The Portland Trail Blazers played some of their best basketball of the season on Friday night. With Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic watching from the bench, though, it was always going to be a matter of time until Kevin Durant and company responded.
Portland fell to the Brooklyn Nets 128-123 at Barclays Center, unable to stem the home team's inevitable second-half tide after taking a rousing 75-62 lead into intermission. The Blazers fought back hard after Seth Curry's hot hand extended Brooklyn's lead to 10 midway through the fourth quarter, but their realistic hopes of an upset ended when Nic Claxton tipped in Bruce Brown's missed with 21.4 seconds left, making it a two-possession game.
“I was proud of us. It was a good game for us,” Chauncey Billups said. “We knew that being up the way were in that first half we knew they would come out very aggressive and they did. We were able to withstand it, then it kind of went in their favor for a little while with them scoring 39 points in that third quarter, and then we closed the gap. We did a good job. We just couldn't get a basket at the start of the fourth quarter.”
Durant dropped 38 points, six rebounds and six assists on 11-of-15 from the field and 14-of-15 at the free throw line, good for a ridiculous 88.0 true shooting percentage. Curry added 27 points on even better efficiency, helping the Nets to 58.4% shooting overall.
The Blazers' resulting 129.3 defensive rating was their third-worst of the regular season. But relentless hustle and activity on that side of the ball forced Brooklyn into 21 turnovers, spearheading Portland's aggressive offensive attack in both transition and the halfcourt.
“Defensively I thought we were really good all night,” Billups said. “A couple miscommunications, but we fought. We fought really hard.
Josh Hart was typically instrumental for the Blazers, finishing with 25 points, five rebounds and seven assists. Brandon Williams also impressed again, keeping Portland alive late en route to 24 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Drew Eubanks, Justise Winslow and Ben McLemore combined for 50 points, while Kris Dunn spearheaded a dominant second quarter with three of his four steals.
All eight players who took the floor for the Blazers played a key role in another hard-fought loss. Billups said he was proud of his team after the game, and it's safe to say Rip City was, too. Hard as it is to believe, this team really is building a culture that could serve as Portland's organizational bedrock going forward, brazen tanking efforts be damned.
“We just really couldn't get over the top and over the hump,” Billups said. “I thought we had some good opportunities, some good shots…They did a good job of getting stops when they needed it. You gotta give them some credit as well.”
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