The Portland Trail Blazers blew yet another opportunity to gain ground on the Dallas Mavericks in the race for the Western Conference’s final play-in berth on Sunday night.
The Blazers returned home from a seven-game trip (4-3) to lose 119-112 to the Detroit Pistons at the Moda Center.
Also on Sunday, the 11th-place Phoenix Suns (30-34) moved to within 1½ games of the 10th-place Dallas Mavericks (32-33) with a 125-116 win Sunday at Dallas.
The Blazers also lost an opportunity to gain a game on Friday when they lost 107-89 at the Oklahoma City Thunder, who sat all five starters. That night, Dallas lost 122-111 at home to Memphis.
Anfernee Simons did all he could to keep the Blazers in Sunday’s game, scoring 34 points on 14-of-25 shooting. Forward Jerami Grant added 25 points.
The Blazers began the game lethargically, resembling a team that had just completed a seven-game East Coast trip and fell behind by nine points in the first quarter and 12 in the second. They trailed 64-58 at halftime.
Things only got worse in the third quarter, where the Blazers fell back 18 but entered the fourth down just 97-86.
The Blazers found the energy reserves to push to within 107-103 with 3:08 remaining.
A Simons drive, Duop Reath three and Shaedon Sharpe drive got the Blazers to within 113-110. Portland made a stop, but a Reath three-point attempt missed with 1:14 on the clock. Another defensive stop led to three-point attempts from Toumani Camara and Shaedon Sharpe that also missed.
Detroit guard Cade Cunningham, who led the Pistons with 28 points, drove to the basket and was fouled by Grant with 25.5 seconds to go. He made both free throws to put the Pistons up 115-110.
The Blazers went to Simons, who scored on a drive leading to Sharpe fouling Cunningham with 19.2 seconds on the clock.
Cunningham again made both free throws, leaving the Pistons up 117-112.
Grant missed a three and the Blazers Simons fouled Dennis Schroder with 4.8 seconds remaining.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Blazers (28-37) have not defeated a winning team since Feb. 6 (Sacramento). Given their tough remaining schedule, the Blazers won’t be able to track down anyone in the play-in race until that changes.
The Pistons (36-29), sixth in the East, now trail fifth-place Indiana (35-27) by a half-game.
AVDIJA OUT
Blazers forward Deni Avdija missed a second consecutive game since suffering a left quad contusion Wednesday night at Boston.
NEXT UP
The Blazers play at 7 p.m. Monday at the Golden State Warriors.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)