Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

The Portland Trail Blazers have been playing superb basketball of late, and the Phoenix Suns saw that firsthand.

Now Phoenix gets a second look on Monday night when it again visits Portland in the latter contest of a two-game set in the Pacific Northwest.

The Blazers rolled to a 127-108 victory in Saturday’s first game, leading by as many as 27 while winning for the seventh time in their past eight games.

Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton reminded his former Phoenix teammates of his presence by scoring 24 points on 11-of-12 shooting.

“Played with energy, playing against his former team, you can tell he wanted to play hard,” Suns star Kevin Durant said. “It was a great game for him.”

Ayton was the No. 1 overall pick by the Suns in 2018 and played five seasons with the club. He is in his second season with Portland.

Ayton said the name on the opposing jersey didn’t fuel the big outing.

“I’m here to beat teams, man,” Ayton said. “I’m not really worried about who was in front of us. We’re playing for each other, playing defense and communicating. You can feel it. We are trying to change the tradition around here to a winning culture. We’re just scratching the surface right now.”

It was Ayton’s fourth straight game of 20 or more points. He is averaging 22.3 points and 11 rebounds during the span.

He also has made 21 of 24 shots over the past two games. Ayton hit 10 of 12 shots during Thursday’s 119-90 rout of the Orlando Magic.

Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was pleased with the effort Ayton displayed on Saturday against the Suns.

“He dominated the game, he really did,” Billups said. “He’s obviously always emotional against this team so it was good to see him go dominate the game.”

Portland had dropped four straight games against Phoenix prior to Saturday.

The loss was just the fourth in the past 13 overall games for the Suns.

Devin Booker scored 37 points for his second straight 30-point effort but he was unable to shoot Phoenix back into the game.

“They’ve been playing good basketball,” Booker said of Portland. “They came out and straight up beat us. They’re playing with a lot of confidence and they’re playing well right now.”

Durant scored 22 points and has tallied 20 or more in 24 of the past 25 games.

But the Suns allowed 98 points over the first three quarters to sabotage any real chance they had of winning on the second end of a back-to-back. Phoenix routed the host Golden State Warriors 130-105 one night earlier.

“Basketball can be fleeting. This league is tough,” Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Credit to Portland for the way they’re playing. You have to look at what they did to make it happen. We weren’t our best.”

The game was so one-sided that players on the benches of both teams were more interested in the rumblings and chatter by fans than watching garbage time over the final minutes.

Those fans were throwing out the initial reports that Luka Doncic was being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers with Anthony Davis going to the Dallas Mavericks.

Durant wasn’t sure what to think at first. Then a Suns’ security officer borrowed a phone from a fan and showed it to him.

“Crazy, crazy, crazy league,” Durant said, shaking his head.

Billups said the Trail Blazers learned of the trade in a similar way — assistant coaches seated in the second row of the bench area heard it from fans.

–Field Level Media