SAN ANTONIO — Forward Kawhi Leonard scored 19 points and veteran guards Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker hit key shots down the stretch as the San Antonio outlasted the Portland Trail Blazers 93-80 on Monday for their fifth straight victory.
The Spurs (8-2) led for all but two minutes in the first quarter but the game went down to the final minutes, when the Trail Blazers got to within 81-78 on a 3-pointer by forward Noah Vonleh with 3:48 to play. San Antonio outscored Portland 12-2 down the stretch.
Ginobili added 17 points for the Spurs while forward Boris Diaw and guard Danny Green hit for 12 and Parker and forward Tim Duncan scored 10 apiece.
Portland (4-8) got a game-high 27 points from guard Damian Lillard. Forward Al-Farouq Aminu added 17 points and guard CJ McCullum hit for 15 points for the Trail Blazers.
San Antonio’s bench outscored the Portland reserves 36-11.
The Spurs led 36-28 at the half despite shooting only 30 percent prior to the break while the Trail Blazers shot 31 percent. It was the lowest first-half output for either team this season.
The last thing any team can do when it is playing the Spurs is to be reckless with the ball. San Antonio put a stamp on that notion midway through the third quarter when the Trail Blazers committed turnovers on consecutive possessions and both miscues led to baskets by the Spurs, the second of which a tomahawk dunk by Leonard.
The mini-run expanded San Antonio’s lead to 51-38, the largest of the game for the Spurs. But the Trail Blazers kept chipping away, cutting their deficit to 65-60 at the end of the third quarter as Lillard hit for 16 points in the period.
San Antonio began the final quarter with a 10-2 run as Green and Ginobili hit 3-pointers and the Trail Blazers never got to within three points the rest of the way.
NOTES: The Spurs beat the Trail Blazers in Portland 113-101 on Nov. 11 and posted a season high in first-half scoring (58 points), field-goal percentage (56.1 percent) and 3-point field-goal percentage (46.7 percent). …Spurs F LaMarcus Aldridge spent his first nine NBA seasons with the Trail Blazers and was San Antonio’s leading scorer (23 points) in his first game against his former team on Nov. 11. …Spurs F Tim Duncan passed former teammate David Robinson for fifth all-time on the NBA career blocks list and became the franchise’s leader in the category with five blocks Nov. 14 against the 76ers. …After shooting just 64.2 percent from the free-throw line through their first seven games, the Trail Blazers have hit 84-of-106 (79.2 percent) from the charity stripe in their past four contests before Monday. …Guard CJ McCollum has scored at least 15 points in all of Portland’s 11 games this season and 14 straight contests dating back to the NBA playoffs last year. …Guard Allen Crabbe scored a career-high 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting in 27 minutes off the Trail Blazers’ bench on Nov. 15 against Charlotte. He has now led Portland’s reserve unit in scoring seven times this season.