The Trail Blazers and Kings get together for a rematch in Sacramento on Saturday night, just two days after Portland notched a wild victory over the same foe in the opener of a home-and-home set.
Portland recorded a 134-133 overtime home win on Thursday night after blowing a 15-point lead in the final 1:53 of regulation. Deni Avdija made two free throws with 1.5 seconds left in OT to allow the Trail Blazers to escape.
The free throws came after DeMar DeRozan nailed a turnaround jumper with 4.4 seconds left to give the Kings their only lead of the extra session.
“I’m just glad we won,” Portland interim coach Tiago Splitter said. “The other good part is we had the resilience to play the overtime.
“Those last minutes of the fourth quarter, we stopped playing, we didn’t manage the clock right, we were rushed, turning over the ball and taking bad shots and they were scoring every time.”
The valiant comeback left Kings coach Doug Christie with mixed feelings. The setback was the fourth straight for a team that has lost 21 of its 27 games this season.
“They kept fighting and refused to lose,” Christie said. “That is what our organization will be about and our team will be based upon. If you do that, most times you’ll give yourself a chance to win.”
DeRozan scored 14 of his team’s 18 overtime points. He matched his season high of 33 points while rookie Maxime Raynaud contributed career bests of 29 points and 11 rebounds.
“Obviously we showed a lot of resilience and being steady throughout the game,” Raynaud said, “not being too high, not being too low.”
Raynaud has been receiving solid amounts of playing time with star center Domantas Sabonis out with a knee injury. Sabonis will miss his 14th consecutive game on Saturday.
Raynaud is averaging 17 points and 8.3 rebounds in six games this month.
Kings guard Russell Westbrook had 20 points and 10 assists on Thursday. It was his fourth game of 10 or more assists this month.
Avdija poured in 35 points for the Trail Blazers, his eighth 30-point effort of the season.
“I’m out of words right now,” Avdija said after Portland’s second straight victory. “I’m just glad we got the win. That wasn’t pretty, but sometimes you have to win ugly.”
Portland used a 21-4 run to break open a tight game and take a 107-89 lead with 5:05 left in regulation.
Sacramento was down 113-98 with under two minutes remaining before scoring 14 straight points and 17 of 19 to force overtime.
DeRozan buried the trey with eight seconds left in regulation to tie it at 115.
“We can compete against anybody,” Christie said. “We have enough talent in there to win now. …
“Our guys had an incredible compete level and fought their hearts out.”
Kings guard Malik Monk, who averages 13 points per game, never entered the contest in a surprising move as Christie chose to go with Keon Ellis over the nine-year veteran.
“Nothing is permanent,” Christie said. “Obviously, we’re going to continue to try to make it happen, but Keon played well. We’ll give Keon a run and allow him to continue to develop with those guys.”
Ellis had 10 points and matched his career high of six steals in 32 minutes.
Earlier this week, Splitter wasn’t all that excited about the schedule having the Trail Blazers and Kings playing back-to-back games, but he changed his opinion.
“It’s great,” Splitter said. “I said I didn’t want to play them (again). Now I want to play them again and play better.”
–Field Level Media
