The Portland Trail Blazers dropped their fourth straight game with a 118-89 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. The Blazers were led in scoring by Dalano Banton who finished with 23 points in just 24 minutes.
Portland was missing Deni Avdija, Jerami Grant and Donovan Clingan in this game. Those losses were greatly felt as Portland struggled to put together any offensive production.
Blazer of the Game: Scoot Henderson, again. Henderson scored 16 points and had six assists in the contest, but was kept out of the game for long stretches due to foul trouble. During his time on the floor Scoot showed confidence in his abilities, including a couple of uncharacteristic three-point attempts and a handful of great passes. He is clearly playing with more poise and looks much more comfortable in his role recently.
Stat of the Night: Three-point woes. Generally when a team shoots 11 more shots from deep than an opponent, they tend to make more. However, the Blazers made just 9 of their 34 attempts from behind the arc, good for 26% shooting, compared to the 10-23 performance for the Clippers, a 44% clip.
What We’ll Remember: Another blowout at home. This loss is the third straight for Portland on their current homestand, and those have come by a total margin of 68 points. This has been a rough stretch for the Blazers. The on-court product has been poor in front of the home crowd.
What’s Next: Rockets are in town. The Blazers will face the Houston Rockets on Saturday, January 18 at 7:00 pm
