The Blazers limped into Wednesday night on a three game slide, desperate to avoid making it four against a respectable Orlando Magic team. They had reportedly spent extra time going over video of their brutal third quarter collapse versus the Clippers earlier in the week. Team captain Damian Lillard stepped up big this night, scoring 41 points and breaking a franchise record for 3-pointers made in a single game (10). Tellingly, he hit 7 of those 3-pointers in the fateful third quarter. Instead of wilting during that period, as they had done the game before, the Blazers torched the Magic with 40 points, a season high for single quarter scoring. I guess that video session worked. The final tally was 115-112.
The game was competitive and remained relatively close throughout. But before we get into that, let’s all marvel at this sweet up-and-under move by smooth CJ McCollum:
Now you see him….now you don’t! pic.twitter.com/eizIYngoDv
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 29, 2018
Orlando Center Nikola Vucevic has often been a problem for the Blazers, and he started off hot, scoring 11 points in the first quarter. This looked to be a bad sign, but Jusuf Nurkic was able to clamp down on him a bit and the Orlando big man finished with only 20 for the game. Orlando guard Terrance Ross, who went to Portland’s own Jefferson High School, played a nice game in his old city, scoring 10 points. For the Blazers, Nik Stauskus had the hot hand in the first half, hitting five 3-pointers, much to the delight of the crowd, who have really gotten behind this new player. Orlando took an eight point lead into the break.
It was Pride Night at the Moda center and as such the fans were showing a little extra flare. Let’s take a look at some fan fashion, shall we?
Okay, back to the game. As mentioned earlier, the Blazers came out determined not to repeat their last game’s disastrous third quarter. Lillard was on absolute fire, blowing through the franchise single game 3-point record before the fourth quarter even began. Here’s a video of him hitting that record shot: Afterwards, when asked if he knew he’d broken the record at that moment, he said, “I didn’t know about it. When I hit the last one the crowd got a little bit louder than the other ones.”
DAME DOLLA.
NEW FRANCHISE RECORD! pic.twitter.com/J26IzorqfZ
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 29, 2018
That huge third quarter was crucial for the Blazers, who carried an 11 point lead going into the fourth. They barely held on, as Orlando came back a tied the game at 108 with three minutes to go. CJ McCollum hit a big 3-pointer to take back the lead. The final two minutes got a little crazy as the Blazers missed eight free throws and a weird clock malfunction on the final possession gave the Magic a chance to tie things up. Luckily they weren’t able to do that and the Blazers squeaked by to a much needed victory.
The Blazers face a tough opponent on Friday, the 3rd place Denver Nuggets. This should be a good game, with the added drama of Blazer Center Jusuf Nurkic battling against his old team and old foe Nikola Jokic, who knocked him out of the starting center spot three years ago. The Blazers now stand at 13-8, in 5th place in the western conference.