In what was pegged as a night where it would a game of the power forwards, it was anything but that. In fact, the bench seemed to be the most effective weapon for Portland tonight. The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 115-104 to tie their win total from last season and improve to 33-11.
This game, unlike most Blazer victories, was never really in doubt. Minnesota did not make any major rallies late in the game and the Blazers always seemed to have an answer for anything the T-Wolves could muster. After losing quite embarrassingly in Minnesota, Portland made sure that this was not going to be that type of game. Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic were the Minnesota players who seemed to have it dialed in from the start. Martin finished with 30 points on 11-for-22 shooting, 6-for-10 from three, 4 rebounds and 3 assists while Pekovic recorded 23 points on 9-for-18 shooting and 11 rebounds. Other than that, Minnesota had a hard time mustering any sort of consistent offense. Minnesota’s bench is atrocious and it is evident in the bench scoring. Minnesota’s bench only recorded 15 points while the Blazer’s bench, behind the stellar play of Mo Williams, C.J. McCollum and Thomas Robinson, recorded 34 points.
The three-point shot was, again, not the Blazers’ friend as Portland went just 4-for-16 and shot 25% from beyond the arc. Wesley Matthews and Damian Lillard combined for 2-of-9 from three and Mo Williams himself was 2-for-3 from downtown. However, that weapon was not really needed. The Blazers scored a whopping 60 points in the paint. Blazer fans are used to the other team doing that. The interior passing from the likes of Thomas Robinson, Batum and Lillard was mighty impressive and led to many easy buckets.
The biggest story of the night, though, was the bench. Look at these stats: Mo Williams finished with 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting, 2-for-3 from three, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Williams also had a +20 on the night. That tells you when the Blazers were most effective. To further add to this, C.J. McCollum, who had some jaw dropping moves offensively, had a +19. Thomas Robinson had a +19 and Joel Freeland had a +19. This was one of the very rare nights that the bench might have been more effective than the starting unit. Not to say that the starting unit was terrible tonight, but it seemed that our bench could do whatever they wanted against Minnesota’s bench. The bench was the main contributor to the Blazers outscoring Minnesota 38-28 in the second quarter and actually extending the lead while the starters were sitting.
Defensively, the Blazers were better in the second half as usual. Both teams didn’t play a whole lot of defense in the first half and, for a moment, it seemed like both teams were trying to outdo each other in cross-court passes. In the second half Kevin Love was just 2-for-6 and the Timberwolves were forced into taking bad shots. Other than Pekovic or Martin, this team had a hard time putting points on the board for a long period of time and Portland just exposed that.
Everyone was excited to watch Aldridge and Love go at it, but they basically canceled each other out. LA finished with 21 points on 9-for-21 shooting and had just 6 rebounds, while Kevin Love finished with 15 points on 4-for-12 shooting, 1-for-3 from three and 13 rebounds. I would call that a draw. LA did find his shot long enough in the third quarter to go 4-for-8 and start becoming a threat. I’ll give Kevin Love credit. He defended Aldridge well and made LA work for every bucket. I am sure there was some added motivation on the defensive end.
Thomas Robinson probably had his best game as a Portland Trail Blazer as he recorded 6 points on 3-of-6 shooting with 6 rebounds in just 14 minutes of play. What was impressive was his rebounding intensity. With Pekovic and Love out when he usually was in, T-Rob had free reign in the paint. Bullying Ronny Turiaf and Dante Cunningham down low, he was able to secure second chance points and look really impressive tonight.
Robin Lopez, a day after he attended the Portland Comic-Con, recorded 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting and 10 rebounds. Lopez has recorded 17 double-doubles on the season and continues to impress Blazer fans.
No rest for Portland as they zip on down to Oakland where they will play the Golden State Warriors tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. PST at Oracle Arena. The last time these two teams met, it involved a fight and suspensions. This should be a fun one. Stay tuned!