The San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers are playing game 2 of their NBA playoffs series on Thursday and the game from the AT&T Center comes at 9:30 pm ET on ESPN2 and streaming from the WatchESPN website and has Tony Parker and company looking to go up 2-0 in the series and it comes after the blowout in the first game.
The Spurs are looking to take control in the series and a win here would give the team a 2-0 advantage heading back to Portland and they will try and play as well defensively as they did in the first game of the series. The Spurs were pushed to seven games in the first round against the Dallas Mavericks, while the Portland Trail Blazers ended things in six games with the Houston Rockets and that came after the dramatic score from Damian Lillard at the end of the game. The Spurs got 33 points from Tony Parker in the first game to lead the team and if he keeps playing like that, the team will be very hard to upset and he also added nine assists, while Tim Duncan had 11 rebounds in the game to lead the way.
The Big 3 on the Spurs of Parker, Duncan and Manu Ginobili are looking to get back to the title this year after making to the finals last season and losing to the Miami Heat. The team looked as if they were going to win and that ended on an amazing three from Ray Allen and that kept Miami alive and now the Spurs are trying to get through a very talented western conference. The Blazers are an up and coming team with LaMarcus Aldridge and Lillard, while on the other side is the Oklahoma City Thunder and the LA Clippers.
LaMarcus Aldridge has been breaking out through the playoffs and he comes in after averaging nearly 30 points in the previous series and he had back to back 40 point games against the Rockets. Aldridge had 29 points and 14 rebounds in Game 1 and he will be key for the Blazers as they try to even things up and so far in the playoffs he has been stellar, leading the team while averaging 30 points. Parker is the leading scorer overall in the playoffs for the Spurs, while Aldridge and Duncan are the leaders for their teams in rebounding and Aldridge is averaging a double-double for the postseason.
Parker is leading the Spurs in assists while Lillard is tops in that category for the Blazers and this matchup could be a high scoring affair, as both teams ranked in the top 10 in scoring per game this season. Manu is leading in steals for the Spurs and Robin Lopez has been great with over two blocks per game on defense and the Blazers will need that on Thursday. The Spurs know how to win a championship and they need to take care of business and they played fantastic defense in the first game and kept the Blazers under 40 percent and for an offensive team like Portland that is terrible and they will have to rebound to get into it on Thursday night in Texas.
Check here for the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers live coverage for the NBA playoffs.