Portland Trail Blazers Routinely Cruise Past Houston Rockets, 125-115

Another frustrating night for the Houston Rockets’ fans as their favorites suffered a defeat against the Portland Trail Blazers, 125-112. The hosts had a slow start, but managed to find their pace and to restrain the pale guests.

Portland was simply unstoppable in the second period. Not only did they manage to turn the result upside down, but also to completely kill the morale of the guests. The Trail Blazers had a 23-5 run during the middle of that sequence. Their shooting for two was superb, missing just two of 12 attempts, and adding four threes as well.

“We kept them off the line, and slowed down in transition,” Terry Stotts said following the game, saying that the start of the game wasn’t very good. “Those first three minutes were rough, but we bounced back.”

17th All-Time on the @NBA Scoring List: Carmelo Anthony

Congrats, Melo! pic.twitter.com/rYxRzZyfMp

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) January 30, 2020

Carmelo Anthony passed Kevin Garnett on the 17th place on the NBA all-time scoring list. Melo would have an easy layup bucket with 9:15 to go until the end of the second period. He ended the night with 6 points and now has a total of 26,073 throughout his career. The veteran forward didn’t have a shiny scoring performance, as he hit just two of his 11 shots, but on the other side, he was very good in other aspects of the game. Anthony grabbed 11 boards, had five assists and was playing solid defense throughout the night.

When talking about scoring, that was something Damian Lillard was responsible for. Dame poured 36 points for the Trail Blazers, and also posting a triple-double with 11 assists and 10 rebounds. It was his first-ever. His tense relationship with Russell Westbrook only motivated him to keep getting after guests, and also, exchange some trash talk with the former MVP.

CJ McCollum had 22 points, Hassan Whiteside 15 with 10 rebounds, and Trevor Ariza, the latest addition from the Sacramento Kings, 21. It appears that the Blazers really hit the jackpot with his trade.

“He knows how to play, he knows to hit open shots, he defends well, he plays well,” Stotts said about the newcomer.

On the other side, Westbrook had 39 points, 10 boards, and six assists, shooting 16-for-29 from the field. James Harden was quiet again, with 18 points, and 5-for-18. Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore had 17 points each, off the bench.

Harden and Westbrook seem to have problems pairing up on the floor, and it appears that the Rockets started posting mixed results once the latter one started scoring more points than the Beard. Right now, the team is way below the planned position, and it seems that they might end up fighting for the No.5 place in the West instead of some of the places which bring the home-court advantage.

The Rockets (29-18) head back to Houston to play the upcoming three games at their Toyota Center. Dallas Mavericks are their next rivals this Friday, after that Zion Williamson and the Pelicans are coming, and eventually Charlotte Hornets. After posing several bad results over a recent couple of weeks, D’Antoni’s team needs to find consistency and puts together a couple of wins.

The Trail Blazers (21-27) have a very tough schedule ahead of them. After this one, they get to play at the Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. The very next night, Portland comes back home to face the Jazzers and on Tuesday, they hit the road for a visit to Denver. Two days later they are once again back at Moda Center awaiting the San Antonio Spurs.