PORTLAND — Through their first six games and three quarters on Sunday, the Portland Trail Blazers were exceeding expectations, leading one of the NBA’s hottest teams by 13.
Then with a cascade of turnovers, an ejection and far too many second chances, the Detroit Pistons flipped the script defeating the Blazers 120-103, after trailing by as much as 18 in the second half.
Sunday was another reminder to the young Blazers that storms won’t stop coming over an 82-game season.
After blowing out the Pelicans in their opener, the Blazers drew on a preseason loss to the Clippers where they blew a 35-point lead. Then, they said, that they’d learned from their mistakes and were better prepared to weather the runs that come in an NBA game.
“Different circumstances, different score, but same result,” Blazers guard CJ McCollum said. “We have to continue to tighten up. Second half, teams are going to bring their best effort especially closing out games. We have to sustain good basketball for 48 minutes.”
Detroit’s Reggie Jackson scored a career-high 40 points, 26 of them coming in the final period, to go along with a monstrous 29-point, 27-rebound performance by Andre Drummond.
The Blazers committed 11 of their 23 turnovers in the fourth quarter and were outscored 41-11.
“It’s a shame we threw away three good quarters of basketball,” head coach Terry Stotts said. “Their defense picked up and we had a lot of turnovers that either they caused or were self-inflicted. They picked it up and obviously we didn’t handle it very well.”
The cliches “thrill of victory” and “agony of defeat,” are apt most nights in sports, but not quite like Sunday.
“Look, I told these guys that I’m really old, I’ve coached a long time but I’ve never been part of a fourth quarter like that. I’ve seen turnarounds but not like that,” Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said. “It was incredible.”
The fourth quarter went from bad to worse for the Blazers.
They turned it over on five out of their first 12 possessions of the period and only made two field goals.
Then after a missed lay-up where he thought he was fouled, Ed Davis, one of the leaders of Portland’s second unit, was ejected.
“My technical was huge, it was a big swing right there and it cost us the game,” he said. “I’ve still got to learn to keep my head in those situations and be able to be out there for the team.”
Davis didn’t watch the final minutes of the game as he could only stew alone in the locker room, wishing he could help his team.
“We were struggling, I wish I was out there and didn’t get ejected,” Davis said.
The Blazers were up 96-87 when Davis was ejected and the Pistons went on a 33-7 run after he was sent off.
Over the final 8:01, the Blazers went 2-for-13 from the field and had six turnovers. Conversely, the Pistons were 12-of-15 from the field with no turnovers.
“Terrible, it was terrible,” McCollum said.
Drummond outdid himself, which is saying something since he’s been without peer so far in the NBA season, averaging 19 rebounds and 18.6 points per game.
He also had three blocks, including one where he inhaled a Meyers Leonard dunk attempt in the fourth quarter.
The bench unit of Allen Crabbe, Moe Harkless, Noah Vonleh, and Davis joined by Lillard or McCollum outscored Detroit 24-13 in 9:56 in the first half.
Crabbe led the bench in scoring with 15 points on 7-for-7 shooting.
But like everything in the first three quarters, it was all for nothing.
