--Playing against one of the best big men in the history of the game, Greg Oden had his most complete performance of the season -- 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, eight rebounds and four blocked shots in 25 minutes. And he helped hold Tim Duncan to 14 points and eight boards. Oden has hauled in at least eight rebounds in each of Portland's six games this season.
Coach Nate McMillan inserted Andre Miller into the starting lineup for the first time in part to facilitate getting the ball more to Oden. "What I was hoping for was with Miller in that game, he would be able to get Greg the ball," the Portland coach said. "A lot of the calls (Friday night), (Miller) called those sets. He did a nice job of mixing it up. He got Greg involved with deep post position. He called the right sets and Greg had deep post position, and (the Spurs) were playing him straight up. A couple times he got himself in trouble trying to beat them with speed as opposed to just taking his time and going over the top, but I thought for the most part he was patient and did a nice job of establishing himself down there."
Miller shot poorly (2-for-9), but still had a positive influence with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists in 33 minutes.
"What we wanted to see, I thought we saw," McMillan said. "We got more from him. He got everybody involved, there was a lot of communications, and we just looked in sync even though that team hasn't played a lot together. We got the ball movement."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "The good thing about this one was that they made a run in the fourth quarter and we held them off. It gave us confidence that, look, we're starting to get back to what we've done in the past, and that's close games out." -- Brandon Roy, after San Antonio trimmed what was once a 17-point deficit to five before falling 86-84.
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