Damian Lillard knocks down a buzzer beating three as Portland Trail Blazers down New Orleans Hornets 95-94: NBA Recap
Damian Lillard nailed a three pointer with 0.3 seconds left on the clock to lift Portland Trail Blazers to a 95-94 win over the New Orleans Hornets here at the Rose Garden on Sunday night.
Lillard was calm down the stretch; he took his time and threw in the ball at just the right time,
"When I let it go, I got it over the top of (defender Austin Rivers') hands. I was like, 'That looks good. That's going in.” rookie Lillard said who finished off with 16 points and 4 assists for the Blazers, who survived a late
surge by the Hornets to hand them their 6th straight defeat.
J.J Hickson had a monstrous night with 24 points and 16 rebounds, LaMarcus Aldridge had 20 points while Nicolas Batum completed his double-double with 11 points and 10 assists for the Blazers.
Ryan Anderson led all scorers on the night with 26 points to go along with 6 rebounds while Greivis Vasquez collected 23 points handed out 11 assists and grabbed 8 rebounds for the losing cause.
The Blazers looked sharp early on and took advantage of the poor passing Hornets to go into the locker room holding an 11 point advantage. New Orleans however put up a much better showing in the second half and gave the Blazers
a run for their money in the final moments of the game.
"We put ourselves in a hole in the first half with turnovers, giving them easy buckets, and we had a couple of guys who just didn't give us much tonight. But we had a group of guys in the second half who competed, and we played
hard.” New Orleans coach Monty Williams commenting on the fact that the Hornets committed 11 of their 14 turnovers in the first 19 minutes of the game.
Portland were up 25-17 at the end of the first quarter. A 7 nil spurt capped off by a Lillard shot from behind the arc put them up 34-22 early in the second period. Hickson tipped one in to put the Blazers up 47-35 and Nicolas
Batum nailed a three pointer at the end of the period to have them leading 54-43 at halftime.
Anderson scored 7 straight points for the Hornets which included two shots from behind the arc to pull the Blazers within 50-59. But Portland were in no mood to go easy on them and kept pulling ahead and Hickson dunked one in to
put the Blazers up 71-55 with 5:11 left in the quarter. The Hornets were trailing 63-75 by the end of the quarter. They reduced the deficit down to 73-80 early in the fourth period and kept on chasing. New Orleans made it a one point game on 89-90 and the
score was tied on 92 all on a trey from Austin Rivers. The Hornets had come back from a 16 point hole, and needed to defend for a few second to take the game into bonus time, but Lillard silenced them with a shot from behind the arc to seal the deal.
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