San Antonio, Texas: Wesley Matthews made three of his six three-pointers in the last four minutes to power the Portland Trail Blazers over San Antonio 109-100 on Friday in a matchup of two of the NBA’s top teams.
Matthews finished with 24 points and grabbed six rebounds for Portland, which won its fourth game in a row and moved within a half game of the Spurs for the best record in the Western Conference.
LaMarcus Aldridge led the Trail Blazers with 26 points and 13 rebounds while Damian Lillard added 21 points and eight assists.
Argentinian guard Manu Ginobili sparked the Spurs with 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Frenchman Boris Diaw and Italy’s Marco Belinelli each added 14 points and Tim Duncan had 13 for San Antonio, which had a six-game win streak snapped.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the third quarter for yelling at the officials.
At the end, the Blazers went on a 13-5 run that included three Matthews 3-pointers for a 105-96 lead and Mo Williams went 4-for-4 at the free-throw line to secure the victory.
Meanwhile, LeBron James added fuel to rumours he may leave the Miami Heat in a birthday message he sent over Instagram to teammate Dwyane Wade. James, a four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, left the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Wade, 32 on Friday, and Chris Bosh in Miami in 2010.
But James, Wade and Bosh — each set to make more than $20 million (Dh73.45 million) next season — all could opt out of their contracts after this season.
“I came to Miami for 2 reasons. To play with U and to win championships and I can’t thank u enough for the sacrifice you’ve made since I arrived homie!” said James.
“No matter what happens in the future we stuck together like brothers for life.”
James has not discussed his potential free agent status while Wade has said he wants to stay with the Heat for the remainder of his NBA career.
But there has been speculation that the Heat’s dominant NBA dynasty may be coming to an end. The Heat have made the NBA Finals in each of the past three seasons, winning the title the past two years.
This year, the Heat could become only the fourth NBA club to win three championships in a row, following the 1960s Boston Celtics, 1990s Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers from 2000-2002 and 1952-1954, the first run coming when the Lakers were based in Minneapolis.
