The Portland Trail Blazers once again blew a double-digit, second-half lead, but this time held on to fend off the Toronto Raptors in 128-118 in overtime Saturday night at the Moda Center.
A hot start carried midway into the third quarter and the Blazers led by as much as 21 points before the Gary Trent Jr. and the Raptors came roaring back and yet another collapse seemed inevitable. Several costly mistakes down the stretch allowed Gradey Dick’s putback with 0.7 seconds left to tie the game and force an overtime that was luckily all Portland.
Homecoming
The headline of the night was the return of Scoot Henderson, who made his first appearance since Feb. 15 while nursing an adductor strain. He came off the bench and played under a minutes restriction, but was effective when he was on the floor. There didn’t look to be much rust, as Henderson had his jumper falling early and then transformed to be a rim-attacking menace. He finished with 13 points and 5 assists in 26 minutes.
Total DominAyton
The stars must have aligned, because Portland also welcomed back Deandre Ayton, who missed the last 5 games with a hand strain. Ayton was a game-changer, thoroughly dominating Toronto’s gutted and undersized frontcourt. He was able to score on Kelly Olynyk nearly at-will in the paint and the Raptors all but gave up in challenging him for defensive boards. By halftime, Ayton already had a double-double and finished with a beastly 30 points and 19 rebounds.
Ayton narrowly missed a redirection at the end of regulation that could have avoided overtime, but he made up for it with 4 points in the bonus period to help seal the victory.
Glue Guys
While it wasn’t quite a repeat of his career-performance last night, Delano Banton was again part of a lot of what was working for the Blazers. He was lights-out as a catch-and-shoot (mostly corner) 3-point shooter, and also made good things happen as a secondary playmaker. His shot selection was reined in a bit from 27 attempts a night ago, and the Canadian finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in front of a larger than usual Canadian audience. He also came up huge with 9 points in overtime.
It was Toumani Camara too who kept finding himself in the right places. He got himself going with a pair of threes early in the first quarter and then Chauncey Billups couldn’t keep him off the floor. Along with his tenacious perimeter defense, Camara was opportunistic as a cutter and on the offensive glass. He turned in a solid performance of 15 points, 9 boards and 4 assists.
Up Next
The Blazers will get a day off before hosting the Boston Celtics Monday night at 7 p.m. Pacific.
This article was originally published by a www.blazersedge.com . Read the Original article here. .