{"id":394706,"date":"2026-01-08T07:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394706\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:21:07","slug":"avdija-has-41-points-trail-blazers-hold-on-to-beat-rockets-103-102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394706\/","title":{"rendered":"Avdija has 41 points, Trail Blazers hold on to beat Rockets 103-102"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. — – Deni Avdija<\/a> had a season-high 41 points and the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> won their fourth straight with a wild 103-102 victory over the Houston Rockets<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

It appeared Tari Eason<\/a> scored on a tip-in for Houston at the buzzer and the Rockets emptied the bench in celebration, but upon review the basket did not beat the clock.<\/p>\n

The teams will meet again at the Moda Center on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Blazers held off the Rockets through most of the second half, but Houston tied it at 84 on a Amen Thompson<\/a>‘s free throw with 8:56 left. Shaedon Sharpe<\/a>‘s 3-pointer put Portland back in front.<\/p>\n

The Rockets narrowed Portland’s lead to 101-99 on Kevin Durant<\/a>‘s jumper and foul shot with just over a minute on the clock. Avdija answered with a layup.<\/p>\n

With the Blazers holding a 103-100 lead, Durant made a pair of free throws with 5.9 seconds left. On a Portland inbound, Houston was called for a loose ball foul, which coach Ime Udoka successfully challenged, giving the Rockets the ball.<\/p>\n

Durant, who finished with 37 points, missed a 19-footer with 2.1 seconds left before Eason’s failed attempt at the buzzer.<\/p>\n

The Rockets played without Alperen Sengun<\/a>, who sprained his ankle in a loss to Dallas on Saturday and is expected to be sidelined up to two weeks.<\/p>\n

Yang Hansen<\/a>, the Blazers’ 7-foot first-round draft pick last year, hit a long 3-pointer late in the first quarter to put Portland in front 25-21.<\/p>\n

Eason played just four minutes in the opening quarter and had his left knee wrapped on the bench but returned to start the second and hit a 3-pointer that gave Houston a 27-25 lead.<\/p>\n

Portland ended the half on a 17-7 run to lead 57-47 at the break.<\/p>\n

Avdija made an acrobatic 19-foot layup at the buzzer to give the Blazers an 81-75 lead heading into the final period.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. — – Deni Avdija had a season-high 41 points and the Portland Trail Blazers won their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[191034,352,5050,355,6406,99],"class_list":["post-394706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-191034","tag-espn","tag-houston-rockets","tag-nba","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}