In what was yet another dominant fourth quarter, the Blazers once again were able to come away with the win. The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-96 Wednesday night at the Moda Center increasing their record to 29-9 on the season. Portland officially swept the season series against Cleveland and now prepare for a dangerous Texas Triangle road trip, but I am getting ahead of myself.
One of the major stories was the matchup of two of the best point guards in the game, Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving. Being the second and last matchup of the season, you would expect that both point guards would be ready to go. As you will see later on, Lillard outplayed Irving on the offensive end and obviously had the better end result.
I mentioned in a previous post that I thought the Portland offense needed to “rev up”. Well, it had to do that again tonight. The Blazers seemed to come out flat again as shots made the familiar “thunk” sound off the rim. LaMarcus Aldridge especially suffered from the first quarter blues as he made just 3-of-7 in the quarter alone. What is impressive and a sign of this team’s abilities is the fact that the Blazers got out of the first quarter only down by one. Similar to the Boston and Orlando games, Cleveland came out red hot. The Cavs were making difficult shot after difficult shot and had their confidence built from the beginning. As what has become a story for these last three games, the Blazers have allowed teams to come into the building and give them confidence right away. This is one area where the Blazers will need to mature to really be that elite team. Fortunately, the Blazers are already good enough to let their offense take over and carry them through tough situations as we saw tonight.
The second quarter was as fans have come to expect. The offense was starting to gel and was able to figure out Cleveland’s defense. The Blazers outscored the Cavs 28-23 and took a four point lead into halftime.
The dominant third quarter as Blazer fans have become accustomed to is now turning into the dominant fourth quarter. The Cavs actually outscored the Blazers by two in the third quarter as there was a back-and-forth battle for most of the night. The biggest lead the Cavs had was eight and the Blazers erased it with a couple of three-point shots and the foul line. With the addition of Luol Deng, the Cavs are a team that is not a pushover anymore. They have been on a nice streak as of late. Before tonight’s game, they had won three of their last four games and Deng has been shooting lights out from the perimeter. In his last three games (including this one), he has been 8-for-15 from three. That is mighty impressive. At the beginning of this game he started out red hot going 4-for-4 with Batum playing pretty solid defense on him early. However, the Blazers were still able to take a two point lead into the fourth.
What I found impressive about this game is the fact that the Blazers somehow led after every quarter except the first. The Blazers have been showing a knack of ending quarters well. Something that San Antonio has done to great effectiveness. It has saved the Blazers in a couple of instances in these last couple of games.
The fourth quarter was when the Blazers turned it on as they outscored the Cavs 31-21. When you cannot dominate the third quarter, why not the fourth? Believe it or not, the fourth quarter actually started being a very close game with plenty of lead changes. The Cavs even led in a few instances. The most impressive being the one point lead Cleveland had with 3:44 to go in the fourth quarter. 2:31 is the moment where this game shifted. LaMarcus Aldridge went to the line to shoot a couple of foul shots and made them putting the Blazers up by two. Then the Cleveland train fell apart. They did not score again the rest of night. On the other end, LaMarcus Aldridge made back-to-back shots and the game was sealed when Wesley Matthews and Damian Lillard both swished threes to give the Blazers a 12 point edge. One thing this game showed was the Blazers’ ability to close games out. This was the first time this season that I can think of that the Blazers really put the boot to the throat of Cleveland and sent them packing. Overall, very impressive win.
After having plenty of days off this past week, the Blazers had time to work on a few new offensive sets, but ultimately to shore up the defensive end. In what is becoming the most obvious weakness in this Blazer team, it was nice to have those days off because the Blazers needed it to get back to the drawing board. The defense showed tonight, especially in the beginning of the game. Both teams were in a bit of drought until C.J. Miles scored the first bucket with 10:37 remaining. The defense wasn’t spectacular and, honestly, it probably will not be suffocating with this team, but it was respectable. There were only a few occasions where Dion Waiters or Kyrie Irving were able to get to the basket with ease. Obviously there is still some work to be done, but the defense is heading in the right direction and I liked what I saw tonight.
Portland’s three- point shot was non-existent tonight, until the fourth quarter. The Blazers finished going 11-for-27 and shooting 40%. It is amazing how that shot suddenly appears in the second half and helps Portland out of jams. When the Blazers were pushing the lead out substantially in the fourth quarter, it seemed like they couldn’t miss from out there. While this team may not be able to shoot it efficiently all game, they can do it when it matters. I am convinced, also, that they shoot better when there is someone in their face.
I want to highlight the points in the paint stat again. The Blazers were outscored 42-38; but that number has gone way down from the disgusting 50-60+ points that Portland had a couple of weeks ago. Whether this is just bad teams missing shots or the Blazers playing better defense, it is comforting to see this number continue to stay manageable. It will be interesting to see where that number goes after this Texas triangle road trip coming up.
Another number I want to highlight is the assists. The Blazers out-assisted the Cavs 27-17 in a dazzling display of ball movement and selfless basketball. I catch myself when I watch other games. It seems that the offense is running in mud in any other game, but when you watch Blazer games, the ball is whizzing around and never stopping. Blazer fans are spoiled.
LaMarcus Aldridge had a monster night finishing with 32 points on 12-for-26 shooting and 18 rebounds. He struggled throughout the game until the fourth quarter. Portland was continuing to find him on the block and it was just matter of him finding his rhythm. Obviously he found it when he took over the game in the closing minutes by being able to score at will. His rebounding effort tonight was impressive. Fighting against a guy like Anderson Varejao, LA had to be aggressive. I love to see when players rip the rebound out of the air. It tells me that they want the ball more and that there is no chance for the other team to have it. LA did that constantly tonight, especially in the fourth quarter where the ball always seemed to land in his lap.
Damian Lillard is on fire. On a night where he is facing the most-talked about up-and-coming point guard, Lillard was outstanding. He finished the night with 28 points on 10-for-20 shooting, 5-for-10 from three, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. It is interesting to watch as he tests the waters on his three-point shooting. Early in the game it was too short and he decided to closer to the basket to score or get to the foul line. He found his three-point shot and felt like he never missed from that point forward. Once he finds his distance, watch out. It is still incredible how far out he can go and how many baskets he can actually hit. Irving is starting to respect this by following Lillard out to almost half-court. That will be an interesting thing to watch going forward as teams try to figure out how to guard that. I would say that Lillard won the matchup. He not only outplayed Irving statistically, but also was able to get the win at the end of the night. Lillard also had a pretty impressive alley-oop dunk that showcased his jumping ability. The kid has hops.
No rest for the not weary as the Blazers will finally play more than one game a week. The Blazers have a travel day tomorrow and then they will start this deadly road trip taking on the San Antonio Spurs Friday night at 5:30 p.m. PST. Winning this game tonight was important as the Blazers could very well go 1-3 on this trip if they are not careful. If any of you remember, the last time the Blazers were in San Antonio they blew them out 136-106 and Lillard recorded 35 points that night. For some reason, the Blazers have the Spurs’ number. Let’s see what they can do. Stay tuned!