The Portland Trail Blazers weren’t shown much mercy by this season’s schedule makers, with four of their first seven games coming against legitimate title contenders in Phoenix, the Clippers (twice), and tonight’s opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers.
Well most of the 76ers at least. With Ben Simmons in the gym, but still out of the lineup, and Joel Embiid taking a rest day, the Blazers had a chance to steal one on the road.
But Philadelphia’s depth and timely shooting was too much for Portland, and the Blazers fell 113-103 to drop to 3-4 on the season.
The Portland Trail Blazers drop their second game in a row against the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers
Portland jumped out to a quick 7-2 advantage, but saw their last lead of the night disappear when Furkan Korkmaz hit a three-pointer to make it 12-9. The Blazers had a hard time taking care of the ball early, turning the ball over eight times in the first quarter, but cleaned it up with just seven the rest of the night.
Despite the early miscues, the Blazers kept things close until falling behind by 12 late in the third. They responded with a 12-0 run, and a Simons three pointer tied things at 86-86 with 11 minutes left.
Philly then got an old-fashioned three point play from Georges Niang (21 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST) and a bucket from Shake Milton to go back up five, and the Blazers never got closer than that.
Norman Powell shined in his return from a minor knee injury, with 22 points on 8-12 shooting, and Anfernee Simons added an additional argument to his case for Sixth Man of the Year with another energetic performance, pitching in 17 points on 7-12 shooting (3-7 from three-point range).
Nassir Little was also strong off the bench, pulling down eight rebounds in 20 minutes and finishing as one of just two Blazers at a net plus for the night; Simons was the other.
Damian Lillard‘s three-point woes continued — he was just 2-9 from long range — but he had ten assists to go with his 20 points and put together a one-man five-point run to pull the Blazers to within five points with four minutes left.
CJ McCollum pitched in 20 for Portland, giving them three starters with 20 or more for the night. Both teams are back in action Wednesday, with the Blazers finishing up their three-game road trip in Cleveland while Philadelphia hosts the resurgent Chicago Bulls.