Portland Trail Blazers corral Milwaukee Bucks, 104-97
Final. 97. 89. 104. 34
Playing their first of many games without starting center Robin Lopez, teammates Thomas Robinson (16 rebounds) and LaMarcus Aldridge (15 rebounds) picked up the rebounding slack, and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 104-97. The Trail Blazers are now 20-6 on the year.
Recap
The Trail Blazers started the game staring a 10-2 deficit in the grill, with Nicolas Batum taking four of the Trail Blazers’ first eight shots and missing all of them. An incredible 3/4 court bounce pass from Batum to Damian Lillard was the highlight of the quarter, as the Trail Blazers shot under 30% to the Bucks’ 61% and trailed 25-18 after one.
The second was the quarter of Robinson. His four rebounds, five points, and assist were even more exciting in real life than they were on paper. Unfortunately, the Trail Blazers were playing from behind much of the quarter before a late surge gave them the 43-41 lead going into the half. The Bucks, already missing their second-leading scorer and rebounder in Jabari Parker, had to watch as Giannis Antetokounmpo went down in a heap, spraining his ankle. He did not return.
The going didn’t get any easier for the Trail Blazers in the third, and you were left wondering whether the Bucks could have been playing any better had Parker suited up and Antetokounmpo not left the game. The answer was “probably not.” After three, the Bucks were up 70-68, shooting 50% from the field and 46% from deep, and the Trail Blazers needed to make a push if they wanted the win.
The Trail Blazers’ offensive rebounding bailed them out of poor shooting, but it wasn’t enough to make meaningful progress. As the quarter wore on, and as the spectre of losing their easiest game of the week loomed large, the backup bigs said, “uh uh.” Robinson secured a double-double while he and Joel Freeland cleaned the boards, sprinted down the court, and hit the occasional shot.
The Trail Blazers opened an 8-point lead with four minutes to go, but there was a scary moment when Batum was pushed by Larry Sanders on a dunk, hit the ground awkwardly, and stayed down a few minutes. He appeared to crack his head on the ground, but got up and returned to the game. With the lead at 11 and three minutes to go, the Bucks started to intentionally foul Robinson. He split his first trip, split them again, missed both, then split them again twice more, for a total of five trips to the line, 10 free throws and four makes in less than a minute.
It was more than enough to keep the lead, and the Trail Blazers got the better of the Bucks, 104-97.
Players
Thomas Robinson gets the game ball. Starting for the injured Lopez, he brought energy, passion, and patience in his 29 minutes after being an afterthought for much of the last month. The 15 points tied a career-high and the 16 rebounds was a season-high. While he won’t be hitting those kinds of numbers every night, the effort and the energy he brought is exactly what the Trail Blazers need from him moving forward, as the they face a 20+ game stretch without Lopez.
Damian Lillard gets the mini game ball with one of his best scoring performances of the season, hitting 4-7 from deep and 10-18 overall for 29 points, seven assists, three boards, and two steals. Lillard made some comments on social media the other day suggesting he’s aware not many people are putting him on their top-5 lists for best points guards in the NBA. Maybe he’s looking to do something about that, or maybe it was just a nice game.
LaMarcus Aldridge joined Robinson on the rebound train with 15 of his own, mixing in 23 points, two assists, and a block. It’s crazy that we’ve gotten to a point with Aldridge that lines like this don’t even surprise anyone anymore.
Wesley Matthews struggled from deep, hitting just one of his four three-point attempts for 11 points.
Nicolas Batum had yet another questionable shooting night (3-11 for eight points) but made up for it in other ways (six assists, six boards, and a steal). So long as he’s staying active and doesn’t stop looking for his shot, it’s not a disaster if he’s not getting the 15 points he’s capable of getting every night. With Lopez out, however, the Trail Blazers will need his three-point shooting to open up, especially against better opponents.
Chris Kaman took 12 shots, hitting three for six points and three boards. Since he’s sometimes the biggest player on the court, his long jumpers don’t offer much in the way of offensive rebounding potential without other bigs in the paint. I’d rather he cool it on the long looks and rotate the ball to someone else, but Kaman’s gonna Kaman.
Notes
- In what was the deciding stat of the game, particularly in Lopez’s absence, the Trail Blazers had 16 offensive rebounds to the Bucks’ 5, winning the overall rebounding battle 52-32. That’s a slaughter. Given how much worse the Trail Blazers were shooting most of the night, they needed to create those extra scoring opportunities, and they did. Kudos.
- Per the Trail Blazers’ PR Twitter account, Aldridge has recorded three straight games of 14+ rebounds for the second time in his career.
The Trail Blazers now head out on a brutal road trip, facing the Spurs, the Pelicans, the Rockets, and the now-full-strength Thunder. The win tonight was necessary. They face San Antonio at the AT&T center on Friday, December 19th at 5:00 p.m. PST.