Career Nights for Scoot Henderson and Toumani Camara, and a Crucial Loss for the Trail Blazers
Henderson scored a career high 39 points and made eight three-pointers.
📍PORTLAND, Ore. — Near the halfway point of the regular season, the Trail Blazers played what could end up being one of their most consequential games of the year.
The Blazers and Nets entered the night with the same number of wins on the season (13), and the same goals for May. With the margins as thin as they are, any separation at all in the standings in this time of the season before the real teardown and shutdown begins is crucial.
The stakes were high, and the Blazers did what they needed to do.
These are the victories in a season like this.
Not that it was pretty—the Blazers were outworked on the glass, doubled up in transition (29-14) and turned the ball over 17 times.
“We just didn’t have pride at all defensively,” Chauncey Billups said. “There were a couple guys that fought extremely hard, but our pride wasn’t there on the defensive end of the floor. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against. These are the kind of nights that can happen to you.
“They embarrassed us tonight.”
There were positives, chief among them Scoot Henderson’s career night. If you want to know what kind of night he had, the sixth of his made three-pointers to start the game bounced off the front of the rim and then went in, the kind of roll much better shooters than him usually get.
“At that point, I’m just like, ‘Oh, my goodness,’” Henderson said. “I turned around like, ‘OK, that’s what type of time the ball is on.’ You’ve got to talk to her nice, man, so I did.”
If Henderson hadn’t played the second half, the 25 points he scored in the first half would have been a season high. He finished with a new career high of 39, with six assists and several more passes that teammates failed to convert into assists.
Henderson and Toumani Camara, who also had a new career high with 24 points, saved Tuesday from being a blowout on the level of their losses to Memphis and Utah earlier in the season. It looked like it was heading that way after the Blazers gave up 40 points in the first quarter.
In the final minutes, Donovan Clingan left with an ankle injury, visibly frustrated. Billups didn’t know the severity of the injury; given that Clingan already missed time with a knee injury this season, it wouldn’t be a surprise for them to be cautious with him in the coming days.