Lillard, Blazers beat Spurs in 3OT
San Antonio, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - The Portland Trail Blazers became the second team this week to beat the San Antonio Spurs in triple-overtime.
Damian Lillard had a career-high 43 points, LaMarcus Aldridge scored 32 and the Blazers pulled away in the third overtime to top the Spurs 129-119 on Friday night.
Lillard hit game-tying 3-pointers in regulation and the first overtime and scored nine of Portland's 17 points in the third overtime as the Blazers wrapped up their fourth consecutive win.
Cory Joseph hit a tying shot in the second OT for San Antonio, which became the first NBA team in 63 years to play in consecutive three-overtime games.
At least the 1951-52 Baltimore Bullets split theirs.
The Spurs fell to Memphis 117-116 in Wednesday's triple-OT thriller, two days after the Blazers beat them in Portland.
The three-game losing streak for the reigning NBA champions is their longest since a three-game slide Jan. 26-29.
Tim Duncan had a season-high 32 points and Danny Green added 27 for the Spurs, who lost despite starting the first two overtimes on 6-0 runs.
In the initial overtime, they scored just one more point over the next 2 1/2 minutes. Lillard's tying 3-pointer came after Wesley Matthews missed a 3 and Aldridge got the offensive rebound, kicking it back to Lillard at the point.
Manu Ginobili missed an off-balance shot for the Spurs before the buzzer.
Earlier, Danny Green had a 3-pointer waived off after a replay review showed he was still touching the ball when the shot clock expired. In the second overtime, Duncan also had a basket taken off the board for the same reason.
After scoring the first six points again, the Spurs got two more in the next two minutes of the second overtime.
Lillard sparked an 8-0 run with a dunk after splitting the defense, which was followed by 3s from Dorell Wright and Steve Blake for a 112-110 lead. But the Spurs tied it when Joseph rattled in a baseline leaner at the other end.
Matthews missed a 3 off the back of the rim at the buzzer with a chance to win it, but the Blazers scored 11 straight points to start the third overtime to pull away.
It was the largest lead by either team since the Spurs' 11-point advantage in the second quarter.
Earlier, after Lillard missed a dunk off the back of the rim with Duncan in his face, the Spurs took a 97-95 lead with 5.7 seconds left in regulation on Green's 3 from in front of the Portland bench.
But Lillard tied the score at the other end by dribbling past Green off an inbounds pass and getting a layup to drop with Duncan there again.
The Spurs, with 1.4 seconds to work with, were unable to win in regulation after Green's 3 at the buzzer was blocked by Lillard on the high right side.
Game Notes
Aldridge had 16 rebounds while Duncan and Green both pulled down 10 ... Matthews scored 16 points ... Joseph had 10 points and seven assists ... The Spurs are in Dallas on Saturday to take on the division-rival Mavericks, who expect to have new point guard Rajon Rondo in uniform ... The Blazers opened a four-game road trip that continues Saturday in New Orleans.