The Portland Trail Blazers found enough offense to beat the Atlanta Hawks 117-101 on Thursday night. With their best player, Deni Avdija, sidelined by injury, the Blazers have struggled to score, but an unlikely group emerged from the bench to spark the win.
Shaedon Sharpe led the Blazers (20-22) with 24 points, but the story of the game was a second-half surge from Caleb Love, Rayan Rupert, Duop Reath, and Robert Williams III.
The Hawks led for much of the third quarter, but that group turned up the defensive
intensity and got hot from behind the three-point line to turn the game around. The Hawks (20-23) managed just 14 points in the fourth quarter, allowing the Blazers to win comfortably.
Player of Note
That group of Love, Rupert, Reath and Williams all deserve recognition. They turned what looked like a loss into an easy win.
Williams had 6 points and 11 rebounds. Rupert had 13 points and 3 steals while making three of his four three-pointers. Love (12 points) and Reath (6 points) had modest numbers, but both made huge plays during key moments in the second half.
Stat of the Night
The Blazers bench outscored the Hawks bench 55-34.
With 4:36 to play in the third quarter, the Blazers trailed by nine points. At the time, they were just 6-33 (18.1%) from behind the three-point arc. They would go on to make their next seven three-point attempts as part of a 35-12 run that started late in the third quarter and carried into the fourth.
Portland’s starters came back in and were able to close out the game, but that run from the bench made it possible.
What We Noticed
Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant, who came off the bench to score 16 points, are stabilizing forces and having them back in the lineup makes a huge difference for the Blazers. Neither can truly make up for Avdija’s absence or single-handedly carry an offense, but they keep the ball moving, attack favorable matchups, find ways to get to the free throw line or manufacture points when things aren’t going well.
Grant closed the first three quarters with important plays. He earned a three-shot foul in the final second of the opening quarter, making two of three from the line. He finished a tough layup (and should have gotten a free throw) to close the first half. And he drew help defenders on the final possession of the third quarter, kicking the ball to Rupert for a three. In a game that the Blazers trailed by nine late in the third quarter, all of those points were big.
Up Next
The Blazers host the Los Angeles Lakers at 7:00 PM Pacific on Saturday.
