Grant has 29 points, Trail Blazers rally to beat Spurs

Nov 16, 2022, 06:52 am

PORTLAND, Ore. -- — Jerami Grant scored 29 points and the Portland Trail Blazers rallied to beat the San Antonio Spurs 117-110 on Tuesday night.

Anfernee Simons added 23 points and Damian Lillard had 22 and 11 assists.

Jakob Poeltl had a career-high 31 points for San Antonio. He was 14 of 17 from the field.

“We’re a good team. That’s how we view ourselves. And we know what makes us a good team,” Lillard said after the Blazers improved to 10-4. “In the past we had to say ‘somebody needs to get it going’ and the energy on our team now is ‘we’ve got to get some stops.’”

Grant had 19 points in the first half. He added 10 in the third quarter to help Portland take a 93-89 lead going into the fourth.

“I’ve been getting a lot of open looks, making it easier for me to make a decision,” Grant said about his hot shooting. “I like open shots.”

Poeltl’s layup gave the Spurs a 94-93 lead with 10:55 to go and they pushed the lead to six points multiple times.

“He was a monster tonight,” Spurs guard Tre Jones said. “He’s always consistent in what he brings. He’s going to do what he does best: fill the gaps on offense and be our anchor on defense.”

A layup by Drew Eubanks cut it to 106-102, followed by a basket from Simons to make it 106-104 with 4:21 left. A turnover by Keldon Johnson on the next Spurs possession led to a 3-point play for Eubanks to give Portland the lead back at 107-106 3:57 left. Eubanks played 33 minutes off the bench and finished with nine points and seven rebounds.

“Drew had a lot of energy playing against his former team,” Simons said. “He was more hyped than everyone else. He had a different intensity, he was very emotional which helped us in that fourth quarter. That propelled us.”

Lillard’s steal led to a 3-pointer that gave Portland a 110-106 lead.

TIP INS

Portland returned home from a road trip that saw them go 4-2, including two wins at the buzzer. ... Blazers starting center Jusuf Nurkic made his return after a three-game absence because of a thigh injury. He had nine points and five rebounds in 15 minutes.

UP NEXT

Spurs: At Sacramento on Thursday night.

Trail Blazers: Host Brooklyn on Thursday night.

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