PORTLAND — The Portland Trail Blazers have been a roller coaster ride this season, but could the ride be leveling out?
Another undermanned opponent walked into the Moda Center on Friday night only to receive another blowout courtesy of the home team.
The Blazers walked away with a 109-91 win over the Charlotte Hornets and former Blazer Nicolas Batum. It was Portland’s third straight win of 15 points or more.
Damian Lillard had 22 points, five rebounds and six assists while Allen Crabbe scored 20 points off the bench.
Batum was the last of the four starters on last year’s team to return to Portland and he received arguably the warmest welcome of all, with a standing ovation upon his announcement.
“I loved it,” Batum said of his time playing in Portland. “If you don’t love it here, you’re weird.”
Then, the game started and Batum’s good feelings stopped almost immediately.
After hanging 33 on the Blazers back in Charlotte in November, Batum struggled.
Clearly bothered by a toe injury that has caused him to miss eight games, which even Lillard said post-game he could see, Batum finished 1-of-10 from the field with eight assists and a game-high six turnovers.
As the Blazers turned the page on season’s past, the team of the present is evolving quickly.
“When you blow enough games, you figure out how to win them,” CJ McCollum said.
“We’re not having as many bad stretches I guess,” Meyers Leonard said of their recent stretch of play. “The length of bad stretches, the gap is shortening. I think our focus in the last few practices have been good for us.”
Lillard agrees that the Blazers have been less up and down.
“We would get really high and then really low,” Lillard said of the Blazers recent steady play. “Over the course of the game we would have that happen so many times.
“We would have six turnovers in a row. We would go from being up four to down 14. Now we’re able to minimize it. We’re not turning the ball over as many possessions in a row. Teams aren’t getting on huge runs against us. It allows us to win games down the stretch.”
The Blazers led by as much as 20 points in the fourth quarter and the Hornets being the well-coached team they are rallied. But the Blazers never relented even after the Hornets cut the lead to nine points in the fourth quarter.
The Hornets season got a jolt it desperately needed with the return of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, their best defender and one of the best in the league.
He defended McCollum most of the night and made things tough, but McCollum still had a solid performance with 17 points, five assists and five rebounds.
But with Batum suffering from his toe injury, the Hornets seem ever-stung by the injury bug.
Batum’s replacements at small forward also had quite the night.
Al-Farouq Aminu, created a few of Batum’s six turnovers and had a much better night overall, 17 points and 12 assists, even picking his pocket for coast-to-coast dunk.
Combined, Aminu and Crabbe had 43 points, 15 rebounds and just two turnovers.
Lillard wasn’t the only All-Star snub on the court Friday night as his point guard counterpart Kemba Walker also had a compelling case as an All-Star in the East.
Walker had 14 points, but played only 24 minutes and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter as head coach Steve Clifford elected to stick with Brian Roberts, who scored 17 points off the bench.
Despite the return of Kidd-Gilchrist, the Hornets defense was soft around the rim, where Lillard and McCollum attacked with great success.
The Hornets also had 16 turnovers which led to 21 Blazers points.
