Portland Outlasts Houston After Record-Setting First Quarter
The Blazers, red hot, set multiple records in the first quarter, but the ragtag Rockets refused to go away quietly.
Notes, analysis, observations, clips and more from the Trail Blazers' 140-129 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday at Moda Center.
- The Blazers were 14-point favorites against the lowly Rockets, absent a whopping eight rotation players, and the first quarter made that line seem low. Portland got absolutely whatever it wanted on offense early, exploiting Houston's lack of size and experience to produce open shot after open shot. The result was an unbelievable 50 points and 12 three-pointers for Portland, the former a franchise record for most points in a quarter and the latter an NBA record for most triples in a quarter. Norman Powell's first five shots? Two fast-break layups and a trio of corner threes. C.J. McCollum connected on his first five tries from deep. Maybe the most impressive part of the Blazers' onslaught is that Damian Lillard was barely involved in it. He didn't even take his first shot until – what else? – a pull-up 30-footer tinkled the twine with three minutes and 10 seconds left in the first quarter. The Rockets basically rolled out a G-League team on Monday, and rank dead last in defensive rating since the All-Star break. Their struggles to defend weren't exactly surprising. But considering Portland – second in both three-point makes and attempts this season – has been the best offense in basketball during this late-season surge, that it set multiple records in a single quarter versus Houston wasn't all that shocking, either.
- The mismatched final score of this game isn't an accurate reflection of how competitive it was at times in the second half. The Blazers' 16-point edge at intermission was 11 entering the fourth quarter, but only because Lillard drained a fading, falling three just before the game-clock buzzer. When Armani Brooks hit another deep pull-up three in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Portland's lead was suddenly just five. Give credit to the Rockets. They refused to go quietly after getting embarrassed in the first quarter, preying on the Blazers' occasionally lackadaisical defense by spreading the floor and attacking switches, driving and shooting with unwavering confidence. It helped that Portland, inevitably, regressed to the mean from three. The home team hit half as many triples over the last three quarters as it did in the first. But Houston's energy, intensity and commitment to an ultra-modern two-way style was impressive. Remember this game when guys like Ja'Sean Tate, an All-Rookie shoo-in, Kenyon Martin Jr. and Brooks are causing headaches for the Blazers in the future, with the Rockets or elsewhere.
- Related to Portland managing to stave off a complete third-quarter collapse: 20 points and seven boards for Lillard in that stanza alone. He helped put Houston away for good while playing deep into the fourth quarter, too, finishing with 34 points, nine rebounds and six assists – another MVP-worthy performance. Lillard's chances to win the award vanished for good during the Blazers' April nadir. There's a case to be made, though, he's just as dominant now as he was in February, if not more so.
- Lillard, McCollum and Powell combined for 90 points, their highest total of the season. All the attributes that help make them special were on full display, too: Powell's burst, McCollum's shot-making and Lillard's control. They weren't immune to the defensive lapses that allowed the Rockets to hang around, but this game was another ringing endorsement of the Blazers' three-guard lineup regardless.
- Most troublesome of those team-wide defensive issues? Just how uncomfortable Portland looked defending an offense that mostly stretched the floor with five shooters. The Blazers, it bears stressing, didn't adjust by going small, playing either Jusuf Nurkic or Enes Kanter at center until garbage time. If Carmelo Anthony was active and the opponent posed a more realistic comeback threat, it's safe to say Terry Stotts would have downsized to better account for the Rockets' spacing. Still, this game was a reminder that Nurkic, even playing within shouting distance of his peak, may very well be played off the floor in the postseason versus teams that go small. Kelly Olynyk, moonlighting as a primary creator, frustrated Portland all game long. Just imagine, then, what Nikola Jokic could do to the Blazers in a prospective first-round matchup. Yikes.
- Derrick Jones Jr. was the main beneficiary of 'Melo's absence, getting early rotation burn ahead of Nassir Little. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a viable option at small-ball center, didn't get off the bench at all. Jones took solid advantage of his opportunity on Monday, his activity evidenced by a deflection on his first possession that led to another McCollum three. But Jones' most memorable contributions, of course, came in the air, where three of his four field goals were soaring dunks. Jones took and missed his one three-point attempt, an issue that won't go away. He's always at his best offensively when aggressively going downhill, though, and he did plenty of it against the Rockets.
- Stotts won his 400th game on Portland's sidelines, joining Hall-of-Famer Jack Ramsey as the only coaches in franchise history to reach that threshold. Not bad company!