San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers

(17-9)                           (20-6)

Start Time: 8:00 PM EST

TV Channel: ESPN

Preview: Both of these teams will be entering tonight’s game without their usual line-ups. For Portland, they will be without Robin Lopez who broke his hand Monday and will be out for several weeks. As for San Antonio, they will be missing two key players, Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker, due to minor injuries. Kawhi will be out tonight because of a torn ligament in his hand, but it has been reported that he will not miss extended time and could be back towards the beginning of next week. Tony Parker will be absent from his 4^th straight game due to a nagging hamstring injury which will allow Cory Joseph to start another one for the Spurs. Back on Tuesday, when these two teams met for the first time this season, Joseph provided a decently strong showing in the absence of Parker, scoring 12 points and grabbing 5 boards. There main contributor, however, was Leonard who scored 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists but as already stated, he will not be playing here tonight. In their last matchup, San Antonio fell to Portland 108-95 in a game where Parker, Ginobili, and Duncan all did not play. Tonight, they will have Duncan and Ginobili back to hopefully get some revenge on Portland, but it is going to be rather difficult without arguably their best all-around player, Kawhi Leonard, not playing. One other reason that this is going to be a hard one for the Spurs is that Blazers point guard, Damian Lillard, averages about 26+ points per game against the Spurs in his career which could help factor into Portland getting their 21^st win.

Prediction: I believe Portland will pick up their 4^th straight victory behind which should be a great game from 3^rd year Guard, Damian Lillard. Lillard has looked very strong this year, averaging about 20 PPG and leading this Blazers team to an early 20-6 record.

Points Per Game Leaders:

POR – LaMarcus Aldridge (22.2 PPG) SAS – Tony Parker (16.0 PPG)

Rebounds Per Game Leaders:

POR – LaMarcus Aldridge (10.4 RPG) SAS – Tim Duncan (11.0 RPG)

Assists Per Game Leaders:

POR – Damian Lillard (6.2 APG) SAS – Tony Parker (5.3 APG)