Portland Trail Blazers defeat Memphis Grizzlies by a single point 100-99
Brandon Roy’s absence was really not a big deal for Portland. The way Wesley Matthews took filled in for him was considerable.
Roy was replaced by Wesley due to an injury. Wesley played the game around the court fantastically and scored a career-high 30 points as the Portland Trail Blazers stopped a two-game skid with a 100-99 win over the Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum, Memphis.
FedExForum has definitely become Portland's home away from home. Their win over the Grizzlies was their eighth in a row at the Forum. The Grizzlies have not beaten Portland at home since December 21 2005.The total attendance at the event was 10,827.
High-flying players
At Portland’s end the most prominent player is of course none other than Matthews, as he scored the team’s highest with 30 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds. LaMarcus Aldridge added 23 points and Andre Miller contributed 19 points and he added 11 of his team's
final 15 points to finish with 19 points.
Rudy g*y led Grizzlies by 20 points, 5 assists and 8 rebounds. Zach Randolph followed him by 19 points and O.J. Mayo added 17 points.
Game Flow
Portland started the game with a strong hold, and had their opponents with a 5 points lead by the end of the first quarter. Grizzlies presented a better game during the second quarter but Portland’s lead was further extended to 6 points to 51-45 at halftime
as Aldridge added 14 points.
Memphis played the third quarter in a better way and Greivis Vasquez converted a three-point play with 8.9 seconds left in the third period to cut the Portland lead to 71-70 entering the fourth. However, Memphis couldn't make plays down the stretch and as
a result Portland headed them with just one point at the end of the event.
Turning point of the game
With Portland in the lead 95-93 and less than a minute remaining, it was the Grizzlies bad luck that they failed to score on their next two possessions. Guard O.J. Mayo lost his dribble, leading to an Andre Miller lay-up. Then, point guard Mike Conley missed
a floater with 9.8 seconds remaining.
Shining Star
Portland’s Miller scored 19 points for his team and also dished out nine assists and had five steals, the most by a Grizzlies' challenger this season.
Quotable
Matthews was very pleased on scoring a career-high 30 points in his first start of the season as he said, “I was missing them early, but the team stuck with me. I stuck with myself and the coaches stuck with me and I was able to come out with a decent shooting
night. ... Who doesn’t get frustrated when you’re being inconsistent? I demand so much from myself. I hold myself to a standard of accountability, especially when you put in the time and you don’t see the results. But you’ve got to stick with it. My grandma
and my mom kept telling me to stay with it. I kept staying with it”.
Portland coach, Nate McMillan, was quite satisfied with the team effort on avoiding a 0-3 road trip. He said, “We needed to play well to give ourselves something good going home. Now we need to go home and take care of business there. We had two bad games.
We weren’t playing well at all”.
Up Next
Memphis will be hopeful about their upcoming match against Washington Wizards on Friday, November 19, 2010 at Verizon Center, Washington.
Portland will take on Denver Nuggets on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at Rose Garden, Portland.
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