BLAZERS RIP HAPLESS CLIPPERS

Less than 24 hours from a big home court win over the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, the Portland Trailblazers found themselves in Los Angeles playing the lowly Clippers.  In the midst of a heated battle for playoff position in the NBA West the question became ‘Would the Blazers suffer a letdown after the Lakers game?’.  The answer—yes and no:  Portland looked sluggish early and actually trailed by two early in the final quarter.  The end result, however, was a 87-72 victory over the Clippers who fell into a tie with Sacramento for the worst home court record in the league.

Portland looked flat in the opening quarter, but opened up a 46-31 halftime lead.  The Clippers came out firing in the second half, however, outscoring the Blazers 25-17 in the third quarter.  Their run continued into the final period and after an 8-0 run the Clippers took a 68-66 lead with just under eight minutes to play in the game.  At that point, Blazer coach Nate McMillan called a time out and challenged his players to dig deep and pull out the victory.  As they have so many times this year, the young Blazers responded—in this instance by going on an 18-0 run to secure the victory.  Afterwards, McMillan was pleased at how his team responded to the situation:

"We weren't sharp but we kept fighting and we had some guys to step up in the second half and break it open. If I had a hat, I would tip it to our guys because they've just been gutting it out. To pull out this game tonight after an emotional game in our building last night against the Lakers and just find a way to stay together and win was huge for us."

The victory was Portland’s seventh in their last nine road games, and the Blazers have won 8 of 10 overall.  With the win they moved into a third place tie with Houston and are a single game behind 2^nd place Denver.  While the team has played well on the road, they would dearly like to secure home court advantage and force opponents to face the brutal environment at the Rose Garden Arena where the Blazers are 32-7 on the season.

Portland was led by LaMarcus Aldridge, who took advantage of the Clippers’ shoddy interior defense to post 21 points and pull down 9 rebounds.  Brandon Roy added 15, while Rudy Fernandez contributed 13.  Joel Przybilla had yet another strong showing in the pivot, scoring 10 points and hauling in 14 rebounds for a ‘double/double’.  The Clippers were led by Eric Gordon with 18 points with Zach Randolph adding 13 points and Baron Davis 12.

The Blazers won’t get much rest, however, as they return home to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.  They’ll conclude the season by hosting Denver in a game that could have a significant impact on the final playoff seedings in the West.  The Clippers will head to Utah on Monday before finishing their season at home on Wednesday against Oklahoma City.