The Portland Trail Blazers failed to take advantage of facing the Cleveland Cavaliers with their best player, Donovan Mitchell, out of the lineup Tuesday night at the Moda Center.
The Blazers, just like during Sunday’s loss to the Boston Celtics, played reasonably well. They simply weren’t up to the challenge of defeating an elite Eastern Conference contender and lost 122-111 at the Moda Center.
In losing, the Blazers missed an opportunity to gain ground in the Western Conference’s play-in chase.
The Dallas Mavericks (35-38) lost 128-113 at the New York Knicks on Tuesday to fall a half-game behind 10th-place Phoenix, which was off.
The Suns (35-37) host the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.
Portland remained three games behind the Mavericks and fell to 3½ back of the Suns.
Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan each scored 18 points for the Blazers. Deni Avdija had 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
This was a game the Blazers were in position to win, but couldn’t find a way to get the job done a gainst a team as experienced and talented as the Cavaliers.
“There’s so many things that I liked about what we did today,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. “We win the rebounding battle (41-36), which is what we said we wanted to do. We get 28 assists. I don’t think we shot it very well, 63% from the free throw (58.5%), that’s always gonna be tough. We got up a lot of threes. We got some good looks, didn’t make them. We didn’t turn over very much. You get nine. So, I’ll take that any day. But if you can’t keep up with them scoring the ball, it’s gonna be very tough against an elite team like that.”
The Blazers shot 40.% from the field and 32.7% from three-point range. Anfernee Simons, Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Henderson combined to shoot six of 31 from three-point range.
Simons, scoreless in the first half, scored seven points on 2-of-12 shooting.
Cavaliers Trail Blazers Basketball
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, left, looks to shoot next to Portland Trail Blazers forward Toumani Camara during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore., Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) APAP
Darius Garland led the Cavaliers with 27 points. They shot 54.5% from the field while scoring 60 points in the paint compared to 42 for the Blazers.
A sloppy second quarter saw the Blazers commit six of their nine turnovers while shooting just 31.6%. Cleveland won the quarter 27-19 to take a 60-52 lead into halftime.
The Blazers kept the game close throughout the third quarter, trailing by just two on multiple occasions. But each time, Cleveland pulled further ahead and exited the quarter up 92-86.
In the fourth quarter, the Blazers had a chance to tie the game after Avdija scored on a drive to make the score 106-104. Portland followed up with a defensive stop but then Sharpe missed a layup attempt, leading to Cleveland’s Sam Merrill hitting a three-pointer to give the Cavaliers a 109-104 lead with 6:09 remaining in the game.
“I really thought Shaedon was fouled going to the rack,” Billups said. “No call. They go down, score, it’s at five again. Just tough breaks like that.”
Billups argued the no-call with the officials leading to a technical foul call.
“That was a big, big moment,” Billups said of the Sharpe drive. “Huge moment in the game where we’re fighting uphill the whole game and I think we’re finally there.”
Cavaliers Trail Blazers Basketball
Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson, left, drives to the basket past Cleveland Cavaliers forward De'Andre Hunter during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore., Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)AP
Merrill’s shot started a 14-4 run, putting the Cavaliers up 120-108 with 3:01 to go.
“That team is better than we are,” Billups said. “They’re the best team in the Eastern Conference. Maybe the best in the league, who knows? But, man, we played our butts off. We made them work for it.”
WHAT IT MEANS
The Blazers (32-41) are running out of time to move up the standings. They have nine games remaining and start a five-game trip Thursday at Sacramento.
The Cavaliers (58-14) are now 7-0 playing without Mitchell.
CLINGAN
Clingan struggled in the first meeting at Cleveland on March 2. He fouled out after playing just 11 minutes. He scored four points, grabbed three rebounds and failed to block a shot.
He performed much better on Tuesday, scoring 18 points with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
NEXT UP
The Blazers start a five-game trip Thursday at the Kings (35-36).
-- Aaron Fentress ’ afentress@Oregonian.com ’ @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)