Lillard’s Historic Night Leads Blazers Over Magic

ThePortland Trail Blazers幸存于115-112的战斗Orlando Magic上Wednesday night thanks to a dominant third quarter, spearheaded by Damian Lillard. Portland’s All-Star scored 41 points and had eight rebounds and four assists, while knocking down a franchise-record 10 threes in the game, seven of which came in the decisive third quarter.Nikola Vucevicled the Magic with 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on the night.

后the Magic shot 56% from the field and 57% from distance in the first half, racing out to an eight-point halftime lead, Portland clamped down on the defensive end in the third, while scoring a season-high 40 points and holding Orlando to just 21. Despite a 10-0 run from the Magic in the fourth, the Blazers were able to hold on for the one-score victory. The last couple minutes proved disastrous for both teams, ripe with turnovers and missed free throws. The win snapped Portland’s three-game losing streak, the longest of the season.

Halftime Adjustments

Let’s start with the good. After the Blazers looked a step slow on defense in the first half—gifting the Magic open looks by allowing their shooters too much space, collapsing on the dribble drive and not rotating properly—they turned things around in the third with a renewed sense of focus on the defensive end of the court.Jusuf Nurkic值得一提的是，他明显地将强度提高了一个缺口：偏转通行证，破坏了奥兰多的节奏，并锁定了沃切维奇（Vucevic），后者仅在第一季度就得到了11分，但在比赛中得到20分。

利拉德（Lillard）在努尔基奇（Nurkic）的一些帮助下，通过在框架中击败了特许经营纪录的7三分，激发了进攻。随着最终成绩如此接近，第三节确实是这场比赛的差异，这是开拓者队在他们显然没有最好的东西的夜晚能够为胜利而生存的唯一原因。

lim到终点

The final couple minutes of this game deserve the Yakety-Sax treatment. It was that brutal. The Magic were able to tie the game at 108 with three minutes left, thanks to a 10-0 run sparked byEvan Fournier’s hot shooting, during which Portland also went ice-cold from the floor. That’s when things got weird.

The Blazers missedeightfree throws over the final two minutes, including four fromEvan Turnerwith a chance to ice the game away. They held on because the Magic didn’t take care of the ball on the other end. Orlando had five critical turnovers during that time frame, including on the final possession, in which they threw the ball away with 0.9 seconds left, after a clock malfunction gave them one final chance to tie.

Extra Sauce

Nik Stauskus bounced out of his shooting slump in a big way, scoring 15 points over 14 minutes in the first half, with 12 of those points coming in the second quarter. The Blazers as a team only scored 22 points total in the period. Sauce was 5-8 from three-point land on the night, and also finished with a couple of solid assists. However, he only logged four minutes in the second half, finishing with 18 points.

荣誉提名

努尔基奇（Nurkic）早早表现出色，在过去的九场比赛中获得第六次双打，得到16分，13个篮板和5次助攻。CJ McCollumhad 15 points and six rebounds, doing most of his damage in the first quarter.Evan Turnerhad six points, seven boards and seven assists, and whileMeyers Leonardhad an off shooting night,Zach Collinsstepped up with seven points and seven rebounds, shooting 3-6 from the field.

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The Blazers hostNikola Jokicand theDenver Nuggets上Friday night, with a scheduled start time of 7:30 pm PT.