The Portland Trail Blazers beat The Boston Celtics 112-104 Saturday Night at the Moda Center. The Blazers have swept the season series against the Celtics for the first time in a decade. Boston has been on a hellish road trip and just lost a heartbreaker to Golden State last night. You would figure that the Celtics would come in with some aggressiveness and killer instinct to not going home without a win. Well, as you will see, Boston dominated the first half, while Portland came out and took over the second half and the game.
The Boston Celtics outscored the Blazers 32-27 and jumped out to a 12-6 lead. That may not seem like much, but with the Blazers’ issue of allowing lesser teams to gain confidence this was something that Blazer fans did not want to see. However, this wasn’t all Portland’s fault. Boston, at one point, was shooting 74% and making very difficult jumpers. They had to fall back down to Earth eventually. Luckily the Blazers’ three-point shot was there all night as the Celtics really do not defend the perimeter that well. Portland was able to wipe away some sluggish mistakes in the first quarter to keep it close. You felt as if this game would be Portland’s eventually just because the Celtics were shooting ridiculously and only up by 4.
The second quarter was more of the same except that the Blazers ended the quarter well. They outscored the Celtics 31-28 and looked to be on their way to another dominant third quarter. Like I said above, the speed of the offense was picking up and the shots were falling. The bench was the catalyst for the offense picking up speed. Mo Williams and rookie C.J. McCollum were both hitting from the outside and giving Boston different looks. Oddly enough, I think Boston’s bench played better than their starting unit tonight.
The second half was all Blazers. In the entire second half, Portland outscored the Celtics 54-44. Impressive. Nothing special occurred either. The Blazers finally decided to play basketball on both ends of the floor and Boston started playing like their record and age. Portland did have to make it slightly interesting with two questionable Batum passes that resulted in turnovers and Lillard throwing the ball right to a defender in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. Fortunately, Boston was out of gas at this point. But, those incidents still make you shake your head and wonder why the Blazers can’t seem to step on that gas pedal.
The Blazers shot extremely well from beyond the arc. Going 10-for-21 and shooting 47.6% from three tonight, the Blazers had a bail out option. Any bad defensive mistakes or broken offensive plays were immediately wiped away as that three-point line was always there. The three-point shot kept the Blazers within striking distance of the Celtics in the first half and allowed them the increase their lead even further in the second half. Portland also got to the line tonight going 22-for-26. In offensive lulls, the Blazers always found a way to get to the line, which was an extreme positive tonight. The points in the paint stat wasn’t glaringly awful tonight. The Celtics outscored the Blazers 46-34, but it wasn’t as bad as you would think. Most of those points were at the beginning of the game where Avery Bradley would use his speed to drive past Lillard and be at the rim in a second or Jordan Crawford acting like Kobe Bryant and hitting ridiculous, but stupid shots.
The last and most telling stat were the second chance points. At one point the Blazers had a whopping 25 points to the Celtics’ 5. Talk about crashing the glass. However, that was to be expected as the Celtics really do not have size similar to Orlando. You could tell every time Lopez got the ball down low there was a great chance for an easy bucket or finish.
Overall, the starting lineup all played well tonight, but a couple players stand out.
Robin Lopez was an animal tonight. Finishing with 15 points on 5-for-13 shooting, 13 rebounds (9 offensive) and hitting all five of his FTs. Lopez was one of the reasons the Blazers were able to capture the lead in the second half. Almost immediately the Blazers went to Lopez. The first couple of plays out of the half saw Lopez get touches and it worked. People need to start watching Lopez during games because he makes a lot of subtle, but very impressive, high-IQ plays. He’s had a few nice boxouts this season that have resulted in probably the easiest buckets the Blazers have had. He has also shown a knack for rebounding the ball with just one hand available. Not necessarily a skill that you gloat about, but it is just one of those subtle things that make him valuable. I challenge you all to start watching him for those plays as he might surprise you.
LaMarcus Aldridge was just being LA again tonight as he finished with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting and had 13 rebounds. This game was just another solid outing from LA and he really never had a challenge. The hardest person he had to fight against was probably Brandon Bass. That just gives you an indication of the competition that the Blazers were up against tonight. Again, he is an all-star. Nothing else to see here.
Now, I am going to highlight a bench player. C.J. McCollum, the much-anticipated rookie who was playing just his second NBA game, had a nice all-around game. He finished with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting, 2-for-3 from three and 1 assist. The thing that stands out about C.J. is his poise. Everyone talks about that word, but the way he plays defense and the way he has already integrated himself into this offense has been very impressive. He already had defenders following him as he drove to the basket, but instead of making a rookie move and trying to make the shot he passed it to an outside shooter. His defense needs to be praised in the sense that it doesn’t feel like a rookie playing defense. He gets up in people’s space and he pokes at the ball without committing too many fouls. Obviously he still needs more time in games, but the fact that the Blazers now have another guy who can give them 10-15 points off the bench is going to be huge down the stretch of this season.
Well, the Blazers have yet another long break in between games. The Blazers will face the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night at the Moda Center at 7:00 p.m. PST. You may be getting Blazer withdrawal with a couple of days in between, but the Blazers are about to embark on a Texas four games in five nights road trip. I’ll take the rest now thank you very much. Stay tuned!