Portland Trail Blazers pull away in the second half to beat Sacramento Kings 101-79: NBA Recap
Portland Trail Blazers faced two massive setbacks this off season in the form of Brandon Roy’s retirement and Greg Oden injury recurrence.
However, Trail Blazers still have a talented roster consisting of Gerald Wallace, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Camby, Raymond Felton, Wesley Matthews and their highest scorer from last season LaMarcus Aldridge, so things are not that bad.
In their season opener on Monday night, all these players combined and led the team to an impressive win over Philadelphia 76ers, and just few hours ago, the combo yet again proved successful by leading the team to their second win of the season against Sacramento Kings.
Wallace was phenomenal and marshalled the Blazers with a game high 25 points on 8 for 11 from the floor and 8 rebounds. Aldridge was equally outstanding and bundled 24 points and 8 rebounds to go along with it while Batum, coming off the bench, pounded 15.
Blazers were aggressive and outclassed the Kings in the shooting department, be it from the floor (44.7 % - 37.8 %) or from charity stripe (78.6 %- 63.6 %). They also held out the upper hand in assists (25-11).
Only two players from the starting lineup succeeded in making an impression. DeMarcus Cousins led the team with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Marcus Thornton had 14 points and 3 assists. Jason Thompson registered 11 points while J.J Hickson and Jimmer Fredette accumulated 10 each, coming off the bench.
Sacramento were well placed at a 44-34 with 4 minutes remaining in the second quarter, however Trail Blazers responded with a 12-2 spurt to finish the first half at 46 all. They carried the momentum into the next frame and rattled off a 9-4 run in the opening minutes to make it 55-50 in their favour.
Portland continued to have the better of the second half and finished the third quarter with a 9 point lead 74-65. The Trail Blazers continued to find baskets in the deciding quarter and took the lead to 13 points 86-73 midway. Kings needed to do something out of ordinary in order to get themselves back in the game; however they failed to do so. Instead the attack came from the other end as the Blazers bolted off a 15-6 run to complete a massive victory.
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