For those expecting the teetering Portland Trail Blazers to collapse amid injuries and heartbreaking buzzer-beating defeats, they delivered an emphatic and hopeful message Friday night in San Francisco:
127-123.
The undermanned Blazers defeated the Golden State Warriors by that score at the Chase Center, using a slew of career nights and a whole lot of guts to end a four-game losing streak.
Caleb Love, Donovan Clingan and Sidy Cissoko finished with career highs in scoring, Deni Avdija had another double-digit assist night and the Blazers (7-9) overcame a hot-shooting performance by Stephen Curry to hand the Warriors (9-9) their first home loss of the season.
After gaining a little momentum at the end of the third quarter, the Blazers took control of a seesaw game midway through the fourth and never looked back, fighting off charge after charge after charge from Golden State.
They took their largest lead of the fourth with 7:56 left, when Love swished a deep three-pointer and Avdija drained a pair of free throws to make the score 109-102.
But Curry responded with a three for the Warriors to make it a two-possession game and the Blazers had to withstand multiple Golden State haymakers down the stretch to eke out a win.
And this time, unlike so many previous times this month, the Blazers had enough in the tank to pull out a “crunch-time win.”
Avdija converted tough driving layups off the glass. Love hit ridiculous clutch threes. The Blazers played rugged defense. Portland made its free throws in the closing seconds. And when Curry — who made nine threes and scored 38 points — missed back-to-back long-range shots in the final nine seconds, the Blazers escaped with perhaps their most inspirational victory of the young season.
Yet again, the injury-ravaged Blazers — who played without seven pieces, including their starting backcourt and all three point guards — had to lean on a collection of two-way players and end-of-the bench backups. But this time, those players delivered.
Love was clutch all night, scoring a career-high 26 points to go with seven rebounds and five assists, and Cissoko added a career-high 15 points while making his second consecutive start. All the while, Clingan was a beast, Avdija was a maestro and Toumani Camara was a two-way force.
Two nights after recording his first triple-double of the season, Avdija finished with 26 points, a career-high 14 assists and six rebounds, producing double-digit assists in consecutive games for the first time in his career. Five of them went to Clingan, who scored a career-high 22 points and snared 10 rebounds.
Meanwhile, in addition to chasing Curry around most of the night, Camara delivered 20 points and seven rebounds, finishing 7 of 11 from the field, including 4 of 6 from three-point range.
For a reeling team desperate for some positive mojo, it added up to memorable victory.
That it happened to come in an NBA Cup matchup was an added bonus. The Blazers improved to 2-1 in the league’s annual in-season tournament, earning wins over the Denver Nuggets and Golden State while competing in West Group C. Houston and San Antonio are also competing in what most consider the toughest group.
Next up
The Blazers continue their three-game trip on Sunday, when they play the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center.
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