Blazers edge battered Bulls

McMillan: 'Roy saved us'

By Kerry Eggers

LocalNewsDaily.com, Feb 6, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

With three of their top four scorers missing and playing the fourth game of a six-game road trip, the Chicago Bulls would seemed to have been easy fodder for the Trail Blazers Wednesday night in the Rose Garden.

Anything but. Portland’s hard-earned 100-97 victory over the downtrodden Bulls was a gnat’s eyelash from being an embarrassing defeat.

The victory wasn’t secure until Brandon Roy converted a pair of free throws with .5 of a second to go as the Blazers (28-20) had a devil of a time putting the Bulls away.

Chicago (19-29) was without Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich due to injury, but the ragtag lineup coach Jim Boylan threw onto the Garden floor never quit.

“It was a tough win,” Roy said. “We would have liked to have won that game by 10 or 15 points, but in the NBA, you take every win you can get.

“You have to give the Bulls credit. It was a gutsy effort. They did a great job of stepping up for the guys who were out.”

Triumph wouldn’t have come without Roy, who played one of his finest games of the season, collecting 28 points, four rebounds and six assists and sinking 12 of 19 shots in a clutch 40-minute performance.

“Brandon saved us on a number of occasions,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said. “Some of those shots he made, if they don’t go in, maybe we tighten up. He took some big shots, and he made them. We weren’t executing well, and some of the shots he made bailed us out.”

Roy’s biggest basket was a 17-foot jump shot with one second on the shot clock, four minutes on the game clock and Portland clinging to an 85-82 lead.

In the ensuing moments, Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw both hit shots with only a second left on the shot clock.

Roy was so good, he couldn’t even miss when he tried.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit