Damon Stoudamire drilled a 3-pointer with two-tenths of a second remaining in overtime as the Trail Blazers extended their winning streak to nine games with a wild 104-103 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
"We have run that play 100 times and the guy who comes off the pick hasn't got a shot yet," Stoudamire said. "When I came off, I was wide-open. I gave Sam (Cassell) a jab and he went for it. I had a dribble release, went up and it just felt good."
Stoudamire's second 3-pointer in the final 73 seconds came after Cassell completed a rare four-point play to give the Bucks a 103-101 lead with 3.4 seconds left.
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Blazers-Bucks: 56k | 300k ![]() Damon Stoudamire launches the game-winning three in front of a stunned Milwaukee crowd. Gary Dineen NBAE/Getty Images |
"We blew an assignment at the end of the game and then Stoudamire hit a big shot," said Cassell, who contributed 20 points.
Portland erased a 94-87 deficit in the final three minutes of regulation. Scottie Pippen, not known for his outside shooting, drilled a jumper that originally was credited as a 3-pointer with 6.4 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.
But the referees conferred and changed it to a 2-pointer, leaving the contest tied, 94-94. Although Cheeks screamed at the officials, television replays showed that Pippen clearly had his foot on the line.
Cheeks was upset that the referees changed the call after the play was shown on the scoreboard. Officials are not supposed to look at television monitors to reverse a call.
"I don't know how that call was changed, but it doesn't matter because we won the game," Cheeks said.
The Bucks had a good chance to win, but Glenn Robinson's 10-footer in the lane caromed off the rim at the buzzer.
Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace scored 24 points apiece for the Blazers.
"We are showing some poise late in games," Pippen said. "We had guys step up and big play after big play. We had guys make shots that needed to make them."
Robinson had 24 and Ray Allen added 22 for Milwaukee. George Karl fell to 0-6 against Portland since being named Milwaukee coach four years ago.
"We won and lost that game five or six times," Karl said. "We had a lot of breakdowns, but we fought our butts off."
The Bucks opened a three-point lead in the extra period, but the Blazers went ahead, 99-98, on Stoudamire's 3-pointer with 1:13 left and made it 101-98 on Ruben Patterson's dunk with 43 seconds to play.
After Robinson made 1-of-2 from the line. Stoudamire missed a jumper. Allen got the rebound and raced upcourt without using a timeout. He got the ball into the right corner to Cassell, who was fouled by Patterson while hitting a fallaway jumper.
"Psychologically, a game like this sticks with you a little bit," Karl said. "We have to clear our minds though. We need to go into the Cleveland game (on Sunday) and come out with a win. If we get a win there, I think this can still be a good month."
The Blazers (35-24) climbed a season-high 11 games over .500 and completed a 4-0 road trip.
"It's great," Pippen said. "We have to continue to build and see how far we take it."








