Wallace, Blazers clobber Kings in 101-79 victory
Facing their second game at home, the Portland Trail Blazers kept things interesting with the visiting Sacramento Kings. The Kings came into the Rose Garden on a high from last night’s season opener home win against the Los Angeles Lakers and looked to start their promising season 2-0. Halftime looked bleak for the Blazers as things were tied equally at 46 and then Gerald Wallace blew the door open and the quicker lineup feasted on King turnovers and lived on the fast break, giving Portland their second straight victory and another free Chalupa night for the lucky home crowd on a 101-79 win by 22 points.
The man of the hour, Wallace who was stellar last night against the Sixers came alive again and his speed and agility was too much for the young and less experienced Kings. He finishes with team high 25 Pts, 8 Reb, 5 Ast, 2 Blk on 8-13 shooting. LaMarcus Aldridge followed his first-rate performance with 24 Pts, 8 Reb on 10-15 shooting.
Wesley Matthews unfortunately suffered from a sore back halfway through the first half and didn’t play much the rest of the way. Just finishing with 8 Pts, 5 Reb but 0-5 from three. Nicolas Batum was Wallace’s fast break buddy all night long and came off the bench leading with 15 Pts, 5 Reb and played 29 minutes.
Portland continued to shoot the ball in a decent matter, 44% overall throughout the night but a horrendous 16% from three-point territory. Defense sure tells the story tonight as they wrecked Sacramento in steals (6), blocks (8), rebounds (44) and creamed them on the fast break outscoring 17-7.
Sacramento who usually find leaning on Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thronton, couldn’t find their shot tonight as Evans was miserable all night, shooting 2-8 and managing only 4 Pts, 3 Ast. Thornton had an average outing scoring 14 Pts but was kept quiet. Big man DeMarcus Cousins leads the Kings with 16 Pts, 11 Reb and 2 Blk and did what he normally does, but didn’t get the help he was looking for. The Kings actually were ahead in the second quarter and built a 12 point lead before letting the Blazers run away.
Something positive for the Kings was their bench play, three players in double figures in scoring, Jason Thompson with 11 Pts and made 5-6 shots, J.J. Hickson with 10 Pts and rookie Jimmer Fredette the same with 10 Pts.
Sacramento’s shooting percentage dropped to 37% overall and will surely sting after a remarkable comeback victory against the Lakers just last night. Portland will look forward to taking Wednesday off before taking on their third straight home game against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.
photos courtesy of nba.com/blazers
Nicholas Filipas