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The injured Portland Trail Blazers couldn’t handle a nice game against the Houston Rockets tonight. They played a brilliant quarterback, built a huge lead, and then squandered it on poor defense. When the chips fell, they went to their old reserve, the three-point shots. That, and Damian Lillard’s 30 points kept Portland alive for the last few seconds of the game, but in the end they fell short by a final score of 104-101.
Derrick Jones, Jr. led the first quarter. High-flying dunks were just the beginning. He caught rebounds, interrupted passes and was the active ingredient in Portland’s offense. When Jones, Jr. wasn’t destroying the Rockets with energy, Damian Lillard did so from the perimeter. 10 Dame points in the first 8 minutes gave Portland a 25-8 lead. It was the first time that a trimester had seemed easy to them in at least two weeks. Lillard would finish with 13 points and 3 assists in the frame and the Blazers were leading 32-17 after one.
Unfortunately, the second unit could not keep pace at the start of the second quarter. The school group evolved into isolation or a single pass offense. Their shots failed. The defense wasn’t much better. The Rockets had a 4-5:30 lead. Lillard stopped the bleeding with a layup, assist and a three shortly after recording. But Portland never regained its rhythm. They ended up with centers defending on the perimeter and guards defending inside. It … won’t work. Add 11 quick break points for Houston – the value of an entire game in one period – and you can see where Portland’s old 20-point lead slipped. At halftime, Houston was leading 53-50 and it was a game of football.
The story was not much better at the start of the third. Portland’s defense was atrocious; Houston extended their lead. The three-point shots from Lillard and Gary Trent, Jr. kept the Blazers alive, but Portland fans were holding their breath, hoping it would hold up. It almost did. The Blazers held on, mostly behind 28 points from Lillard at three. They trailed 77-86 at the head of the fourth.
The fourth opening featured Trent, Jr. stepping up a pair of threes, bringing Portland back again. The margin has fluctuated between 1 and 4 points for a while. The good part for Portland was that Lillard was on the bench during that time. The Blazers kept hitting three, but they didn’t defend them well. Jones, Jr. fell with a sprained ankle, which also damaged Portland’s perimeter defense. But it’s hard to lose when all three come in. Trent and Anfernee Simons have made sure of that.
Houston’s lead remained just one point past the 2:00 mark as the score came and went. He also stayed there past the 1 hour mark. Victor Oladipo hit a layup over Enes Kanter with 26 seconds left, putting the Blazers down 3. Trent had a chance to reciprocate on the next possession, but the layup wouldn’t fall. After a foul and free throws, Simons hit a three, but there were only 3 seconds left on the clock. Portland was trailing just one, but there wasn’t enough foul time and good possession. After the Houston free throws, the Blazers had 2 seconds for the three ties. The shot that had sustained them all night failed them in the end as Simons fired a deep three. All things considered, Portland did well to put themselves in this position, but they failed nonetheless.
The guards and the three were the story of this match. Lillard scored 30 on 5-11 shooting from depth. Trent, Jr. had 23 points, or 7 of 13 threes. Simons contributed 14, shooting 4-9 on the triples. Between them, they hit 16 threes, the bulk of Portland’s 17-41 effort for the night.
Shooting 41.5% from range is enough to win most games, but the Blazers stayed away, didn’t shoot any fouls and gave Houston a 9-point advantage on the foul line. It made the difference.
The score of the box
The Blazers face the Chicago Bulls in the Windy City on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. in the Pacific.
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