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The Portland Trail Blazers overcame Toronto’s weak three-shot and 41-point first quarter performance to beat the Raptors 122-117 on Sunday in Tampa, Fla.
The Blazers held the Raptors 10 points in the third quarter to move forward after trailing at halftime, then closed the game in the fourth quarter with clutch plays from CJ McCollum, who scored seven points. in less than 90 seconds late to help seal the victory. .
Norman Powell of the Blazers and Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood of Toronto, involved in a three-player trade on Thursday, failed to deliver big games on a night when each faced their former team.
Powell finished with 13 points on 3 of 6 shots. Trent scored six. Hood came off the bench to score 13, including eight in the first quarter.
The Blazers went with a starting line-up of three guards from Powell, Damian Lillard and McCollum to take advantage of the trio’s scoring power. But all three had mediocre nights by their standards, especially the three of them.
Lillard scored 2 of 7, McCollum 1 of 7 and Powell 1 of 2. As a team, Portland only scored 10 of 34 threes (29.4%).
Lillard finished with 22 points and 11 assists after shooting 7 of 21 from the field.
Despite the lack of combined offensive fireworks, Lillard said he liked the way the trio worked together on their first outing.
“It was nice to have him there knowing he’s another guy who can take down open shots, take him down and get to the edge and finish,” said Lillard. “And a guy who really helps our defense. It was fun to be there with him.
Still, Portland earned their third victory on that three-game road trip.
WHAT THIS MEANS
The Blazers (28-18) remained tied for fifth place in the Western Conference with Denver (28-18). The Nuggets won Sunday 126-102 against Atlanta (23-23).
“The road wins, the home wins, whatever it is, the way things are in the West, it’s all bundled up, you have to get the wins where you can,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. .
IT WAS OVER WHEN
The Blazers’ three-guard offense led the Blazers to 29.4% shooting three in the first half, while Hood came off the bench for Toronto to score 11 points and his team had 10 of 22 threes ( 45.5%).
Toronto (18-28) led 74-68 at halftime. When Pascal Siakam scored on the inside with 6:27 left in the third quarter, the Raptors were leading 82-75. Then the Blazers played a 14-0 inning that featured a Rodney Covington three, a Lillard deep three, a Powell steal and dunk, a Lillard drive and then an Enes Kanter score on the inside. Covington blocked two shots in the run that left Portland up to 89-82.
The Blazers were leading 91-84 at the end of the third quarter they won 23-10, holding the Raptors 4 of 22 shots.
“I was really proud of our defense in the third quarter,” said Stotts.
Portland led 108-97 with 7:53 left in the game before the Raptors managed to come back to 111-107 with 3:29 to go after Chris Boucher (Oregon) made two of three free throws.
The Blazers were leading 115-111 with less than a minute to go as McCollum headed for the lane and scored on a float while fouled. He made the free throw to give the Blazers a 118-111 lead with 44.4 seconds left.
From there, the Raptors kept things interesting, but the Blazers held on, freezing the game with two free throws from Lillard to set the final score 4.8 seconds from time.
LILLARD TIME
Lillard missed the team’s victory Friday in Orlando with a bruised knee, but he had several ailments that benefited from not playing.
“I think the two days I had really helped,” Lillard said. “I felt good to be moving there. Better than what I’ve probably felt in the last seven or eight games.
Lillard said he suffered a slight injury to his right hand suffered against New Orleans on March 18.
“Other than that I feel pretty good, my energy was good, my wind was good and we got another win,” said Lillard.
NURQUE GAME 2
Center Jusuf Nurkic appeared in his second game since returning from a broken wrist and in 19 minutes scored 10 points and had four rebounds. He made 4 of 7 hits and went 1 of 2 of three.
MONTRE AND MONTRE
Derrick Jones Jr. came off the bench with Powell starting and had one of his best games of the season. Jones had 7 of 9 shots and scored 16 points in 21 minutes. Covington had 13 points and 10 rebounds while adding two assists, two steals and four blocked shots.
“They had a big impact on the game,” Lillard said of Covington and Jones.
Siakam had 24 points and eight rebounds for Toronto. Boucher came off the bench to score 16 points on 6 of 7 shots.
MONTRE AND FIZZLED
Carmelo Anthony went 4 of 12 from the field for eight points in 28 minutes.
Trent struggled in his second game with the Raptors, just like he did on his first Friday. Trent had 2 of 10 and 1 of 5 threes to finish with six points.
NEXT (Blazers schedule)
The Blazers wrap up their four-game trip Wednesday in Detroit (12-33).
– Aaron Fentress | [email protected] | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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