The Portland Trail Blazers now face a 2-0 deficit heading back to home for Game 3 after another dominating performance Wednesday by the Los Angeles Clippers, 102-81.
Chris Paul led the Clippers once again with 25 points and five assists.
Damian Lillard had a forgettable 6-of-22 shooting night as he was frustrated by the Clippers defense all night.
The Blazers lost Game 1 by 20 points despite a decent game from Lilliard of 21 points and eight assists.
The main story coming out of Game 1 for the Blazers was that Lillard did not have enough help.
CJ McCollum scored in single digits, something he did only once in the regular season.
Outside of Lillard and Gerald Henderson, the rest of the Blazers were 5 of 20 from 3-point range in Game 1.
But the player who helped the Blazers most in Game 2 was one who never takes 3-pointers: Mason Plumlee.
Plumlee was dominated in Game 1 but led the Blazers in scoring in the first half, with 11 points, three assists and three rebounds.
Plumlee finished tied for the team lead in points with 17 to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Despite a good start,
McCollum finished with just 16 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
A major adjustment from the Blazers side of things was their guards getting the ball out of traps quicker, usually to Plumlee, to find easier opportunities.
It worked early, but the Blazers did not make enough outside shots to give life to the adjustment.
The Blazers were 5 of 26 (19 percent) from downtown.
In one of the major changes from Game 1, the Blazers went to seldom-used veteran center Chris Kaman in the first quarter.
Kaman has not been used much in the regular season as developing younger players took priority, but he got action in the first quarter and was productive.
Kaman had four points at halftime, the most of any bench player, and four rebounds in seven minutes.
The Blazers found themselves down by just four points at halftime, 47-43.
The Blazers were within six points going into the fourth quarter but an all-bench line-up of the Clippers extended the lead to double-digits and they never looked back.
J.J. Redick added 17 points for the Clippers, who pulled away in the fourth quarter. Blake Griffin had 12 points and nine rebounds and DeAndre Jordan had 18 rebounds for the Clippers, who shot 46 percent and topped 100 points for the second consecutive game.
The Clippers’ bench put the game out of reach in the fourth, stretching a six-point lead to 16 before Redick, Paul and Griffin returned with 7:38 to play. Griffin made his presence felt immediately with a monstrous cutting dunk that roused the crowd.
The Blazers’ only lead came on the game’s opening basket. Portland also had four team fouls in the game’s first 1:26.
Jordan was called for a loose ball foul on the opening tipoff.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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