The Portland Trail Blazers, after seeming sluggish and falling behind, somehow pulled this one out as they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-97. The Blazers improve to 38-18 on the season and 21-7 at home. The Timberwolves fall to 27-29. Portland has now officially won the season series 3-1.
Wow. This was a game. Portland was again without LaMarcus Aldridge and faced the daunting task of trying to contain Kevin Love with just a few spare parts. Dorell Wright was initially on Love, but that didn’t last long. Ultimately, it ended with Thomas Robinson (who we’ll get to in a minute) and whoever was around to double-team and swarm Love whenever he had the ball. It worked in the second half, but Love was still able to record 31 points and 10 rebounds. He did his job. Unfortunately, Minnesota did not get much else. Without Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic, Minnesota had to find some way to score. Even with JJ Barea scoring 21, you can’t win many games with just Barea and Love scoring.
The first half was sub-optimal to say the least. The defense in the first quarter for the Blazers was horrendous. Minnesota had a couple of wide open threes and were able to get to the rim with ease. The Blazers looked like they were not sure if they were in a basketball game. Minnesota shot 88% in the first four minutes and lead by nine. This is going to be a long game. The Blazers tried to make runs in the first, but just could not get consecutive stops. The fact that they were only down by 12 on the end of one was actually impressive.
The Blazers started contesting shots and forcing the Wolves deep in the shot clock. They were still making them or getting way too many chances to convert, but it was not as easy as it was. You had this feeling that if the Blazers could rebound the basketball that this would be an entirely different game. The Blazers were down by 17 in the middle of the second quarter, but somehow was able to scratch their way to only being down by eight at halftime. Mainly thanks to the play of Wesley Matthews and Thomas Robinson.
The entire second half felt like a different game. The Wolves scored 34 in the first quarter and were only able to score 37 in the entire second half. That is some defense. Again, without LaMarcus Aldridge in the game, the Blazers had to be creative or, in this case, rely on Thomas Robinson who ended up having a career night. He finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds and a ton of adrenaline. It was like a switch flipped. He realized that he could be rough in the paint and immediately started snatching up every rebound. The Blazers outscored the Wolves 32-20 and had all of the momentum in the world. The Wolves looked slow and Portland’s defense was giving them fits. Portland decided to close out on their three-point shooters (what a concept), swarmed Love and forced Minnesota to depend on players like Dante Cunningham or JJ Barea.
Portland continued to carry that momentum into the fourth as they outscored the Wolves 24-17. The turning point came when Thomas Robinson made possibly the best block of the season. Corey Brewer, who was running ahead of the pack on the fast break, attempted to slam the ball home to stop the Blazer momentum. Thomas came out of nowhere and jumped about as high as anyone as seen him jump as a pro and spiked the ball back to half court. The beauty was that the sequence ended in an alley-oop dunk by Will Barton. The Blazers were then up by eight and Minnesota looked spent. Yet again, defense and flat out hustle won this game down the stretch. Minnesota has a BAD bench so you knew it was only a matter of time. The Wolves can’t shot 60% for the rest of the night.
If I were Kevin Love, I would wonder why I did not get more touches in the fourth quarter. Yeah, the Blazer defense was good, but he would still have been able to do his work down in the paint. Good thing I do not have to answer that question.
Like I said above, Thomas Robinson was an animal and the player that everybody in the NBA thought he could be when he was drafted. He was a +19 all night and was all over the glass. Maybe this is something that gets him going as a player? If Robinson can do half of this on a nightly basis, the Blazers are in good shape. This game felt like his kind of game. Scrapping for loose balls, buckets were hard to come by and the game didn’t seem to have any kind of flow going Portland’s way. This was a fantastic game by Robinson and one that I think will only boost his confidence even further.
Damian Lillard continues his hot streak by scoring 32 points on 11-for-17 shooting, 5-for-8 from three, in just 30 minutes of play. Lillard was a magician. Hitting threes and somehow scoring on what seemed to be impossible lay-ups. Lillard also provided plenty of hustle plays and slick passes along with his already fantastic night. Lillard has stepped up in the absence of LA. It will be interesting to see how he is once LA gets back.
Nicolas Batum, who is coming off from being ill, had a game that everyone expects him to have. He finished with 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting, 3-for-6 from three, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 4 assists. That is a stat line. Batum hit the first shot of the game. The pattern seems to be that if he makes his first shot, then he will look to score and usually (not always) will be able to score. That was the case tonight. The only thing I ask is that he still tries to be aggressive and effective even when his shot isn’t falling. It is amazing how different this Portland team is when Batum is a threat on the offensive end.
Finally! The Blazers were blistering from three-point line and it was needed. They finished going 13-for-28 and shooting 46% from beyond the arc. That sounds like the Blazers of November. They converted on all but one free-throw and outscored the Wolves in the paint 44-38. What was probably the most staggering stat were the fast break points. Portland had 19 to Minnesota’s 3.
The Blazers will get a day off tomorrow as they fly to Denver to take on the Nuggets Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center at 6:00 p.m. PST. Not only will the Blazers deal with the altitude change, but also will have to deal with some new players in Denver thanks to some recent trades. Aaron Brooks is finally getting the time he needs and, honestly, deserves and is delivering. He scored 21 points in his Nugget debut. The Blazers will have their hands full. Luckily the only “true” big man that Denver has is Timofey Mozgov. Stay tuned!