Toronto Raptors Knockout Portland Trail Blazers in the Last Quarter, 114-106

Toronto Raptors posted another win on their Western Conference tour, this time against the Portland Trail Blazers. Nick Nurse’s boys solved this one in the last 12 minutes, as they had a fantastic push, which left the home team behind.

But it didn’t start like that. The hosts came roaring into this game, and 4:28 after the start they had a 14-2 advantage, looking good. But that didn’t last too long, with Toronto cutting down the deficit to two points in no time, 25-23. Eventually, the Blazers would end the opening period with 30-23 edge, but it was apparent that the Raptors came back in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJufuGqMVg

Terence Davis’ five straight points made this contest tight, and the entire second period, up until the midway of the third were extremely close, with both sides trading buckets, and changing the lead. Davis’ 11 points, from which three downtown hits were the reason for Raptors’ constant presence.

Near the end of the third sequence, Toronto indicated that they are about to getaway. And that happened, as they made a 9-1 run, which was mostly due to fantastic Pascal Siakam, who scored 7 points during that time.

The Trail Blazers came back, but then came the knockout. The guests from Canada made a 14-0 burst, holding Portland without a basket for more than four minutes during the midway of the closing period. Once again, the spectators at Moda Center had hit the exits earlier, frustrated because of another loss their favorites suffered.

Damian Lillard was held to just 9 points in 37 minutes on the floor. The Dame shot 2 for 12 from the field, both hits from downtown, posted 10 assists and had virtually no impact on the game. After having a tough night against the Kings, this is another disappointing performance for one of the best shooting guards in the league. His streak of 230 games with 10 or more points stopped tonight.

“It’s the fourth team in a row to come out denying me full court. Box-and-one, I don’t remember seeing that many box-and-ones in the NBA, but I mean, they make me play against a crowd,” Lillard explained.

Rodney Hood scored a team-high 25 buckets for the Blazers, 9 for 15 from the field. CJ McCollum had 19, while Anfernee Simons added 17. Hassan Whiteside had 12 and 9 boards.

Among the Raptors, the unreal Pascal Siakam, who is an early MVP candidate, dropped 36 points, hitting 15 from his 28 attempts from the field. Fred VanVleet was right behind him with 30 buckets, 7 dimes and 4 boards, shooting 10 for 16. Both of them scored four threes.

“He was really aggressive tonight, making shots and do what he does… That’s why he’s a point guard; he’s a leader of our team, he sees everything so credit to him too,” Siakam said of VanVleet.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had a nice impact from the bench with 16 points and 11 boards, while Davis ended the night with 15 buckets.

Raptors got a duo in Siakam and VanVleet:

Pascal: 36 PTS | 6 REBS
Fred: 30 PTS | 7 ASTS

Toronto is 2nd in the East and not slowing down 🍁 pic.twitter.com/xHWe9898o6

— Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) November 14, 2019

Both teams had a good shooting performance from behind the arc with the Raptors making 14 of their 32 attempts, while Portland had 17 of 38. One area where Toronto got a big edge was points in the paint, where they outscored the home team 50-22, even though there was Whiteside one of the better defenders under the rim.

The Raptors (8-3) are closing their five-game road trip with a game in Dallas this Friday. So far they are 3-1 on this tour including a win over the Lakers, and are looking very good. Their defense held Kawhi, LeBron and Lillard to 23.6% from the field combined, which is a fantastic effort, and not many people noticed that.

Meanwhile, the Blazers (4-8) are nowhere near that, as Terry Stotts’ guys posted their fifth defeat over the last six events. After losing to Kings yesterday, they couldn’t recover, and tough games are yet to come for this crew. The Spurs are awaiting Portland on Saturday, then the Rockets on Monday, and following that, they have three more road matches, in New Orleans, Milwaukee, and Cleveland.

“We’re not where we want to be,” Blazers coach said. “The losses at Golden State and (Sacramento) really took a toll. Those two teams were undermanned and if those two games are wins that changes the outlook of where we are.

All in all, not a very promising situation for the last year’s Western Conference finalists.