Blazers go up 13 early, then fade

Magic act too much in 85-74 defeat

By Kerry Eggers

LocalNewsDaily.com, Nov 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

For a quarter and a half, the Trail Blazers had the drop on one of the NBA’s hottest clubs.

They still play four quarters, though, and the Orlando Magic used that to full advantage in an 85-74 victory over Portland Monday night at the Rose Garden.

The loss was the sixth in seven games for the Blazers (5-9), who play host to Indiana Wednesday night in the finale of this four-game homestand.

Orlando (13-3) looked stale early after a continent-long flight Sunday, and Portland was sharp, seizing a 27-17 lead after one quarter and upping the margin to 35-22 four minutes into the second period.

The Magic followed with a 16-0 run to go ahead 38-35.

The Blazers stayed close through three quarters, going into halftime in a 42-42 deadlock and trailing only 59-58 entering the final period. But the Magic finally dethawed, going on a 22-6 run that put the hosts in their rear-view mirror.

“We just went flat after the first quarter,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said. “I don’t know why.”

In the first quarter, McMillan said, “we did all the things we wanted to do as far as pushing and moving the ball. Our transition was good as well as our halfcourt execution. Then we just stopped running and moving.”

High-scoring Orlando forwards Hedo Turkoglu (21 points) and Rashard Lewis (20) did plenty of the second-half damage, but marquee player Dwight Howard never got untracked. The 6-11 All-Star had 14 rebounds and three blocked shots but scored only nine points, converting on 4 of 10 shots as Portland’s Joel Przybilla – drawing his first start since Nov. 3 – made him work for everything.

“Our defense was good,” Portland’s Brandon Roy said. “We did a good job slowing down Dwight. They didn’t score a ton of points.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit