The Trail Blazers didn’t make it easy on themselves, blowing a 16-point lead and nearly handing the game over in the fourth quarter with turnovers, miscues and terrible free-throw shooting.
The Portland Trail Blazers met the Charlotte Hornets Saturday in Charlotte, with both teams playing the second game of a back-to-back. Portland dispatched the feisty but outmanned Orlando Magic 95-88 on Friday, while the Hornets lost 104-98 at home to the Miami Heat.
The Hornets entered the game with a 10-18 record, third-worst in the Eastern Conference. The Trail Blazers arrived in Charlotte having won two in a row and were 15-13 overall.
Questions going in:
Will Jusuf Nurkic continue to shake off rust in his second game back from injury?
Does Al-Farouq Aminu continue his torrid shooting pace?
Does Evan Turner score more than 10 points?
Will Meyers Leonard or Maurice Harkless get in the game at all?
Answers going out:
Yes.
No.
No.
And no.
Let’s tip it off.
First Quarter
Blazers starting five: Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Turner, Aminu and Nurkic.
Hornets starting five: Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marvin Williams and Dwight Howard.
Portland built an early 8-3 lead, forcing the Hornets to call a timeout. Afterword – and in quick succession – Batum nailed a deep three, Aminu turned the ball over, and Williams scored. Suddenly the game was tied 8-8.
That turnover was a harbinger of bad things to come.
A Nurkic dunk one play later gave the Trail Blazers the lead 10-8, with Lillard assisting on each of the squad’s first four baskets. The basket also gave Nurkic six points in the first four minutes of the game.
It was back and forth the rest of the quarter. Howard was vacuuming up boards; he would finish the game with 15.
First off the bench? Ed Davis and Zach Collins.
At the end of the first, Lillard set up Collins for an alley-oop, but the rookie flubbed it and the ball ricocheted off the rim. Collins would finish the half with no points and seven rebounds.
After one: Trail Blazers 24, Hornets 20, with Nurkic, Lillard and McCollum accounting for 22 of those 24 points. Lillard also had five assists.
Second Quarter
Portland’s bench came on strong in the second quarter, with Noah Vonleh, Pat Connaughton, Shabazz Napier and Davis playing significant minutes alongside starter McCollum.
Charlotte scored four quick points before Ed Davis muscled a rebound and scored the put back. Davis was fouled on the play and made the free throw to finish off his three-point play the old-fashioned way.
Vonleh was in beast mode during his time on the court, thrashing – and fouling – Hornets on illegal screens and pushing Frank Kaminsky into the paint before scoring on a nice baby hook. Vonleh also scored on a 21-foot jumper.
The second quarter also gave us more evidence that Nurkic needs to practice his interior passing. He sometimes puts too much juice on his passes, making them difficult to catch in traffic, often leading to turnovers.
With a little more than three minutes left in the half, Lillard slipped and fell to the floor. The Trail Blazers called timeout, and he hobbled to the bench. But Lillard came right back onto the floor after the timeout and promptly nailed two three-pointers.
The Blazers ended the second quarter on a 14-3 run, opening up a ten-point lead on a Napier three. After two: Trail Blazers 49, Hornets 37. Lillard had 16 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.
Third Quarter
The Hornets pulled within seven over the course of the first three minutes of the third quarter and the Blazers started to rack up fouls. Nurkic, who had a nice block on a Howard attempt, picked up his third while Aminu picked up his fourth.
Former Blazer Batum picked it up in the third. Over the course of the quarter, he scored on a driving layup, two threes, a 13-foot bank shot, a third three, one more 13-footer and – finally – a fourth three-pointer. Batum’s previous high for a game this season was 17 points – and he had just scored 18 points in one quarter.
Batum and the Hornets were reinvigorated, outscoring the Trail Blazers 35-30 in the third quarter to cut the lead to seven.
End of three: Portland 74, Charlotte 67. Lillard had 16 points and 11 assists for the Blazers. Howard grabbed 14 rebounds, and Batum scored 23 for the Hornets.
Fourth Quarter
The fourth got off to a swell start, with the Trail Blazers going on a 9-0 run with Lillard on the bench to take a 16-point lead. By this point, it was clear that Aminu’s shooting had cooled off. He was just one for six from the field and hadn’t hit a three.
The Trail Blazers may have been running on fumes at this point. They fouled the Hornets with alarming frequency, and during one awful stretch, the Blazers turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions and went more than four minutes without a basket.
With about four-and-a-half minutes to play, McCollum fouled Jeremy Lamb on a three-point shot. Lamb converted all three free throws, and just like that, the game was tied at 87.
Turnovers continued to plague Portland down the stretch. Nurk threw the ball away trying to pass to Vonleh and Turner lost the ball near midcourt, leading to a Walker layup attempt that would have tied the game. But Aminu blocked the shot. Portland head coach Stotts called it the play of the game.
And yet it still wasn’t over. With a chance to seal the game with three seconds left, Aminu missed two free throws. Portland finished the game nine of 18 from the free-throw line.
Next: Should Terry Stotts or Neil Olshey shoulder the blame?
Walker missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, and the Blazers had survived to win for the 13th time in their last 17 meetings against the Hornets. McCollum finished with 25 points on 10 of 17 shooting. Lillard had 18 points, 11 assists. Nurkic scored 14 points and had five rebounds.
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. On Saturday, the Blazers were lucky that Charlotte wasn’t good enough to make a shot down the stretch.
Takeaways
Roadtrip Finale Ahead
The Trail Blazers are now 3-1 on this road trip. They’ll finish up Monday with a tilt against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Is Leonard Still Ill?
This was the third game in a row that Leonard has sat the bench. According to Basketball Reference, Leonard sat out the previous two games with an illness. Is he still ill? Also, the team has won its last eight games while Leonard sat.
Is Damian Still a Defensive Demon?
Yup! Lillard continued his strong defensive play. On this road trip, he has been especially aggressive defending the perimeter, getting his arms and body in the passing lanes and successfully swatting the ball out of defenders’ hands.