Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard’s second half surge overwhelms Orlando

The Portland Trail Blazers start their first road trip of the season off right, beating the Orlando Magic 128-114.

The Portland Trail Blazers win over the Magic was a tale of two halves. In the first, Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins set Orlando up, and in the second, Damian Lillard knocked them down.

Right off the bat, the Blazers looked to attack Nikola Vuvecic in the post or on the pick-and-roll. Nurkic was a combination of strength and finesse this game, slamming in a couple dunks and hitting a few buttery midrange shots.

Hopefully Nurkic maintains the aggressiveness he showed at the rim this game, as it was a welcome sight from some of the usual floaters he puts up.

Nurkic has yet to hit a three-pointer this year and went 0-2 from deep tonight. But the shot looked good tonight. Both attempts went in-and-out. And I can only imagine how crazy Blazers Twitter will go when that first one finally goes in.

Collins was a major part of the Blazers first half, hitting a perfect 5-5 from the field and two from deep, including near half-court heave to beat the buzzer. But even more important than his deep-range perfection was his aggressiveness in the low post. He took rookie Mo Bamba to school tonight:

At the end of the half, Nurkic finished with 10 points while Collins had 13 to put the Blazers up by 10.

Nurkic finished with a double-double, 18 points and 10 boards. Collins had 17 and six.

But when the Blazers came back out to begin the third, Lillard-Time began a little earlier than usual.

In the first half, Lillard appeared to be “feeling out” the game, figuring out how the Magic would defend him on pick-and-roll coverage. Oftentimes, he’d drop a pass down low or off to the perimeter, even when it seemed he had ample space for his shot.

In the second, Lillard knew what he could get and he took it.

He finished the third with 21 points – in that quarter alone.

But he wasn’t done there. The Blazers began the fourth quarter with a 91-84 lead. About four minutes in, the Magic had trimmed the deficit to three, 102-99.

The Blazers called a timeout. And from there on, they outscored Orlando 26-15, with 12 of those points coming from Dame, giving him 33 points for the half and 41 overall.

The victory comes as a nice bounce back from the overtime defeat against the Washington Wizards. The Blazers had to prove they could execute down the stretch to stave off a fourth quarter comeback from the Magic, and they relied on a plethora of players – not just their stars.

Portland will look to keep this momentum rolling as they take on the Miami Heat on Saturday at 4:00 P.S.T.