Matthews, Felton and Crawford lead Portland Trail Blazers to a 111-102 win over Denver Nuggets: NBA
Coming into the night, the Portland Trail Blazers had been marshalled by their forward combo of Gerald Wallace and LaMarcus Aldridge. However, the game against the Denver Nuggets was one for the guards.
Wesley Matthews, Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford led from the front and combined for 70 points for Portland, who won the game against the Nuggets despite committing 25 turnovers as compared to seven by their opponents. Mathews
had 25 points; Felton scored 23 with six assists while Crawford came off the bench with 23. All three grabbed five rebounds on the night.
With the guards riding high, Aldridge and Wallace finished the game with 13 points apiece for Portland, who got a game-high 12 rebounds from Marcus Camby.
The Trail Blazers shot 51.9 percent from the floor, as compared to only 40.2 percent from the Nuggets, who missed the first twelve of their three point attempts and finished off on 4 of 20 from distance.
For the Nuggets as well, the charge was led by the guards. Ty Lawson continued to impress for the Bronchos and pounded 25 points and made a mammoth 8 steals in the game. Aaron Afflalo had 19 points while Andre Miller contributed
13 points and 8 assist from the bench. Danilo Gallinari had match figures of 16 points and Nene just managed 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Denver coach George Karl later attributed the loss to the lack of offensive coordination;
"We couldn't find an offensive rhythm? Or even an offensive player? And we still stayed in the game." He said.
Despite committing 8 turnovers in the first quarter, the Trail Blazers raced off to a 30-17 lead. However the Nuggets opened the second frame with a 9-2 burst and then jumped to another 8-1 spurt midway to close in at 41-44.
Portland responded swiftly and stretched their lead to six, entering the last minute of the first half, but an 8-2 quarter closing run from the Nuggets ensured that the teams went to the locker room with the scores tied at 53.
The third quarter belonged to Mathews, who knocked down four treys in the stanza to end it at 83-79 in Portland’s favour.
The Nuggets fought back early in the fourth and tied the game for the fourth time at 98 with 5:40 to go. The Trail Blazers however took control after that and pulled away with an 11-2 flush right at the death.
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