Spurs win eighth straight as Blazers lose McCollum to injury

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points and the San Antonio Spurs extended their winning streak to eight games with a 108-103 victory Saturday night over the Portland Trail Blazers, who lost C.J. McCollum to a left leg injury.

Damian Lillard scored 34 points for Portland, which had won three straight.

McCollum exited under assistance with 7:03 remaining in the third quarter. He remained on the court for a few minutes clutching his left leg in great pain after tumbling out of bounds when his driving layup was blocked by Jakob Poeltl. McCollum appeared to roll his left ankle but was clutching his shin. There was no word on his status.

McCollum finished with 10 points in 22 minutes.

San Antonio (41-29) is sixth in the Western Conference, one game behind Oklahoma City for fifth. The Spurs, who host Golden State on Monday, have won 10 straight at home.

Portland (42-27) is fourth in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of the Thunder.

There were 14 lead changes and 12 ties in a contest as evenly matched as the standings.

The Spurs made four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, including one by Derrick White with 2 minutes remaining that put them up 100-92.

White and Rudy Gay finished with 13 points apiece. Patty Mills and LaMarcus Aldridge each had 12.

Both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back, but the Blazers were in New Orleans while the Spurs played at home. Despite the travel, Portland came out as the fresher team.

Lillard drew consecutive fouls on White, forcing the Spurs to sit their point guard once he picked up his third foul with 4:43 remaining in the first half. The first foul came when Lillard fell in front of the Spurs bench with little to no contact by White, leading San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich to berate official Jason Goldenberg for the remainder of the first half and before entering the locker room. The Spurs were leading 40-39 when White exited and the Blazers then moved into the lead.

Lillard, who moved past Aldridge on the Blazers’ scoring list on Friday night, finished 13 for 29 from the field and added six rebounds and five assists in 38 minutes.

Jusuf Nurkic added 24 points and Rodney Hood had 13.

TIP-INS

Blazers: Portland is 17-18 on the road this season, on pace to match last season’s mark of 21-20 away from home. . Enes Kanter was scoreless and had four rebounds and an assist in 14 minutes. Kanter was averaging 14.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in his previous three games. . Lillard has eight double-doubles this season.

Spurs: Aldridge has 18,331 career points, moving past Hall of Famer Dave Bing for 70th in career scoring. Bing had 18,328 points in 12 seasons, including his first nine with Detroit. . Bryn Forbes has 250 career 3-pointers, joining Gary Neal and Davis Bertans as the only players in Spurs history to accomplish that feat in their first three seasons with the team.

UP NEXT

Trail Blazers: Host Indiana on Tuesday.

Spurs: Host Golden State on Monday.