PORTLAND — The Portland Trail Blazers defeated a short-handed Sacramento Kings squad, 105-93, in a game that was not even that close.
After the game, there wasn’t much to say because the Blazers did what they were supposed to.
Hours before Monday’s game against the Sacramento Kings, the Portland Trail Blazers received a gift from their opponents.
Facing an already dysfunctional Kings squad with All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins, starting small forward Rudy Gay and starting point guard Rajon Rondo all out to rest, the Blazers’ opportunity to help their playoff seeding greatly improved.
See, the Kings’ draft pick this year will go to Chicago if it falls out of the top 10.
So, resting their best players helped their chances of keeping it, under the guise of giving the “young guys an opportunity,” in the words of Kings coach George Karl, whom the front office reportedly wants to resign.
Reality show drama aside, the Blazers had to remind themselves of the task at hand with the playoff race weighing heavier on their minds with each update in the standings.
“This is the NBA so regardless of who come out there, guys can play,” CJ McCollum said. “When you see a team sit out three or four starters, you know other guys are going to be aggressive. You never know what kind of plays they’re going to run because the entire offense changes once Cousins goes out.”
Reserve guard Allen Crabbe led the Blazers with 21 points and four rebounds.
Damian Lillard was more of a facilitator Monday night, finishing with just 13 points on nine shot attempts to go along with nine assists.
The Kings never play defense and that was contagious, with the Blazers racking up 37 points in the first quarter but only leading by six.
But no matter how they started, this game was destined to finish one way. The Blazers offensive excellence continued to make it so and their defense finally showed up.
“I feel like this could be a game where we could take it lightly, or take plays off and we had some slippage in the first half,” Crabbe said. “If we gave them any daylight or gave them any confidence, we knew that they can come out and give us a game, so that was one thing we really talked about before the game to make sure we take their confidence.”
The Kings fell off their scoring pace after the first quarter and the Blazers, with a full roster and energy from not having played the night before, took the game where everyone watching knew it was going.
Moe Harkless was excellent in the starting role, providing a spark for the Blazers, once again.
He’s scored in double-figures in each of the last four games and got to 10 points midway through the first quarter.
Al-Farouq Aminu had another solid performance, following up Saturday’s season-high 20 points with 14 points against the Kings.
The Blazers lead got as high as 28 in the third quarter as they got contributions from all over the roster to extend the lead.
Unlike Saturday when their starters salvaged a win from the jaws of defeat, this time they blew out an inferior opponent early on which allowed their key players to rest in the 4th quarter.
With the Blazers now three games behind Memphis for the 5th seed with eight games to go, rest for key players on game nights is a luxury they cannot afford.
But the schedule affords them a two-day break, which will include an off-day for the team Tuesday.
Thursday will be the first of a stretch of five games in seven days, so they’ll need the rest.
“At this point of the season, when you get tow days off in a row, if you can take that one off-we just had Sunday off-it’s a really tough part of the season,” Stotts said.
