Brandon Roy walked out of the shower after what he called the biggest road win of his NBA career and proclaimed, "What's our road record? We're road warriors!"
Roy scored 26 points and Portland won in San Antonio for the first time since 2002 with a 95-83 victory, moving the Trail Blazers into a three-way tie with the Spurs and Houston for the third-best record in the West with just four games remaining.
“It was a grind and that is what the playoffs are going to be about,” said Nate McMillan. “You have to play hard, smart and together and we got that from our guys tonight. Everyone played and played well.”
Stuck among the bottom seeds in the playoff hunt for weeks, Portland has won six of seven to emerge as a serious contender for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs -- where the Trail Blazers haven't been since 2003.
"We won at one of the toughest teams in the league, in April, and they needed a win," Roy said. "So we got to use it if we want it to be something special."
The slumping Spurs, who have lost four of six, blew a 19-point lead in the first half and surrendered the season series to Portland 3-1. Roger Mason had 18 points as the Spurs lost for the first time since learning this week that Manu Ginobili will miss the playoffs because of an ankle injury.
The Spurs are in danger of letting home-court advantage in the first round slip away after holding the second-best record in the West for most of the season. San Antonio, which has another big West showdown Friday against Utah.
Portland, meanwhile, is surging. One night after struggling early at Memphis, the Trail Blazers again came out flat in falling behind by 19 before storming back to wrap up a four-game road swing at 3-1. The win was the first time since 2003 that an NBA team came back from at least an 18 point deficit in consecutive games.
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 20 points, and Joe Przybilla had 17 rebounds. It was the 50th win for Portland, a mark the Trail Blazers haven't reached since 2002-03.
"It’s one of the top wins for us,” said Aldridge. They’re one of the top teams in the league and most top teams win at home. To come in here and get a win feels good.”
"Getting 50 games, that's a big goal," said Greg Oden, who had eight points and eight rebounds. "We just want to keep on winning, trying to get home court for the playoffs."
The Trail Blazers did it by slowly erasing a huge first-quarter deficit that had the game taking on the early look of a blowout.
Hitting 70 percent of its first-quarter shots, San Antonio jumped to a 39-20 lead before the Trail Blazers began slowly inching back. Portland ended the first half on a 25-8 run, punctuated by Steve Blake's half-court heave at the buzzer that swished in and closed cut it to 49-47.
A free throw by Roy with 3:35 left in the third gave Portland its first lead since the opening minutes. Aldridge hit a running finger roll the next time down to push the lead to three and led the rest of the way.
"It looked like we wanted this game," Portland coach Nate McMillan said. "We played hard and we got it."
