Trail Blazers Get Away With One
The Blazers blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead to the Kings but escaped with a win.
The Rose Garden Report is a fully independent publication providing coverage of the Portland Trail Blazers you can’t get anywhere else. Purchasing a premium subscription gives you full access to all articles and ability to participate in mailbags, as well as helping to cover travel costs and other expenses to bring you the best coverage possible.
📍PORTLAND, Ore. — There have been a few games this season that the Trail Blazers lost but played well enough to win.
Thursday night's game against the Sacramento Kings was a win that felt like a loss.
It probably should have been, a few different times, starting when they blew a 15-point lead with under two minutes left in regulation.
A pair of missed free throws by Shaedon Sharpe with 28 seconds left that would have put them up seven, followed by a Russell Westbrook layup to cut their lead to three, followed by Deni Avdija committing one of several turnovers on an inbound attempt. DeMar DeRozan tying it with a three-pointer to force overtime. Two turnovers and three missed free throws (the last of 12 misses from the line on the night, a frequent problem for the Blazers this season) in the extra period.
Just a lot of things that happened that should have added up to the Blazers' worst loss of the season. And it would have, except they finished with one more point than the Kings, thanks to a last-second foul call against Westbrook that sent Avdija to the line to win it.
This team needs wins however they can get them (they're currently clinging to 10th place in the Western Conference play-in race), but this one didn't feel good.
"We're satisfied with the win, but even when I got those two free throws, I don't think anybody was very happy," Avdija said. "The way we won wasn't nice, but sometimes you've just got to be happy with the win."
For a few seconds after Avdija baited Westbrook into the contact, he didn't realize the game wasn't over. The shot he threw up was off, and the Kings, 6-21 on the season and missing Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis, started celebrating what would have been an impressive fourth-quarter comeback win. Referee Marc Davis threw the Blazers a life raft, and this time, Avdija took it.
The Blazers gave up 40 points in the first quarter, led by three at halftime and trailed by one going into the fourth quarter. Sharpe was ineffective in the second half after a 20-point first half. Once they finally gained some separation and went up by 18 in the fourth quarter, they figured they had it in the bag.
The Kings kept chipping away, taking advantage of Portland's mental lapses and blown opportunities to put the game away. The Blazers lost their composure, and it almost came back to bite them.
"It's a mentality thing," acting head coach Tiago Splitter said. "The way we started, we didn't like at all. They scored 40 points in the first quarter. We had to use timeouts just to get them right. We relaxed a little bit. You can't do it. These guys are too good. Now, you get a couple punches in the face and you wake up, then you play, and then you're up 17, we relax again, get punched again in the face. Luckily, we had energy and focus to finish the game in overtime."
It was Avdija, Jerami Grant and Kris Murray that brought it home in overtime after Toumani Camara fouled out in the fourth quarter.
"Everybody was frustrated because everybody could have done something better," Camara said. "It's good that we're able to learn through wins, but it's not how we want to win basketball games."
Comments ()