21 from three-point range. Those guards did a nice job."

After an ugly first quarter, the Spurs established control of the game with a 10-2 run midway through the second quarter. Ginobili and Michael Finley each hit three-pointers and Beno Udrih hit a reverse layup to put San Antonio ahead, 37-25, with 4:23 to play in the second quarter. The Spurs extended their lead to 16, 51-35, at halftime as Barry connected on five shots from long distance in the quarter.

San Antonio maintained its double-digit cushion throughout the third quarter, extending it to as much as 18 on multiple occasions, the last coming with 4:51 to play in the quarter on a Parker layup. Portland cut the lead to 12 at the end of the quarter as it scored seven of the last nine points to end the frame.

The Spurs put the game away early in the fourth quarter as they opened the last stanza with a 9-2 run, including two more treys from Barry, who hit his sixth and seventh shots from beyond the arc without a miss. The lead for San Antonio was 19 points following the burst. The Spurs extended their lead to as many as 22. Portland only got as close as 17 points the rest of the way.