When Toumani Camara emerged from his postgame shower in the Portland Trail Blazers locker room, he didn’t even have time to towel off and plop down in his chair before someone asked the most unusual question.
“Can I see your mouth?” the person said.
“Can you at least say please?” Camara deadpanned.
When the person obliged, Camara opened wide, revealing that a chunk of one of his lower teeth was missing.
It was the toll he — and the Blazers — had to pay for another gritty, gutsy, down-to-the-wire win.
The Blazers defeated the Houston Rockets 103-102 on Wednesday night at the Moda Center, eking out a hard-fought win by withstanding a Kevin Durant buzzer-beater, a postgame video review and another clutch-game finish.
It was the season high fourth consecutive win — and sixth in the last eight games —and it was as impressive, and close, as any this season.
“I think the drama there was at the maximum,” Blazers acting coach Tiago Splitter said.
In the end, the latest win was defined by a chipped tooth, an “MVP”-caliber performance and another frenetic finish.
Camara’s chipped tooth
When Camara arrived at the Moda Center Wednesday, he knew he was in for a long night — the Blazers’ best defender would be assigned to guard Durant, the 15-time All-Star who entered the game needing 52 points to pass Wilt Chamberlain for seventh-most in NBA history.
“When he’s on, there’s really nothing you can do to stop him,” Camara said. “He’s one of the greatest to ever do it.”
But it turned out hounding Durant was the least of Camara’s worries.
With 4:11 left in the third quarter, when the Blazers were clinging to a two-point lead, Camara took the brunt of a nasty collision with Dorian Finney-Smith. The Rockets’ 6-foot-7 forward corralled a defensive rebound in the paint in front of Camara, twisted to charge up court, and … boom. The top of Finney-Smith’s head barreled into Camara’s face, sending him crashing back-first onto the court. Camara grimaced immediately, cupped his hands around his face and reached into his mouth.
He felt a pool of blood and a missing hunk of a lower tooth.
Camara rose gingerly with the help of multiple teammates, rummaged around the court for his missing body part, scooped it up and sauntered to the Blazers’ bench, handing it to a trainer.
After a short delay, during which trainers did all they could to stop the bleeding, Camara returned without missing any game time.
“It’s basketball, man,” he said. “I love it too much. I need way more than that if you want me to get off the floor.”
Fittingly, Finney-Smith was whistled for an offensive foul on the play, giving the man who leads the NBA in offensive fouls drawn one more. And while the Rockets’ forward had to depart for the locker room for evaluation, the collision only seemed to inspire Camara.
He finished a driving hook shot on the next play, snared a defensive rebound on the other end, then added a tough contested driving layup, momentarily losing one of his shoes after he landed.
By the end of the night, Camara had produced 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks, two steals, 11 deflections and one of the most memorable plays of the season. Splitter joked that the tooth was “going in The Box” and Deni Avdija, who has experience with tooth loss during basketball games, said his teammate was lucky.
“I lost my tooth twice,” Avdija said, “with Washington and with the (Israel) National Team this summer. I told Toumani he’s lucky because it’s the bottom tooth. I lost the big tooth in the front, so I told him he got lucky, you’re going to be even prettier now.”
As Camara finally departed the locker room, he said he planned to immediately sit with team medical personnel to “glue it back on.”
“I need it,” Camara said, chuckling.
Joking aside, the incident only reinforced the internal admiration for the heart and soul of the Blazers’ defense.
“He’s tough,” Shaedon Sharpe said. “We love that about Toumani. He just lays his body out there for us and we just love him for that.”
“MVP”
The curious case of Camara’s tooth was one of the few things that could have overshadowed the play of Avdija Wednesday night.
The Blazers’ breakout star, who is generating All-Star buzz, was so dominant against the Rockets, he was serenaded with MVP chants by 16,144 late in the fourth quarter.
Avdija scored a season-high 41 points, making 13 of 24 shots, in an electric and entertaining performance that had him flexing and roaring toward the Moda Center rafters.
The Rockets regularly used a box-in-one strategy to slow Avdija down, assigning one defender (often Amen Thompson) to chase him around the court and make him uncomfortable by, Avdija said, “breathing on your neck, like, every possession.” It didn’t work. The tactic stunted Avdija’s playmaking — he recorded just two assists — but he managed to wiggle away and find open seams all night, repeatedly blasting into the lane to complete downhill driving layups, nail short and-one jumpers and draw fouls.
He swished a buzzer-beating baseline jumper to end the third quarter, he scored eight of the Blazers’ final 12 points and he mauled the Rockets at the free throw line, finishing 13 of 15. But it was one of the misses that proved most memorable.
It came with 48.9 seconds left, after he was fouled while completing a driving finger roll. As he stepped to the line, the chants echoed around the arena: “M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!”
When someone joked after the game that they knew he would miss because of the chants, Avdija laughed.
“Definitely,” he said. “If you want to make me miss …”
But he admitted the chants were special.
“It’s just a compliment,” Avdija said. “I mean, this is some stuff you hear in (video games), like, when you drop 60 points. It’s just fun to see it in real life and see how much Portland loves you. I play so hard every game. I’m sacrificing my body. Two injuries. No sleep. To see the fans love and welcome. It’s just amazing for any player. And it’s a compliment, for sure.”
Avdija fell two points short of his career-high, but it was another memorable night for the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week, who is averaging 34.3 points, 8.0 assists and 7.8 rebounds during the Blazers’ four-game winning streak.
“That’s what I expect from him,” Camara said. “I see him work so much on his game. I see his dedication to his craft, how much he loves the game of basketball, how much he loves winning. Everybody’s able to see it now. I’m super happy for him, the way he’s been playing, the way he’s been communicating, the way he’s been growing … I’m excited for his future for sure.”
Another wild finish
Much like they have so many times this season, the Blazers had to sweat out another harrowing finish.
Durant seemed to follow every Avdija clutch shot with one of his own and when that memorable free throw rimmed out with 48.9 seconds left, the Blazers held a two-possession lead at 103-97.
Then there was mayhem.
Durant blocked an Avdija drive. Caleb Love missed a three-pointer. Tari Eason made a remarkable play on an inbound pass with 5.3 seconds left, blanketing Love near the sideline and snatching a Shaedon Sharpe pass with his right arm. Eason was initially called for a foul, but the play was reversed after a coach’s challenge, giving the Rockets the ball with 5.3 seconds left facing a one-point deficit.
After a timeout, Durant gathered an inbound pass and went to work on Rayan Rupert, charging toward the hoop and firing a 20-foot fadeaway jumper. It rimmed out, but Eason skied for the rebound and tipped the ball in the basket at the buzzer.
The Rockets flooded the court in elation, celebrating a stunning win. Or so they thought.
Video review confirmed the tip-in came just after the buzzer, saving a win for the Blazers.
It was their 24th “clutch-time” game this season — when the score is within five points in the final five minutes — and their 13th “clutch-time” win. Both marks are second-most in the NBA.
“Coaches do a great job of having us focused,” Avdija said, when asked about the Blazers’ improvement in down-to-the-wire finishes. “Good game plan. Communication on the court between the players. And we’re together, we’re on a string defensively, offensively.
“I’m not going to say we’re going to close every game now, but we’re definitely getting better at that.”
Next up
The Blazers and Rockets play the for the second time in three nights on Friday at 7 p.m. at Moda Center.