Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> defeated the Sacramento Kings 134-133 Thursday night at the Moda Center, surviving a stunning collapse at the end of regulation to eke out a win in overtime. <\/p>\nIt\u2019s the first time since Halloween, when Portland defeated the Denver Nuggets for its third win in a row, that the Blazers (11-16) have won consecutive games.<\/p>\n
But it was anything but smooth.<\/p>\n
The plucky Kings bludgeoned the Blazers with 22 points in the paint in the first quarter, raced to a barrage of fast-break points in the third and nearly stole a win with a furious rally in the final two minutes of regulation.<\/p>\n
The Blazers built an 18-point edge in the final period and seemed to be cruising to a convincing victory. When Deni Avdija converted a driving layup with 2:28 left and Jerami Grant blocked a Keegan Murray drive 31 seconds later, the Blazers had a 113-98 lead and the ball. <\/p>\n
Then everything went haywire. The Blazers committed head-scratching turnovers. They missed untimely free throws. They took bad shots. And they played shoddy defense. <\/p>\n
Sacramento outscored Portland 17-2 over the final 1:53. When DeMar DeRozan swished a three-pointer with 7.8 seconds left and Jerami Grant missed a three at the buzzer, the game stunningly went to overtime. <\/p>\n
It was more of the same in the extra period. The Blazers built a 125-119 lead, then allowed Sacramento to fight back.<\/p>\n
When DeMar DeRozan swished a turnaround jumper over Sidy Cissoko with 4.4 seconds left, the Kings amazingly led 133-132. Avdija collected the inbound pass and sprinted the other way, hoisting a shot at the buzzer that never had a chance. The Kings\u2019 bench erupted in celebration. <\/p>\n
But the game wasn\u2019t over. Officials ruled that Russell Westbrook fouled Avdija on the shot and the Blazers\u2019 forward went to the line with 1.5 seconds left.<\/p>\n
He made both free throws, Keon Ellis missed a desperation half-court heave at the buzzer and the Blazers escaped with a wild win. <\/p>\n
Top performers<\/p>\n
Avdija finished with 35 points, five rebounds and five assists, Grant scored 20 points, including seven in overtime, and Clingan added 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocks for the Blazers. <\/p>\n
Shaedon Sharpe was hot early, making 8 of 9 shots, including 3 of 4 threes, to open the game, and finished with 26 points.<\/p>\n
DeRozan scored 33 points, including 14 in overtime, and Maxime Raynaud added 29 and 11 rebounds for the Kings (6-21).<\/p>\n
Holiday \u2018not ready\u2019<\/p>\n
There was hope last week, when Jrue Holiday participated in portions of a weekend practice, that he was on the verge of a return.<\/p>\n
But the Blazers\u2019 starting point guard missed his 15th outing Thursday and it remains unclear when he will play next. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting there,\u201d Blazers acting coach Tiago Splitter said. \u201cBut he\u2019s not ready and I want him to get 100% and feel good. He\u2019s such an important player for us and I don\u2019t want to risk anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holiday has not played since Nov. 14 because of a right calf strain and his absence \u2014 combined with extended absences from Scoot Henderson (left hamstring tear) and Blake Wesley (right foot fracture) \u2014 have left the Blazers without a point guard for more than half of the season. The Blazers have gone 5-10 since Holiday suffered his injury.<\/p>\n
When asked if he had any idea when Holiday might return, Splitter was noncommittal. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just how he\u2019s feeling,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cHe had a couple workouts, but he\u2019s not 100% yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up<\/p>\n
The Blazers face Sacramento for the second time in three days on Saturday, when the teams play at 7 p.m. at Golden 1 Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t pretty. It wasn\u2019t easy. And it wasn\u2019t always fun to watch. But the Portland Trail Blazers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[55327,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-101499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-donovan-clingan","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}