Recap: Blazers Eclipse The Suns, 110-101

The Phoenix Suns threw everything at the Portland Trail Blazers today, but it wasn’t enough. Behind a big night from Damian Lillard, the Blazers held off the game Suns for a big 110-101 win, one night after a tough loss. The win keeps the eighth seed within sight for the Blazers, who are on their first game of a five-game road trip.

The Blazers were led by Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic.

Box Score

Recap

The Blazers looked ready to put the Wizards in the rear-view mirror in the first half. Behind the 28 points of Lillard, and some hot three-point shooting, the Blazers opened up a double-digit lead and seemed to be running away with the game. Portland reeled off a 15-1 run late in the first quarter, and held a 15 point lead at the buzzer. But they struggled to hold it in the second. Phoenix just hung around, making enough shots to keep it interesting, while sometimes giving up easy opportunities for the Blazers. Again, a late-quarter Blazer run opened up the game, and they led by 16 at halftime.

The Blazers looked ready to open it up in the second half... so of course, the opposite happened. The Suns charged, and Portland said “ole!”. Before long the lead was single digits. This time, Phoenix went on a late-quarter run, and the Blazers clung to a three-point lead.

Three minutes into the fourth quarter, the Blazers had slogged their way into a tie score. Halfway into the quarter, the Suns grabbed the lead. However, Lillard and McCollum took over. Before the Suns know what happened, Portland led by 9 with one minute left. Get the plane warmed up, because it was time to fly to New Orleans.

What’s Next

Game two of this five-game road trip is Tuesday, a 5:00 pm PDT tip-off in New Orleans. But stay tuned tonight for more analysis of today’s game from Eric Griffith.