PHOENIX -- Saturday night in Portland, the Trail Blazers gave up a substantial second-half lead before eventually losing in overtime. Portland faced a similar scenario less than 24 hours later in Phoenix though with one important difference.Despite giving up an 18-point lead in the second half, the Trail Blazers managed to settled themselves late in the fourth quarter to come away with a 110-101 victory versus the Suns in front of 16,664 Sunday night at Talking Stick Resort Arena.“We’ve had our fair share of close games this year, and especially on the heels of last night, I liked the way we didn’t give in, we didn’t cave in,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “(Phoenix) missed some shots but we came up with the rebound, Dame (Lillard) made some clutch plays, I thought Al-Farouq Aminu’s block in transition was a big momentum play for us as was his three. It wasn’t necessarily a pretty game by either team. I think both teams having played last night, neither team really probably played their best but I thought both of them really competed hard.”
While Portland would help themselves by shooting 62 percent from the field, holding the Suns without a bucket for over five minutes late in the first quarter was surely the more impressive feat for a team that has struggled defensively this season. The Suns would push back early in the second, cutting Portland’s lead to six after a Marquese Chriss three-pointer with just over four minutes to play in the first half. But the Trail Blazers closed out the half on a 20-10 run to take what was at the time their largest lead of the night at 66-50 into the intermission. “I like the way we finished a lot of the quarters,” said Stotts. “The first and second quarters we were able to put together some good defensive stops.”But as was the case Friday night, Portland’s first-half lead in no way ensured a victory, as the Suns started the second half on a 20-5 run and would hold the Trail Blazers to 26 percent shooting in the third to cut the lead to 82-79 by the start of the fourth. At that point, you would be correct to assume the memories of what happened the night before started to creep in.