The Portland Trail Blazers have clinched their eleventh consecutive victory. The Cleveland Cavaliers were beaten quite sovereign with 113:105 in the end, although LeBron James fought back by all means. Against the backcourt from Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum didn’t make it either.
After Tristan Thompson, the Cavs had to give up Larry Nance Jr. (Wade) on the Five this time, for him Jeff Green slipped into the Starting Five, who gave the nominal center. Practically it was LeBron James who took on Jusuf Nurkic and the King stood his man against the massive Bosnian.
But not only that: In the second quarter LeBron unpacked a furious dunk after a drive and put Nurkic on the poster. But despite his 22 points in the first half the Cavs went into the cabin with a gap of 5 points, because nothing wanted to run from outside (3/14 FG) and at the Blazers C.J. McCollum had caught on fire. The Shooting Guard netted Jumper and Jumper, so it wasn’t bad that Damian Lillard hadn’t found his touch yet.
After the break the blazers dominated again, who were able to break away a little with a 9:0 run for the first time. Mo Harkless (17), who was successful again from downtown, stood out. James countered a few times, but after jumpers from McCollum and a threesome from Lillard the Blazers were leading with 15 points – the Moda Center cooked.
This lead then also levelled off at the beginning of the final section. Portland nipped all comeback attempts in the bud and set course for the eleventh consecutive victory. Only one didn’t want to give up – LeBron. At first he shouted like a squirrel on the bench, then he took over again himself. He initiated an 11-2 run and made it tingly again before the last three minutes.
But Portland survived. First a difficult Fadeaway jumper by Evan Turner rolled into the basket, on the other side LeBron missed to reduce the gap to four points. Instead, Lillard (24 points, 9 assists) finally put the lid on the clock with two converted free throws and 28 seconds to go. Together with McCollum (29) from the Cavs-Defense he was unstoppable. In addition, the hosts had clear advantages with the rebound (50:34) due to the thin personnel cover with the guests.
Only James (35 points, 15/25 FG, 14 rebounds, 6 assists) took the Cavs’ fight for rebound. Number 23 was supported by Kyle Korver (19) and Jordan Clarkson (14).
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