Trail Blazers’ miracle minutes top Clippers, 98-93
93. 77. 98. 34. Final
After suffocating defense from the Los Angeles Clippers allowed just nine points to the Portland Trail Blazers during the fourth quarter’s first 9:22, the Trail Blazers snapped awake with 12 points in 2:12 to send the game to overtime. Damian Lillard got his first field goal and Nicolas Batum dominated the extra period, and the Trail Blazers charged out with an unlikely 98-93 win. They are now 40-19, and have four wins in a row.
Recap
The Trail Blazers could have just as easily lost this game. It was rough and required some good fortune to cancel out some bad execution.
In fourth quarter, the Clippers played mediocre ball, but the Trail Blazers looked positively dreadful. There was no sugar-coating it. The Trail Blazers deployed the “hack-a-Jordan” strategy (intentionally fouling a poor free throw shooter), and shook the Clippers’ rhythm. Unfortunately, Portland’s own offense was last seen snoozing by those rail road tracks that have nearby bushes people camp in during the summer. It was painful.
Meanwhile, Lillard had hit zero field goals, scoring just three points with no salvage in sight, Wesley Matthews was 1-6 from deep, and LaMarcus Aldridge was flustered and shooting poorly. I wanted something to happen, anything positive, to make the Trail Blazers look more like “the Trail Blazers” so that I’d have something to feel good about heading into the next game. This one was obviously a loss.
Glen Davis was doing mock-crunches after a drawing a Matthews charge, it had to be a loss.
Then something happened. Portland did that Portland thing and said, no. We’re not losing. Where there was hesitation, there was now certainty. Where there was fumbling, the ball stuck to the Trail Blazers’ hands like tack. Everything felt different, all at once. It was a sight to behold.
Down 85-75, Batum made some free throws, and the Trail Blazers held on the other end. Then Aldridge hit a jumper, and the Trail Blazers held, failed to score, then held again allowing Matthews to hit a three, just his second of the game. This time, the Clippers ran J.J. Redick into the paint where he lost the Trail Blazers’ perimeter defense and forced Robin Lopez to choose between guarding him or DeAndre Jordan. Lopez chose Jordan, and Redick hit the layin.
On the other end, Arron Afflalo, heretofore quiet, popped a spin move to the bank, and it was a 3-point game with 50 seconds left. The Clippers ran the same play for Redick: this time, Matthews stuck with him, cutting Redick off and forcing the miss, and the Trail Blazers streaked the other way. Lillard’s pass, which was nearly picked off, was gathered by Batum, who found himself open from deep and said, “why not?” and canned it early in the shot clock. Tie game.
With about a second separating shot clock from game clock, the Clippers burned time before Chris Paul ‘s pass was nearly picked by Batum. It went out of bounds with 1.5 seconds left on the shot clock, 2.5 on the game, still Clippers ball. Paul got a look, and Jordan got the offensive rebound, but did not realize that while the shot clock had expired, the game clock hadn’t. Paul screeched at him to shoot, but the officials blew the play dead. Overtime.
The Clippers struck first, but Batum took over as much as any Trail Blazer has in any game in 2015: He forced fifth fouls on both Paul and Hedo Turkoglu, drew a shooting foul from Austin Rivers, then assisted on three lobs, got a block, and hit a three, effectively swinging 11 points with initiative. The Trail Blazers walked away with an unlikely 98-93 overtime victory in their pocket.
Players
Nicolas Batum owned overtime from top to bottom. His late fourth quarter and overtime play may have been the most impressive stretch of his career. 20-7-8 with two blocks, a steal, and just one turnover.
LaMarcus Aldridge wasn’t a force, but he still had 29-9.
Damian Lillard was 0-12 until overtime. He finished with one field goal, five points, and four assists with five turnovers. Impressively, he had a career-high 18 rebounds (his previous high was 10) — the most by any guard in the NBA since 2007.
Wesley Matthews had a timely three late, but otherwise struggled right alongside Lillard. It was particularly hard to watch the woes of the Trail Blazers’ guards when Paul and Redick tore it up for the Clippers.
Robin Lopez had 6sixoffensive rebounds, seven total, and 11 points in a very able (if unglamorous) game for him.
Arron Afflalo hit the bank shot to bring the game toward overtime, but had some difficulty reaching his seven points. He did add four boards and three assists.
Chris Kaman was the better option for bench offense tonight, hitting 4-6 for 8 points and seven boards.
Notes
- The Trail Blazers now have a tenuous hold on third place in the West as the Rockets have lost two in a row, and at 40-19 the Trail Blazers have reached 40 wins before 20 losses for just the third time since 2001.
- The Trail Blazers needed two minutes of good basketball to erase a 10-point deficit when their energy was flat and they looked dead in the water. I think all of Portland owes Batum a hearty “Thank you.”
No rest for the weary. The Trail Blazers return home for the second half of this back-to-back against the Mavericks, which will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. PST.