PORTLAND — The last time the Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies were at the Moda Center, it was the playoffs. It was also national coming-out party for Blazers big man Meyers Leonard.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal christened him “Baby Sabonis,” for his 3-point shooting.
Thursday, facing the same team in another nationally televised tilt — after four games without a 3-pointer, shooting 29 percent from the field overall — Leonard’s shot came back to life.
Leonard didn’t miss a shot until the fourth quarter finishing with 14 points and five rebounds to help the Blazers to a 115-96 drubbing of the Grizzlies.
“I was happy for him,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “I know he all of a sudden didn’t become a bad shooter.”
Damian Lillard was spectacular once again with 27 points, five assists and seven 3-pointers in Portland’s most impressive win of the season.
And to think: this made for TNT drama, starring Zach Randolph as the foil, almost didn’t come to pass.
Leonard made an unexpected return after being forced to leave Wednesday’s game in Salt Lake City with a sprained right ankle.
Leonard did a little of everything offensively, with some excellent passes to go along with his near-perfect shooting.
Leonard looked more than comfortable banging with Randolph in the post. Randolph — complaining to the officials and Leonard about his post defense –seemed to think he was a little too comfortable.
The two continued their dance, jawing at each other as their physical battle under the basket escalated.
“When you’re guarding Zach, it’s going to be wrestling match,” Stotts said. “There’s going to be contact and it’s not unusual that tempers flare a little bit.”
No technicals were handed out, but the tension remained.
After another stoppage in play, Randolph rubbed Leonard’s head with a smile on his face as a scowling Leonard jawed back at him.
But Leonard assures it’s all in the spirit of competition.
“We were just battling,” Leonard said. “After the playoffs last year he came up to me and said ‘hey, way to battle, keep working.’ So tonight, he hit me once, I returned the favor. It’s nothing personal.”
But Randolph’s mind games — or almost anyone’s game from Memphis for that matter — didn’t work.
“I know it’s the way he plays,” Leonard said. “If he hits me first and I’m not ready for it, I have to hit back. He kept saying ‘nah, keep working man.’ He was like, ‘I like that you’re playing tough.'”
Memphis brought their calling card defense Thursday, at least for the first quarter.
Triggered by the play of their CJ McCollum-led second unit, the Blazers took the lead with a monster second quarter and never looked back.
McCollum scored 10 points in the quarter, but the Blazers had balance. Leonard made his first 3-pointer since the opener. Ed Davis, Moe Harkless, Allen Crabbe and 20-year old Noah Vonleh all made contributions.
McCollum finished with 20 points and five assists.
The Blazers got the game going at their fast, youthful pace, forcing the prodding, older Grizzlies to run with them.
“Every time we got a rebound we wanted to push it so that we wouldn’t have to go against their half court defense,” Stotts said.
Along with the hot shooting of Leonard, the other thing that seemed to be back in playoff form was the jumper of Memphis’ Courtney Lee.
In fact, Lee was 2-for-18 on 3-pointers coming into Thursday, the identical mark for Leonard.
Lee shot over 60 percent against the Blazers in last year’s playoff series and led the Grizzlies with 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Thursday’s loss was yet another disappointment for Memphis in a start to the season that’s been filled with them.
Their 19-point loss in Portland was only the third worst blowout they’ve suffered to start the season, following a 30-point loss to Cleveland and a 50-point loss to Golden State.
