Trail Blazers lose to Harden-less Houston Rockets, 121-112
A lot of it came down to this: Too much Chris Paul and Eric Gordon. Paul finishes with 37 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Gordon scores 30.
On Tuesday night, the Portland Trail Blazers put another feather in their Hella Week cap. Despite playing without Damian Lillard, the Blazers thumped the Oklahoma City Thunder, 117-106.
The victory, the Trail Blazers’ third in a row and sixth of their last eight, moved them into fifth place in the Western Conference at 22-18.
And Portland is now in second place in the Northwest Division, three games behind the Minnesota Timberwolves. (The Trail Blazers will end their hella week Sunday against the Timberwolves.)
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Trail Blazers are still in the middle of their hella week.
Trail Blazers at the Houston Rockets
Following victories against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday and OKC on Tuesday, the Trail Blazers turned their sights to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. It was the second game of a back-to-back. And Portland was 5-2 in those.
Houston played without James Harden, out with an injured hamstring.
Damian Lillard was back for the Trail Blazers after missing two straight with a calf strain.
Let’s do this.
First Quarter
Trail Blazers offense begins the game with three straight misses (two by Evan Turner, one by CJ McCollum). Houston begins with a three by Eric Gordon and a slow-mo drive by the deadly and methodical Chris Paul.
Jusuf Nurkic missed a layup because for some reason he still refuses to dunk the basketball!
Lillard wasn’t aggressive early; he was likely pacing himself, getting back into the flow of the offense and testing that bad calf. He missed his first two shots.
First off the bench for the Trail Blazers: Ed Davis, Shabazz Napier and Zach Collins.
Trail Blazers call the first timeout of the game: Houston 19, Portland 14.
Collins hits his first shot of the game (a three-pointer).
After one quarter: Rockets 25, Trail Blazers 19.
Lillard plays seven minutes in the quarter.
It’s a pretty offensive offensive game; neither team is shooting well. Portland is 6-for-21 (28.6 percent), and Houston is 9-for-29 (31 percent). Both teams attempt 11 threes in the quarter; Portland makes three, and Houston makes 4.
Second Quarter
Napier hits a three to start the Trail Blazers’ scoring in the second quarter, but they still have trouble scoring. Nurkic is thus far a no-show; he’s 0-for-3 from the floor with two personal fouls and just three rebounds in six minutes of action.
Portland calls another timeout. With 8:29 left in the half, they only have 22 points and are down by nine points. Doesn’t get much better for Portland after the timeout; the Rockets open up a 10-point lead, 36-26.
Lillard scores his first field goal with 6:26 left in the half to pull the Trail Blazers to within six points.
Lillard is more active and aggressive now; he’s 2-for-5 with 6 points and 3 assists in 12 minutes. But the Trail Blazers defense is porous and the Rockets open up an 11-point lead, 46-35, with 4:32 left in the half. Portland is also carelessly fouling Rockets shooters.
A Chris Paul jumper gives the Rockets a 14-point lead, 51-37.
And it still looks bad at the half: Rockets 55, Portland 45.
For the Blazers, McCollum has 14 points. Lillard has eight. Napier scores five. Nurkic ends the half with four points and four rebounds in just 10 minutes.
For the Rockets, Gordon and Paul both have 13 points. Paul also has six rebounds and five assists. Tarik Black has 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Third Quarter
The Trail Blazers come out with some life in the second half: A Lillard layup followed by two three-pointers from Evan Turner and one from Al-Farouq Aminu being Portland to within five, 58-53. Turner is especially aggressive after the break on offense and defense.
And Dame is really getting warmed up now.
Still, the Trail Blazers are having trouble closing the gap any further. With 4:04 left, the Rockets are up 76-68.
A steal leads to a fact break for the Blazers, which Davis finishes with a dunk. Portland pulls within five again.
Davis hacks Tarik Black and is called for a flagrant foul (type 1). Black, who made the shot, goes to the locker room holding a towel over his face. Chris Paul makes the technical free throw, followed by possession of the ball and a PJ Tucker layup.
Just like that, it’s Rockets 84, Blazers 74.
Davis hits a free throw and McCollum hits a tough driving layup.
But the quarter ends when Paul makes a tough baseline jumper for the Rockets.
After three: Rockets 86, Trail Blazers 77.
For Portland, McCollum has 18 points. Lillard with 17 points. Turner has 12 points.
For Houston, Gordon has 26 points, and Paul has 23 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
Fourth Quarter
Paul starts where he left off; he hits a three-pointer for his 26th point.
And yet, despite their sluggish play and all those and-one fouls on the Rockets, Portland is within seven with 9:19 left.
But the Blazers still have trouble stopping Gordon and Paul. And the Rockets are beating the Blazers to rebounds and generally outhustling them.
McCollum hits a shot high off the glass and – just like that! – Portland is within five points, 103-98, after going on a 9-0 run.
Turner makes a couple of difficult jump shots, and the Blazers are within three, 105-102, with just under three minutes left.
Ultimately though, despite a valiant effort, the Trail Blazers just couldn’t quite pull this one out.
Next: Which Blazers are most appealing to the rest of the league?
Late in the game, the Trail Blazers are unable to get the ball inbounds. And Lillard is unhappy with an uncontested layup by Paul with the game already out of reach. Lillard lets Paul know about it, too, and tries to smack the ball out of Paul’s hands as the final buzzer sounds.
Trail Blazers fall to the James Harden-less Rockets, 121-112.
Lillard plays 32 minutes, scoring 29 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing our eight assists. McCollum goes for 24/6/4. Turner scores 18 on 7-of-11 shooting. Nurkic was M.I.A., finishing with eight points and eight rebounds. Davis finishes with 11 points and 10 boards.
Up next for the Trail Blazers: Friday in New Orleans against the Pelicans.
Takeaways
Are the Trail Blazers better without Damian Lillard? Kidding. I’m totally kidding.
Ed Davis at the rim. Davis has improved his finishes at the rim. He’s already an active defender and rebounder; the more he can put the ball in the hole, the better.
Road record and back-to-backs. Portland falls to 12-9 on the road this season and 5-3 in the second game of back-to-backs.
Whither Maurice Harkless? After appearing to break out of his season-long basketball doldrums recently, Harkless only played eight minutes Wednesday. He didn’t score any points.