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Portland Trailblazers
Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy capped off a 16-point third quarter with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from 30-feet. The Rose Garden erupted, as their star willed an otherwise sluggish Portland team into the fourth quarter holding a five-point advantage over the Denver Nuggets.
The Blazers, which shot 31 percent in the first half while taking 51 shots, led for a majority of the opening three quarters despite their shooting woes and despite committing 14 fouls that led to 25 free-throw attempts by the Nuggets. Denver stayed in contention, and down only one at half-time, because of Portland’s incessant fouling and Carmelo Anthony’s play.
Anthony scored 20 points of their 42 first-half points, and while he cooled off a bit in Roy’s impressive third quarter, others stepped up. Point guards Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter took the pressure off Anthony’s shoulders, combining to score 13 points to his five. Their scoring battled the Nuggets back from a plethora of four and five-point deficits, and in spite of Roy’s five straight to end the period, they were within striking distance entering the final period.
The third belonged to Roy, but the fourth belonged to Anthony. Well-rested after a quiet third, Anthony took over with just over eight minutes remaining. He drove in for a dunk, his first points in ten minutes, but though he had reawoke, the Blazers appeared just too much for his team to overcome.
Portland guard Andre Miller answered Anthony’s dunk with an outside jumper, and then Juwan Howard blocked Anthony’s layup attempt, which led to a three-pointer by Rudy Fernandez that increased their lead to seven. Fernandez scored the next five points, too, for the Blazers, but Anthony had six, making two layups and dishing an assist for another.
The Blazers offense went silent at the worst of times, as the next two minutes looked exactly like their play in the first half: three fouls committed and two misses from the field. This mini-drought allowed the Nuggets to tie the game at 85, as Anthony hit a free-throw and a jumper in between a Nene Hilario offensive rebound and two free-throws.
Portland called a timeout to try and regroup, but they had no answer for Anthony. The 6′10″ physical small forward drained a mid-range jumper off a miss by Roy to give Denver their first lead since a shot-lived 24-22 advantage early in the second quarter. Then, Anthony or Hilario answered every score by the Blazers from their on out. Fernandez made two free-throws, and then Anthony hits two. Roy makes one of two free-throws, and then Anthony hits two. Miller makes one of two free-throws, and then Hilario made a hook for a five point-lead, forcing another timeout by Portland.
This meeting worked, as Roy drove in for a layup not ten seconds after play resumed, their defense finally forced Denver into an empty possession, and Aldridge, amidst a horrid shooting night, aggressively attacked the rim. They were within two points, and Aldridge had a chance to tie the game, but duplicated Roy and Miller’s trips to the line, making just one. Portland needed another stop on defense and they buckled down and accomplished the feat. Billups clanged a rushed 18-footer. The Blazers had a chance to escape with the win.
But it would be the Nuggets who would steal the victory. Greg Oden was fouled by Hilario with four seconds left. He “stepped up there [to the free-throw line] with confidence thinking I was going to hit both”, but he missed both. Anthony corralled the rebound as the Rose Garden moaned in anguish, was fouled, and did what Roy, Miller, Aldridge, and Oden couldn’t do, knocking down both free-throws. Roy’s desperation three-pointer was wayward. The Nuggets, down for a majority of the game, rode Anthony and, in his words, “stole the win” in the battle of Northwest Division foes.
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