Trail Blazers survive close game against Sixers, win season opener 107-103
Blazermania is once again alive and well at the Rose Garden, and the sold-out crowd went back to doing what they do best, cheering on the Trail Blazers to another win.
Portland opened the regular season of the 2011-2012 season hosting the uprising Philadelphia 76ers and after starting the game hot, the Blazers had to keep the Sixers at bay and managed to secure another home opener win by a 107-103 victory.
LaMarcus Aldridge got back to work and led all scorers with an impressive 25 Pts, 7 Reb, 3 Ast outing on 11-25 shooting. Close behind was Gerald Wallace who propelled the Blazers in the first quarter, dropped 21 Pts, 9 Reb, 2 Stl on 8-13 shooting overall.
Wesley Matthews followed with 16 Pts, 6 Reb and went 3-6 from downtown. Point guard Raymond Felton started his official Blazer debut with 12 Pts, 8 Ast and 6 Reb. Jamal Crawford came off the bench tonight and led the bench with 12 Pts and 2-3 three-pointers. Nicolas Batum had 10 Pts, 5 Reb and 2-4 threes. Portland shoot a modest 41% overall from the field, 9-19 total from downtown and start the season right shooting 18-23 from the line. The Blazers collect 50 rebounds and manage to poke the ball away 11 times, in return turning the orange over ten times.
For Philadelphia, they looked towards Lou Williams off the bench to lead the Sixers in scoring with 25 Pts as he went 9-17 from the field. Their star in Andre Iguodala follows behind with 22 Pts, 8 Reb, 3 Ast and going 4-8 from deep.
Other than those two, the Sixers had 20 points combined from bench players Thaddeus Young and Evan Turner. Jrue Holiday had only a humble 13 Pts, 3 Reb and played 27 minutes. The Sixers shot the ball better going 48% and 42% from downtown but had a tough time holding onto the ball having 20 turnovers.
photos courtesy of nba.com/blazers
Nicholas Filipas