There was some tension in the air Friday night in San Antonio — the Trail Blazers came into town and beat the Spurs. There are questions about this Spurs team, which is 31-9 overall but just 11-8 vs. teams over .500, this just kind of added to those questions.
Gregg Popovich was wound up — he went after referee Mark Ayotte during a third quarter timeout. Ayotte handled it well, tried to walk away and T’d up Popovich, who became incensed and had assistant coaches trying to get between them. Crew chief Bill Kennedy stepped in with the second technical and the ejection.
Feel free to wonder if Popovich was trying to get tossed — the Spurs went on a 23-12 run and retook the lead after this incident. However, in the fourth LaMarcus Aldridge helped spark a 16-6 Blazers run and Portland went on to win the game 109-100.
Hat tip to Ben Golliver at SI for the video.