The Portland Trail Blazers entered the visitors’ locker room at the AT&T Center on Thursday and found a surprise guest. There was a rattlesnake inside of forward Thomas Robinson’s locker.
Trail Blazers greeted by rattlesnake in San Antonio locker room #RipCity READ || http://t.co/T1iLmIc6G6 pic.twitter.com/OhRpu9i87a
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) May 8, 2014
But instead of this being motivation, the Blazers lost anyway.
Portland coach Terry Stotts is now running out of adjectives and analogies to describe the San Antonio Spurs’ dominance in the second quarter.
Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points, Tony Parker had 16 points and 10 assists, and San Antonio rolled to a 114-97 victory over the Trail Blazers on Thursday night for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
After being struck by a ”tidal wave” during the second quarter of the opener, Portland took on even more water in Game 2.
”The onslaught at the beginning of the second quarter was obviously the turning point in the game,” Stotts said.
Boris Diaw scored six straight points to ignite a 23-8 run that gave San Antonio a 54-36 lead with 7 minutes remaining in the first half.
The Spurs outscored the Trail Blazers 41-25 in the second quarter, raising their advantage to 77-48 in that period in winning the first two games of the best-of-seven series convincingly.
Nicolas Batum scored 21 points for the Trail Blazers. Damian Lillard had 19 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 16 points and 10 rebounds, but the Trail Blazers’ All-Star duo put up 43 shots.
Aldridge was 6 for 23, missing back-to-back dunks in the second quarter.
”We missed a lot of shots,” Aldridge said. ”I definitely wasn’t in a good rhythm tonight. I missed two dunks and four or five layups, so if those shots go in, then the whole game is different.”
The Trail Blazers host Game 3 on Saturday night.
Source: ESPN and AP