{"id":331623,"date":"2025-12-08T03:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T03:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/331623\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T03:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T03:56:11","slug":"grizzlies-dominate-trail-blazers-as-rookie-yang-hansen-makes-1st-nba-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/331623\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies dominate Trail Blazers as rookie Yang Hansen makes 1st NBA start"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dose of Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> pregame intrigue arrived 30 minutes before tipoff Sunday, when acting coach Tiago Splitter<\/a> announced that rookie Yang Hansen<\/a> would make his first career NBA start<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the fascination faded fast at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

The Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> bulldozed the Blazers in the first quarter, sidestepped a second-half rally, then coasted to a decisive 119-96 victory in Memphis.<\/p>\n

Santi Aldama finished with 22 points and seven rebounds and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 16 points, five assists and two steals, but it was depth, interior dominance and rugged play that carried the Grizzlies (11-13) to their seventh win over the last nine games.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot our best game,\u201d Splitter told reporters afterward.<\/p>\n

Not at all. Memphis mauled the Blazers from the jump, building a 22-point lead in the first quarter practically before the 14,189 spectators had a chance to settle into their seats at FedExForum. Center Zach Edey owned Yang and the Blazers inside, Cedric Coward caused damage all over the court and the Grizzlies\u2019 bench blitzed the Blazers\u2019 razor-thin second unit, amassing a 22-7 scoring edge in the opening quarter. <\/p>\n

Memphis led 40-20 after the opening quarter, but the score felt even more lopsided for a shorthanded team playing its fourth road game in seven days. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe started the game off,\u201d Splitter told reporters in Memphis. \u201cAnd then we have to roll down 20 (points) for the rest of the game. It\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blazers made a push after halftime, outscoring the Grizzlies 19-3 to start the third quarter. When Jerami Grant<\/a> and Deni Avdija<\/a> swished back-to-back three-pointers and Grant polished off a three-point play, Portland had stunningly trimmed Memphis\u2019 lead to 69-65 with 7:19 left in the third quarter. <\/p>\n

But that was as close as the Blazers would get. <\/p>\n

The Grizzlies used a Jaylen Wells three, a Spencer midrange jumper and a Wells alley-oop dunk to push the lead back to nine and the Blazers offered little resistance in the fourth quarter as Memphis\u2019 lead swelled as large as 26 points.<\/p>\n

Pick a statistic and the Grizzlies owned it. They outrebounded the Blazers 52-40, outscored them 52-34 in the paint, held a 19-9 edge in second-chance points and scored more fast-break points (17-8). Oh, and Memphis\u2019 bench outscored Portland\u2019s bench 69-35, as seven Grizzlies, including four backups, reached double-figures in scoring. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think their second unit \u2026 won the game for them,\u201d Splitter told reporters. <\/p>\n

Of course, the injury-ravaged Blazers were fighting without several key players. They not only played without all three of their point guards yet again, but also without their top two centers \u2014 starter Donovan Clingan<\/a> missed his second consecutive game with a left leg bruise and backup Robert Williams III<\/a> was sidelined with an illness. <\/p>\n

That prompted Splitter to turn to Yang, the No. 16 pick of the 2025 NBA draft, for his first NBA start. <\/p>\n

It opened poorly as Yang drew two early fouls and had to be pulled just three minutes, 49 seconds into his first shift. By halftime, the Chinese rookie had more fouls (four) than points (zero), rebounds (one), blocks (zero) and assists (zero) combined.<\/p>\n

Yang finally found a little footing in the second half, however, playing six minutes during the Blazers\u2019 third-quarter surge and six more in the fourth, when he scored his only two field goals. <\/p>\n

The first came off a nifty post move on the right block, where Yang used a spin move to ease past Edey and finish with a two-handed dunk. Then he followed with a little hook shot in the lane.<\/p>\n

Yang also took an Edey hook to the face in the final period, when the Grizzlies\u2019 starting center smacked Yang with his right arm as he was trying to score on the right block. Yang crashed to the court in the aftermath and lingered there, face down, for an extended stretch. Officials did not call a foul \u2014 and didn\u2019t even stop play \u2014 as Memphis quickly inbounded the ball for a five-on-four possession, which ended with a Coward-to-Edey alley-oop dunk. <\/p>\n

Splitter, who was weighing whether he should challenge the no-call, was enraged after the play because, he said, he felt he wasn\u2019t given time to call a challenge and because play wasn\u2019t stopped as Yang lay face down on the court.<\/p>\n

Spencer made the technical free throw, pushing the Grizzlies\u2019 lead to 97-84 with 9:53 left.<\/p>\n

Yang eventually shook off the blow and returned to the game, which was reflective of his debut start. It was far from perfect, but his confidence and on-court awareness seemed to grow with each possession.<\/p>\n

He finished with four points, five rebounds, two assists and two turnovers, while making 2 of 5 shots, in 19 minutes. Yang was one of just two players in the Blazers\u2019 rotation to finish with a positive plus-minus, logging a plus-two. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis beginning wasn\u2019t great, but he finished the game better,\u201d Splitter told reporters. \u201cIt was a great lesson for him to have this experience to go there and play a big guy similar to his size and strength. Great lesson for him to get better and improve his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up<\/p>\n

The Blazers play the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Smoothie King Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dose of Portland Trail Blazers pregame intrigue arrived 30 minutes before tipoff Sunday, when acting coach Tiago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,101593,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-331623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fedexforum","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}