Game five between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Clippers started off slowly. It was bound to, for L.A.; without Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the Clips didn’t have either of their two leading scorers. J.J. Redick knocked down a three-pointer for the first bucket of the game, but after that, the Clippers missed their next seven shots, and the Blazers led 7-3.
Maurice Harkless led the charge early for Portland, making four of his first five shots. His teammates, however, combined to start 2-14 from the field.
The second quarter was pretty tightly contested despite Damian Lillard not scoring a field goal in the first half(three points on 0-5 shooting).
The Clippers tried some “Hack-a-DeAndre” towards the end of the first half, but Jordan sunk four of his first six free throws, very impressive by his standards. The Clippers led 50-45 at the half, and Jordan already had a double-double(10 points, 11 rebounds).
Fairly early in the third quarter, Lillard drilled a pull-up three for his first bucket of the night. The Blazers opened the half on a 10-0 run. Allen Crabbe stole the ball from Jordan, which led to a Plumlee slam at the other end. This opened up a nine-point lead, Portland’s largest of the night. However, the Clips weren’t done yet. They began scoring, and a Jeff Green three got them to within two points(71-69). Then, Jamal Crawford drew a foul at the end of the quarter, and sunk both free throws to even the game at 71.
The fourth quarter was all Blazers, right from the start. They started the quarter on a 16-4 run. Portland’s calling card is its backcourt, and that’s where the offense came from in the fourth quarter. Damian Lillard shook off his slow start, and was absolutely on fire. At one point, he made a three, then promptly picked Pablo Prigioni’s pocket, and slammed home a dunk at the other end. Lillard and C.J. McCollum were hot for the entire quarter. They were both just knocking down shots. When the Clippers tried to double-team Lillard, he kicked to McCollum, who drilled the trey. This made me wonder: Does this backcourt have a nickname yet? If not: Somebody come up with a good one.
Anyways, Lillard had a couple more ridiculous possessions: On one, he just knew that he couldn’t miss, firing a three with no space or hesitation, and canned it, extending the Portland lead to 16. A few possessions later, he had the ball with the shot clock running out, and threw up an off-balance, contested shot from downtown. Of course, he banked it in.
Portland held their lead, and won 108-98. McCollum led the game in scoring with 27 points(on 9-18 shooting), to go with four rebounds, four assists, and a pair of blocked shots. Lillard 22 points, five assists, and three steals. He shot just 7-20 from the floor, but was a hot 5-10 from downtown. In the fourth quarter, Lillard scored 16 of his 22 points, and shot 6-9 from the field and 4-5 from three-point range.
Moe Harkless had a great game as well, scoring 19 points and pulling down ten rebounds. Mason Plumlee also stood out for the Blazers, posting a double-double: 10 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, and two steals.
For the Clippers, DeAndre Jordan, J.J. Redick, and Jeff Green performed best. Jordan had 16 points, 17 rebounds, and three blocks(and shot over 50% on free throws, woo!). Redick led the team in scoring with 19 points. Jeff Green added 17, to go with six rebounds. Jamal Crawford also scored 17, but did so on 23 shots, compared to Green’s 10.
