The Portland Trail Blazers lacked their usual verve Thursday night on the road against the Sacramento Kings. Portland’s offense was stagnant, its defense porous. Meanwhile, the reeling Kings — entering the night losers of four straight — were energized to exploit these deficiencies and jump on the Blazers for a much needed win.
The end result was a 128-107 breezy Kings win.
Blazer of the Game: Deni Avdija. The hard-playing forward brought that verve the rest of his team seemed to lack in this one. He was also the only Blazer to find any sort of offensive groove. Avdija registered 24 points, nine rebounds and three assists while shooting 7-11 from the field and 4-7 from beyond the arc. His consistent play served as a lifeline for Portland, singlehandedly keeping the score from getting too out of hand.
Stat of the Night: 80.9%. The Blazers shot poorly, but they lost this one on the defensive end. The Kings shot a wicked 64.9% from the field. More damning, the Kings SHOT A STAGGERING 80.9% ON 2-POINTERS. That helped Sacramento gash Portland, 60-32, in points in the paint. Practically all of Sacramento’s players shot with a startling efficiency — Zach LaVine (13-18 for 29 points), Domantas Sabonis (9-11 for 22), Keegan Murray (7-11 for 17), DeMar DeRozan (6-10 for 21), etc., etc.
What We’ll Remember: The last gasp of the play-in? Aside from the Kings’ hot shooting, this game will likely be remembered as the unofficial end of Portland’s play-in hopes. After things looked so promising just a week ago, this latest loss — Portland’s third in a row — puts the Blazers four games behind the No. 10 seed Dallas Mavericks and 4.5 games behind the No. 9 seed Kings. So, unless something real wacky happens with eight games left in Portland’s season, feel free to write March 27th, 2025 on the play-in tombstone. On the bright side, this loss tied the Blazers with the San Antonio Spurs for the eighth-best odds in the NBA lottery!
Box Score
What’s Next: Inspired by the piano scene in the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big, Mr. Dave Deckard will write up tonight’s extended recap by performing a song-and-dance number on a massive computer keyboard, tap dancing his way to each necessary key to spell out each necessary word of analysis.
Then the Blazers will hit the second leg of a five-game road trip Sunday with a matchup against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden at 3 p.m. Pacific.