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Blazers try to get on track, snap skid vs. Spurs

Oct 31, 2008 - 10:55 AM San Antonio (0-1) at Portland, 10:30pm EDT

PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- For the Portland Trail Blazers, the start of the NBA's regular season can't get much more difficult than it already is.

It began with an ugly loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday that saw highly touted center Greg Oden lost to injury. It was subsequently announced that Oden suffered a sprained right foot and would miss two to four weeks.

Now, the Blazers, a trendy pick to make a splash in the Western Conference, will continue a brutal early season schedule with their home opener against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday.

And that's not all. Portland, which finished 41-41 last year without Oden - who missed the season with a knee injury - faces lofty expectations, but the scheduling committee didn't do the team any favors. After facing the Lakers and Spurs, the Blazers then have to travel to both Phoenix and Utah before returning home to take on Houston.

Five games, five opponents coming off 50-plus-win seasons.

In Game One of the formidable nine-day stretch, the Blazers had little to hang their hat on. They shot poorly, were outrebounded, played mediocre defensively and didn't do much at the foul line (8-of-14). They'll need a much stronger effort to top the Spurs, who have beaten them in each of their last 11 meetings.

San Antonio, which is without the services of injured guard Manu Ginobili, had its own disappointing start. The Spurs fell at home, 103-98, to the rival Phoenix Suns despite dual 32-point efforts from Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

One of the biggest knocks on the Spurs coming into the season was their lack of depth, and for at least one night that proved an apt criticism. Without Ginobili - who is recovering from surgery to repair a torn ankle ligament and is out until at least mid-December - the team seems perilously thin.

Aside from Duncan and Parker, only free-agent pickup Roger Mason made much of an impact. The 28-year-old guard scored 12 points, while everyone else combined for just 22 on 10-of-28 shooting.