National Basketball Association

Lillard, Trail Blazers defeat Nuggets

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Lillard’s 32 points carries Trail Blazers over Nuggets 112-105.

If you call this game perfect, you might be talking about Damian Lillard’s free throw percentage during the game. He went 15-15, scoring almost half his points from the line. He also went 7-18 from the field as well, not too shabby at all. As you look at the box score, you have to be impressed that all of the Trail Blazers starting five all had more than 10 points in the game. That is extremely impressive as the team only shot around 39% from the field.

	1	2	3	4	T
Trail Blazers	20	30	36	26	112
Nuggets	28	29	15	33	105

The Trail Blazers started off trailing at the end of the first quarter and halftime, until breaking out for a huge third quarter. They scored 36 points compared to the Nuggets 15, a 21 point disparity. If you look at how the bench did, no wonder why the starting five had to do the majority of the work. The Blazers only got 20 points from it’s bench, who only shot 8-31 from the field. An overall average shooting night, but getting to the line really helped them get them the edge they needed.

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The Blazers’ starting five all had a positive +/- ratings. Only one player on the bench had a positive plus or minus: Evan Turner. The bench needs to step it up in the next game if they want to win by a larger margin. The biggest deciding factor might have been the Trail Blazers only turning the ball over 7 times. They played at their own pace and took care of the ball extremely well, kept their poise, and let their MVP front runner go to town. Lillard snatched four steals during the game and recorded six assists. What an outstanding night it was for the MVP candidate.

Next Game:

Tuesday November 15th against the Chicago Bulls

Radio: Rip City 620AM

TV: CSNNWHD, NBA TV

The Trail Blazers look to end their 3 game homestand by going 3-0 and making their record 8-4.

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