Once again, Blazers’ resilience shows

PORTLAND — “Once again.”

Those were Thursday night’s encapsulating words.

Once again, the Blazers beat the Los Angels Clippers, this time by a score of 108-93, making it a three-game sweep for the season.

Once again, LaMarcus Aldridge outplayed his All-Star competition, this time scoring 28 points on 13-of-20 shooting against the man-child that is Blake Griffin.

Once again, Portland (24-20) responded to disheartening injury news with a victory, winning its second straight since learning center Marcus Camby had a partial meniscus tear in his knee and would require surgery.

No knowledgeable sports fan in the Pacific Northwest will argue that the knee problems cursing Brandon Roy and sidelining Camby are a boon to the organization. But for what it’s worth, the Blazers are now 14-7 on the season without Roy and 4-1 sans Camby.

“The great thing about our team is that as long as we have five guys, we have a chance,” said Blazers forward/center Dante Cunningham, whose playing time has greatly benefited from the array of injuries.

“We don’t feel sorry for ourselves.”

But teams facing Aldridge these days might feel such self-pity.

The power forward’s name has been brought up in All Star talk before just about every game in Portland over the past couple weeks; reporters asking what he has to do to leapfrog the likes of Griffin or Kevin Love or any other forward standing in his way.

Monday night, Aldridge dropped a career-high 37 points against Love and the Timberwolves. And as his Blazers teammates limited Griffin to 20 points on 6-of-17 shooting Thursday, Aldridge again shined brightest … even if Griffin did pull down 18 rebounds.

Asked if competing for that All Star roster spot motivated him, Aldridge responded typical fashion for this season.

“It really didn’t,” Aldridge said. “I didn’t do anything different.”

So do you think you can make it over Griffin?

“He’ll make it,” Aldridge added. “The question is if I will.”

Few will question whether Aldridge has been Portland’s most valuable player over the past month or so. But the team’s sustenance in the wake of injuries can be largely attributed to ensemble performances.

Thursday night held true to form.

Wesley Matthews matched Aldridge’s scoring effort, tallying 28 points while going 4 for 8 from the beyond the 3-point line. Rudy Fernandez pitched in 17 points, grabbing offensive rebounds and hurling shot-clock-beating hook shots that somehow found the bottom of the net.

Andre Miller, meanwhile, added 15 points and seven assists.

And then there was the team defense on Griffin.

Yes, the rookie still elicited oohs and ahhs from the Rose Garden crowd with a pair of dunks — not to mention some boos from fans thinking he drew some fouls based on his star power alone. But by night’s end, he was rather ineffective for his standards.

“We collapsed on him,” Matthews said. “We made sure he saw a whole lot of white jerseys.”

Technically, this was a comeback win for the Blazers, who trailed by 14 points early in the first quarter. But the game appeared firmly in hand when Portland entered the final period ahead, 84-71.

The Clippers (16-26), however, mounted a run behind Eric Gordon, who scored a game-high 35 points while hitting a career-high seven 3-pointers. But a late three from Matthews and a punctuating dunk from Aldridge put the game out of reach.

Thursday was also the first time the Blazers met the Clippers since Miller earned a one-game suspension for pummeling Griffin to the ground.

Had the two spoken since?

“No. I don’t know him…This is NBA basketball. I think he understood that,” Miller said. “We just dapped it up and kept it moving.”

Note

Camby underwent successful knee surgery Thursday. He will be out at least three weeks.

Matt Calkins can be contacted at 360-735-4528 or matt.calkins@columbian.com