Blazers keep on winning

Rally beats Denver to push streak to 10

By Kerry Eggers

LocalNewsDaily.com, Dec 21, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

Don’t look now, but what team has the longest win streak in the NBA this season?

The Trail Blazers notched consecutive victory No. 10 Friday night, coming from behind in the fourth quarter to take down Denver 99-96 at the Rose Garden.

“Who’d have thought Portland would get that?” asked guard Brandon Roy, whose block of a Carmelo Anthony shot and subsequent rebound inside the final 25 seconds was as big a play as any in the game. “I would have thought Dallas or Phoenix or somebody.

“But that’s why you throw the ball up. Now we have a chance to push it to 11.”

Portland (15-12) beat Denver (15-11) for the second time in five days and moved within a half-game of the Nuggets atop the Northwest Division.

For the second straight game, the Blazers trailed by seven points going into the fourth quarter. For the second straight game, they rallied and made enough plays down the stretch to win.

Five Blazers scored in double figures, topped by Martell Webster with 19 points and Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge 18 apiece. James Jones (14) and Travis Outlaw (12) led a Portland bench that outscore Denver’s reserves 39-10.

“They’re very confident,” Denver coach George Karl said of the Blazers. “They’ve matured and grown together very quickly.

“What I like about them, they have a very good composure in close games. They also have the ability to explode on you with the three-ball. They have Webster in the front unit and Jones in the back unit, and they’re always dangerous to hit three or four threes on you in any situation. Their guards are pretty heady guys and their big kids can get hot, and Joel (Przybilla) can do it defensively.

“They have a lot of pieces and they’re playing with cohesiveness faster than a young team usually does.”

Through three quarters, Portland struggled with its offense against a Denver team that beat Houston in double overtime a night earlier and was playing without injured starters Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin. The Blazers shot .414 and trailed 76-69 going into the fourth quarter before hitting 10 of 17 shots in the final period.

Outlaw scored seven points in the first 2:20 of the fourth period, the last two providing an 80-78 lead, to key a 16-2 run. The Nuggets responded but were never again able to take the lead.

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