Trail Blazers Set Record for Margin of Victory Over Hornets

📍PORTLAND, Ore. — What do Bill Walton, Clyde Drexler, Damian Lillard, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey and Maurice Lucas have in common?

Besides making up the shortlist for greatest Trail Blazers ever, they all share the distinction of having never won a game by 50 points in a Portland uniform.

Before the Blazers’ Saturday 141-88 demolition of the Charlotte Hornets, it had only happened once in franchise history. On Nov. 21, 1982, the Blazers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-79. Walton and Lucas were out of town by then. Drexler wouldn’t be drafted for another seven months. Aldridge, Roy and Lillard were several years from being born. The Blazers’ leading scorers in that game were Jim Paxson, with 23 points, and Darnell Valentine, with 18. There was a Cliff Robinson involved for the Cavs (12 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes), but it wasn’t that Cliff Robinson.

43 years later, as they were running the Hornets out of the building, none of the Blazers players, nor head coach Chauncey Billups, had any idea they were making history with their final margin of victory of 53 points.

Even going back to their high-school and college careers, most of them have never won a basketball game by that many points before.

“I’ve lost by that much,” Toumani Camara joked.

The Blazers beat that number twice last year with 60-point losses in Oklahoma City and Miami. They came close earlier this season, losing by 45 to Memphis in November. At that point, the Blazers were viewed, and viewed themselves, as a team in the same class as this truly bleak Charlotte team.

“We’ve definitely been on the other side of that too many times as a group,” Billups said. “It feels good to be on this side of it.”

Some fun lopsided stats that the Blazers have seen plenty of time on the receiving end of: they outrebounded the Hornets 57-38, outshot them from three-point range 20-5, set a league high for most fast-break points in a half with 27 in the first half (the final margin was 36-14), and held LaMelo Ball to 1-for-10 from the field.

“We really worried about LaMelo,” Billups said. “Toumani did an incredible job on him. That was his assignment. Defensively, I thought we were there the whole night.”

The game was over early—a 13-0 run in the first quarter put the Blazers up 16-4 and Charlotte never got within striking distance after that. Camara had one of his best all-around games as a pro, with 20 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, a steal and two blocks, making four three-pointers. Shaedon Sharpe and Jabari Walker each added 20 off the bench and Anfernee Simons’ 25 came almost entirely in the first half—he wasn’t needed much after that.

The Blazers team that won by 50 in 1982 was much better than this one. That team won 46 games and made the playoffs. But there are some parallels. That team was a couple years removed from an acrimonious split with its most iconic superstar, and still looking for its next one.

They drafted Drexler with the No. 14 overall pick the next year.

The Hornets are much better-positioned than the Blazers when it comes to their odds to land Cooper Flagg, the best bet to be that guy for whichever franchise ends up winning the lottery in May.

The Blazers will worry about that after the season. This kind of history, winning by 53 points, is more fun than some of the history they made last year.

“Let’s break it,” Walker said. “Let’s break it next game.”