PORTLAND — Thursday’s game between the Boston Celtics and Portland Trail Blazers was one that had everything.
Great guard play. Great coaches, each deserving of Coach of the Year consideration on each sideline, facing off in a game that both teams needed to have.
But after it all went down Thursday night, the Blazers outlasted the Celtics 116-109 and the unequivocal star of the game was an unlikely figure: Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu.
Aminu had a career-high 28 points including a career-high six 3-pointers to go along with nine rebounds and three blocks.
Aminu’s unexpected cameo as the hero fits right into the story of this Blazers team, triumphantly marching to a playoff spot that nobody thought would be theirs.
“He was huge,” Damian Lillard said after a 3-for-16 night. “He was our MVP tonight.”
CJ McCollum scored eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, to go along with eight assists.
McCollum and Aminu were the playmakers all night and in the game’s deciding moments.
A McCollum crunch time basket, his second in the past week, gave the Blazers a 110-109 lead with 1:03 left. Then McCollum picked up a loose ball on the next defensive position, running the court to set up the man of the night, Aminu, to give Portland a 112-109 lead and they never looked back.
They needed everything they got from the duo on a night when Lillard went 3-for-16 from the field.
“A lot of times you see guys say, this was a great team win,” Lillard said. “This is really what that was.”
It was Aminu, Portland’s starting power forward, who gave their offense life for much of the night.
The Celtics dared Aminu to knock down open 3-pointers with consistency, a bi-product of cutting off driving lanes for Lillard and McCollum.
But Lillard and McCollum trying to find their own offense did little when the Celtics beat the Blazers 116-93 back in Boston on March 2.
So, they switched things up, playing more as facilitators and playmakers with the attention of the Boston defense all on them.
Both teams are also in the midst of a tight playoff race in their respective conferences.
The Celtics entered Thursday in a three-way tie for fourth place in the East while the Blazers entered with a two-game lead for the sixth seed, two games behind currently fifth-seeded Memphis.
The Celtics also got some much-needed reinforcements. Starting small forward and sometimes power forward Jae Crowder made his return to the line-up after missing eight games.
Portland trailed by double digits multiple times before getting back into the game in the second half.
Then in the third quarter, with Aminu leading the way on both ends, the Blazers went on a 10-0 run to tie the game, going into the fourth down by only two.
Aminu’s spectacular game only continued as he made the Celtics look like fools for leaving him comically open and he also delivered some big time blocks that got the crowd involved.
Aminu hit two more 3-pointers early in the 4th quarter and Gerald Henderson pitched in 15 points off the bench, helping the Blazers extend their lead to 13.
It’s a common sight to find Aminu putting up 3-pointer after 3-pointer after practice and tonight’s excellence was a product of that work. It was written that he would have this night.
“I always trust the process so to stay,” Aminu said. “Keep doing what I’m supposed to do. When you’re out there on the court, it’s already been done so to speak because of all the work you put in. By the time you’re out there, it’s already done in a sense.”
“It was good to see him have a breakout game,” Stotts said.
But the Celtics, as they did at many points throughout the night, used their defense to get the game trending back in their favor.
The Celtics took the lead after a loose ball caromed to Crowder in the corner for a 3-pointer with over a minute left.
