Despite Friday’s rough loss to the Toronto Raptors, the Portland Trail Blazers have accomplished several impressive feats recently.
The Blazers are streaking, or at least they were ahead of Friday night.
Having won seven of its last eight games, Portland crossed the border to take on the No. 2 seed in the East. The Raptors jumped out to an early 20-point lead and never looked back.
For how great the Blazers looked over the past several weeks, their offense and defense simultaneously fell apart.
To take our mind off yesterday’s loss, let’s look at the notable achievements of a few members of the Trail Blazers organization.
Terry Stotts
Terry Stotts received one award and hit one milestone in the past week.
On Feb. 1, Stotts was named Western Conference Coach of the Month for the fifth time in his career. The four others came in:
- November 2013-14
- December 2014-15
- February 2015-16
- March 2016-17
In January, Portland went 11-5 and continued their eight-game undefeated streak at home. The praise came rolling in for Coach Stotts…
Congrats coach https://t.co/0pfspUwOgE
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) February 1, 2018
@trailblazers: Congrats coach! Terry Stotts named @NBA’s Western Conference Coach of the Month (his 5th time!) after #RipCity went 11-5 and undefeated at home in January. pic.twitter.com/vz3gfvyEx1
— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) February 1, 2018
Along with Coach of the Month, Terry Stotts reached career win No. 250! It came in Portland’s blowout victory of the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 26.
Damian Lillard
Damian Lillard hit career-point 10,000 in the first quarter of Friday’s loss to Toronto. He reached the 10k mark faster than any player in franchise history.
Dame is now 6th for most points in Blazers history with 10,020 – Jerome Kersey is just 47 points ahead for 5th all-time.
Lillard also joined a very elite group of players to get 10,000 points and 2,500 assists in their first six seasons.
Damian Lillard is 1 of 8 players all-time with 10,000 points and 2,500 assists in their first six seasons, joining Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Larry Bird, Nate Archibald, Pete Maravich, Dave Bing and Oscar Robertson.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 3, 2018
CJ McCollum
CJ McCollum got his name in the record books for Portland as well.
Against the Chicago Bulls to end January, CJ scored the most points in a quarter in franchise history. He totaled 28 points on 11/14 shooting and four three-pointers, giving the Blazers a 43-19 lead after 12 minutes.
Also, he joined Klay Thompson as the only players in NBA history to score 50 points in less than 30 minutes.
Next: Fan responses to a hypothetical Damian Lillard trade
Behind all of these milestones, the Blazers strung together their first four-game win streak of the season. Before Friday, they had won seven of eight and were up to 6th in the Western Conference.
Portland now travels to Boston and Detroit to finish this tough road trip. Winning at least one of the next two games is crucial for maintaining the current momentum.