You can’t beat many magicians if you let them pick all the tricks to be played, a maxim the Portland Trailblazers verified against the Orlando Magic in NBA action tonight. Orlando turned out to have more than enough tricks at hand to prevail, scratching out a 115-112 win thanks to a buzzer-beating three by Blazers nemesis Desmond Bane. Check out Kevin Lawler’s early recap of the game
, then look here for a few additional observations:Who?
After a 26-24 first period didn’t go his way, Blazers Coach Tiago
Splitter tried some sleight of hand by starting the second quarter with Robert Williams III, Duop Reath, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Kamara and Deni Avdija. It wasn’t exactly magical–that group was outscored 9-5 in just under four minutes of playing time–but it was intriguing, to say the least. Will we ever see it again? And speaking of the Time Lord, Rob played 14 minutes and looked good doing it–including a couple of putback dunks, mobile defense and a three-pointer!
Haven’t We Seen This Trick Before?
Speaking of magic tricks, Coach Splitter came up with a great one with 10.6 seconds left in the game. After a timeout, Camara took the ball out on the side and promptly gave the best Andre Miller impression I’ve seen since Andre was doing the impressions himself. Tou’s pass over the top was caught near the basket by Jerami Grant, who banked it in, drew a foul and made the following free throw to put the Blazers in front for the first time in a couple of hours. “That was one of the options,” Splitter said when asked about the play after the game.
Deni Was There
Orlando held Deni Avdija to 27 points tonight. Give the Magic some credit! Deni hit the Heat for 33 a couple of nights ago, so this was an improvement. It wasn’t a classic performance due to shooting a little short of his best (7 of 18 from the field, 4 of 9 from three and 9 of 10 from the line), but it definitely left his customary imprint on the game.
And So Was Shaedon
Shaedon Sharpe has been taking a lot of heat from fans unhappy with his season so far, but he may have taken some of the fire out of the flak tonight. It wasn’t just his 31-point scoring barrage—good enough to neutralize Orlando superstar Paolo Banchero’s 28 points–he was also not the guy to hunt for on defense. Banchero discovered that the hard way during the run by the Blazers down the stretch tonight–Shaedon stopped him cold twice when stops were mandatory.
And Now For The Bad News
This was a game that the Blazers straight-up stole from the Magic. Then they gave it back. Four turnovers and three missed free throws in crunch time managed to erase what would have been an unforgettable victory. Instead, they have to forget this one as soon as humanly possible.
Up Next
The Blazers move on to New Orleans to tackle the Pelicans Wednesday at 5 p.m., Pacific.
