of portland trailblazers Overcame an upset attempt by Charlotte Hornets We won 124-113 on Monday night. The Blazers emerged victorious on the strength of the second half. Jerami Grant and Jusuf Nurkic led, with him scoring 32 and 28 points respectively.
The Hornets played great in the first half but couldn’t get past the Blazers in the closing stages. Their top scorer in the contest was Lamelo Ball with 27 points.
See our quarterly breakdown of games here Click here for the instant summaryWith that done, here are some observations about tonight’s game.
Yusuf Nurkic
It would be disrespectful for Nurkic to say anything else before emphasizing his dominating performance of 28 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals. Oh yeah, his 3-pointer at five of his casual career highs. The Bosnian beast was on a mission and he was unstoppable. He does everything on the court and that was reflected in his +19 plus minus his mark. That’s not counting the screen he set that allowed the Blazers to hit 14 threes and score 52 points in the paint. showed. The Blazers started turning the game around just as Nurkic started to heat up, and neither the team nor Nurkic looked back after that.
hornets limit
The Hornets made only 41 of 103 shooting attempts. His 40% off the field was well below his 50% on the Blazers. Ultimately, the difference between the two teams was in the number of shots he took. The Blazers took his double-digit wins from the field, from 3, and from the free-throw line. They allowed his 18 offensive rebounds on him, which is high, but that was due to the amount of shots the Hornets had. Portland was never satisfied with defense and fought to block the Hornets’ second chance to score. The first-half deficit was due to many factors, most notably the Hornets’ fast-breaking chances. But in the second half, the Blazers limited them, too. Overall, the Blazers have been able to adapt to the Hornets at every turn and keep their runs at just the right time to win this contest.
overcome initial problems
A sloppy first half looks better on paper, thanks mostly to a 10-2 run in the Blazers’ favor. seemed to be The Blazers had him record 10 turnovers in the first half and eight in the first quarter alone. They looked like a team that would see him lose three in a row in a winnable game. However, the first half ended with a swing down. That attitude carried over into the third quarter, where the Blazers scored his 40 points to win by 12 points. But once done, they handled business against lesser foes as expected.
keep the ball moving
Losing Justice Winslow in the final game hurt the Blazers’ offense, which at times lacks a secondary playmaker. The offense seemed poised to move to iso-heavy shot chucking without a real point guard off the bench, and the Blazers overcame those concerns with his 28 assists to win . Lillard finished with his nine, Nurkic with his six and Grant with his five. The Blazers kept the ball bouncing around the court and used their movement to land good open shots. The most obvious beneficiary of that movement was Nurkic. His 3s were a direct result of his passing ability and general ball movement. He was able to catch a pass and then fake a pass, going wide open over and over again. The Blazers have a capable passer, and if they continue to show they are aggressive passers, we can expect more games like this.
bench play
The Blazers’ bench was up and down throughout the game. They only had 18 points, but they made it 8-14 from the field. Keown Johnson proved to be a spark off the bench with his big shot early in the game. His eight quick points in his first shift kept the Blazers afloat amidst a rough start. Still, the Blazers were led by the starters and, despite double-digit wins, finished with his three of his four players off the bench negative plus/minus. The bench didn’t have to be great in this game, but they play like this every night and you can’t expect the same results from the starters.
rebound
Josh Hart, Jerami Grant and Yusuf Nurkic all three in the starting frontcourt had double-doubles with rebounds in the game. Combined, he had 38 rebounds and almost single-handedly rebounded the Hornets. Grass’s control helped turn the tide for the Blazers.With the help of these three, they were able to establish a defensive presence.
The trio also pushed the Hornets aside in the paint and dominated with their presence. Nurkic-Grant-Hart’s trio recorded his rebounds six times during that time. When all three of his guys are as dominant on the grass as they are tonight, it will be a daunting task for any team to build momentum. That proved to be the case with the Hornets.
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The Blazers took another long break before golden state warriors Friday, December 30th at 7pm in San Francisco.
