of portland trailblazers broke the San Antonio Spurs 128-112 in the first game of a long six-game road trip. The Blazers did so in dominant fashion, except for a 3rd quarter scare. They took an 11-point lead in the second quarter and haven’t relinquished the lead since.
You can find quarterly summaries of the game hereNow, some observations about the game.
Damien Lillard
Lillard picked up where he left off after a dominant 38-point performance in three quarters of the previous game. He was a highly efficient 9-15 from the field and scored 22 goals in the first half alone. Not to lose even one, he added an extra 15 of his in the second half, increasing his game total to 37. This marked his fourth straight out of at least 35 points, making him the longest streak to match Joel Embiid. this year. For the second game in a row, Lillard took almost all the damage from the field and he had only two points from the line. He also put up a total of 30 total 3-pointers in his stretch this last four games. Lillard’s scoring streak continues, edging closer to Clyde’s record and now just 69 behind the Blazers legend.
Score in a bunch
The Blazers scored a season-high 73 points in the first half. They shot 66% of him from the field and just at the half he added 10 threes on 21 attempts. After a rough third quarter, the Blazers put the Spurs away with his 31-point fourth quarter to finish the game with 128 points. The Blazers now have at least 120 points in their last four games. The Blazers’ offense is going well now that they are almost back to full force.
do the dirty work
The Blazers quartet of Justice Winslow, Josh Hart, Trendon Watford and Drew Eubanks combined for just 17 points across the four, but proved their worth in many other ways. The four combined for 20 rebounds, and the bench trio of Winslow, Watford and Eubanks didn’t miss a single of their five shots. Winslow, Hart, Watford and Eubanks also joined his end defensively, taking the pressure off Lillard and the others, allowing them to perform on both ends and focus primarily on his end offensively. did.
big four
Damien Lillard, Anfanie Simmons, Jerami Grant and Yusuf Nurkic combined for 93 points, 19 rebounds and 20 assists. The stat sheet stuffing that these four of him did balanced perfectly with the players in the trenches and created a Blazers power that proved hard to stop. When Lillard and Simmons are both scoring, there aren’t many teams in the league that can keep up. All four finished the night with over 50% from the field and played very well against each other.
third quarter
It’s easy to see one side’s dominance by looking at the final score, but that’s not entirely wrong. But just eight minutes into the second half, Spurs looked like the better team. The Spurs were able to cut his halftime lead to just four at one point over the 16-point Blazer, largely thanks to an 11–0 run that saw him nearly halfway through the period. The rest of the game went as expected for the Blazers, but this quarter was worrying to say the least. The end result was good, but the Blazers could move to a weaker part of the schedule or end that stretch with some disappointing losses, so they’re likely to be out in 1st rather than their 3rd quarter self. , 2nd, and 4th quarter selves should play.
take care of your business
What really separates good teams from great ones is their ability to win games against inferior teams.Being able to blow the bottom feeder is generally a good sign of team strength. houston rockets and opposite 2 oklahoma city thunder, making 4 of 6 games in the West’s bottom 3. It was a great win tonight and the first in a series of hopeful resume padders for the Blazers.
allow a second chance
The Blazers beat the Spurs 97-81. They allowed 14 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over 17 times. If the Spurs were shooting slightly better than his 46% from the field, they could have hit a real shot. Luckily, the offensive rebounding numbers seem to come not from bad rebounding, but from good defense that caused more of his shots to miss, and the Blazers are largely thanks to that defense to his six I was able to mitigate the difference in turnover. I’m a little concerned about the difference in shots, but it didn’t burn tonight.
next
The Blazers head to Dallas to take on Luka Doncic and the Mavericks in Game 2 of their road trip. The game he will tip off on Friday, December 16 at 5:30 p.m. PT.
