NBA Summer League: Portland Trail Blazers upend top seed Raptors

The Blazers, coming off a preliminary round win, topped the Raptors in a down-to-the-wire game.

The loss of Pat Connaughton and Zach Collins for the Blazers has breathed in new life. Never mind needing to fill in two new starters right before the tournament. Never mind the guys off the bench who haven’t played much getting extended minutes.

This team is out there making plays, and collecting wins.

The Blazers strapped in for a second round matchup with the 3-0, No. 1 seed Toronto Raptors. Toronto earned a bye with their stellar record, while Portland — which entered the tourney 1-2 — had to beat the Bulls to advance.

Rather than fall under pressure, the Blazers beat the Raptors 91-85 to move on to the quarterfinals.

The game’s loose play is typical for Summer League. There’s the blown rotations, errant passes out-of-bounds and the constant clanging of misses off the rim.

But inside the madness, Portland put together an impressive showing.

Layman and Swanigan perform

Jake Layman, who suffered through some bad shooting nights this Summer League, returned to form Thursday. He scored 12 points (2-4 from three) and kept the offense humming along.

Caleb Swanigan continued his dominating Summer League. The forward put in 13 points and 11 rebounds worth of work for Portland. He hit threes, jumpers of pick-n-rolls and finished around the rim.

Bench backs up Layman and Swanigan

With the loss of Connaughton and Collins, along with guard Markel Brown, minutes opened up. And in those open minutes, the bench got extended tastes of Summer League.

A player I’ve been watching closely is Antonius Cleveland. While the SEMO guard didn’t play much pre-injuries, he’s gotten some play now.

Cleveland provided seven points, five rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes off the bench.

But the two most impressive bench pieces were Jarnell Stokes and Nick Johnson.

Stokes, a former NBA player whose career includes stops in Miami, Memphis and Denver, provided sorely-needed finishing at the rim.

He finished with 13 points (6-8 shooting) and five rebounds in 24 minutes. And, to end the night, he hit the game-clinching, and-one layup.

Johnson, a former second-round pick, only lasted half a season in the NBA before a trade and subsequent waiving.

But on this night, Johnson looked like an NBA bench piece.

The guard made shot after shot in the third and fourth quarters. His two timely threes at the end of the third kept Portland within striking distance.

Then, he continued his hot streak, scoring a free throw, layup and jump shot in the first minute and 28 seconds to put the Blazers on top.

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Road ahead

The Blazers have an off day Friday before their quarterfinal matchup with the Spurs. San Antonio dusted Portland earlier in NBA Summer League by a score of 99-85. The Spurs do have Las Vegas’ top scorer in Bryn Forbes putting in 29.3 PPG.

But Portland now has some momentum, and real bench production, so don’t put them out of this one just yet.