Nuggets-Trail Blazers Preview

By NOEY KUPCHAN
Posted Dec 19 2012 7:32PM

After coming up clutch over the weekend, Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers find themselves on the verge of their first four-game winning streak in two seasons.

Keeping things going, though, could prove difficult with LaMarcus Aldridge sidelined.

Hoping to overcome Aldridge's absence, the Trail Blazers try for an eighth home win in nine matchups against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

After scoring a season-high 29 points in a 98-90 win over San Antonio last Thursday, Lillard made a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left to lift Portland past New Orleans 95-94 on Sunday.

"I was excited to win the game," Lillard said. "We had a big lead, we let them fight back and tie the game up and we were looking at overtime, so I was kind of relieved and excited at the same time."

Unfortunately for the Blazers (11-12), Sunday's victory came at a cost. Aldridge, averaging a team-high 21.0 points and 8.0 rebounds, rolled his ankle and has been ruled out for this game.

"Obviously that's a lot of minutes, a lot of points and rebounds and our best player," coach Terry Stotts told the team's official website. "Different players are going to have to do different things, but we've done it before when other players have sat out ... everybody's got to ratchet it up a little bit to find a way to win a game.

"When you have injuries as you're going to have in the NBA season it creates opportunities for other guys to play. I've got confidence in everybody on our roster."

Portland could also be without Wesley Matthews again. Averaging 15.5 points, Matthews returned Sunday following a two-game absence due to a hip flexor but lasted less than four minutes.

While playing without Aldridge and Matthews isn't ideal, the Blazers have proven plenty formidable on their own court of late, taking six of seven - including three in a row while holding opponents to an average of 86.0 points. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise to a Denver team that's been limited to 42.1 percent shooting during a five-game skid at the Rose Garden.

"Everybody's going to have to step up (Thursday)," said Blazers swingman Nicolas Batum, who had 11 points, a career-high 10 assists, five rebounds, five steals and five blocks against the Hornets. "We have to step up. ... We play at a high tempo because we know Denver loves to run."

The Nuggets (14-12) carry plenty of momentum into Thursday's showdown, having averaged 111.0 points while shooting 49.8 percent during a three-game run.

The Nuggets posted their highest scoring output of the season in Sunday's 122-97 win at Sacramento, then beat San Antonio 112-106 two nights later.

Danilo Gallinari scored a season-high 28 points Tuesday to lead six players in double figures for Denver.

"With the team we have we can have a different protagonist every game," Gallinari told the NBA's official website. "Tonight it was me, maybe the next night it will be someone else. I was happy to knock down those shots."

Kenneth Faried also came up big despite being sick, recording 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Blazers defeat Nuggets 101-93 for 4th straight win

By ANNE M. PETERSON
Posted Dec 21 2012 2:37AM

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The Trail Blazers weren't going to try anything out of the ordinary against the Nuggets, especially with injured All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge watching from the bench in street clothes.

The idea, explained forward J.J. Hickson, was for everyone to do "just a little bit more."

Everyone did, and Portland beat the Nuggets 101-93 on Thursday night for the Blazers' first four-game winning streak of the season. Nicolas Batum had 22 points and Hickson had 18 points and 18 rebounds for his sixth-straight double-double.

It was an odd loss for the Nuggets, who missed 22 3-pointers, breaking the NBA record for most attempts without a make - a mark that was set a week ago when the Blazers went 0 for 20 from 3-point range in a victory over Toronto.

Denver scored 74 points from inside the paint, and the rest were free throws except for Ty Lawson's 20-foot pull-up jumper with 38 seconds left in the game.

"The rhythm of the game was not in our favor, and our guys seemed to be worn out a little bit," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "If you make two 3s it's a different basketball game - a totally different game. It's not time to panic or anything. We just didn't have enough shooters out there."

The Blazers led by as many as 18 in the first half and while the Nuggets were able to close the gap, they were never able to pull even.

Andre Miller's fade-away for Denver narrowed Portland's lead to 84-81 with 4:06 left. Batum made a trio of free throws before Miller added a layup to make it 87-83. But Luke Babbitt hit a 3-pointer with 2:31 left to give the Blazers back a 92-83 lead.

Wesley Matthews all but sealed it when his 3-pointer a short time later put the Blazers ahead 97-87 with 1:31 left.

"We were able to get the win," Matthews said. "We want to correct how many points we gave up in the paint, but that's for another day. Tonight we're going to enjoy this win."

Aldridge sprained his left ankle in Portland's 95-94 victory over New Orleans on Sunday. The injury occurred in the final minute of the game, which was won on rookie Damian Lillard's 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left.

Aldridge, who is averaging 21 points and eight rebounds a game, was off the crutches on Thursday night but he was wearing a boot and walking with a limp.

"We all took it upon ourselves individually to step up and not do anything out of the ordinary, but just do a little bit more and it would make up for him not playing," Hickson said. "I think we did a great job with that."

Aldridge was replaced in the starting lineup by 6-foot-11 Joel Freeland, who was making his first start with the Blazers. Freeland finished with two points and three rebounds in 15 minutes.

Matthews, who missed two games with a sore hip then tried to return against the Hornets but left after four minutes - returned with 20 points against Denver, including 10 in the first quarter.

The injury had put Matthews on the bench in street clothes for the first time in his four-year NBA career. He had played in 250 straight games, second-most among active players behind Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook.

Lawson, Andre Iguodala and Corey Brewer had 13 points each for the Nuggets.

"We had a chance even though we shot terrible," Brewer said. "It shows that we can still win when we shoot bad, but we have to shoot better."

Babbitt hit three straight 3-pointers that put the Blazers ahead 36-20 in the second quarter. But after a poor first quarter, the Nuggets mounted a rally late in the second, closing to 38-32 on Danilo Gallinari's dunk, but they couldn't get any closer and trailed 50-40 at the half.

JaVale McGee's dunk pulled the Nuggets to 62-54 but again they struggled to get closer. And they still hadn't hit a shot from outside the paint through three quarters.

Denver closed to 69-65 on Brewer's fast-break layup. While the Blazers went nearly five minutes without a field goal, Ronnie Price's dunk put the crowd on its feet and extended Portland's lead to 67-75.

Brewer made a pair of free throws to make it 78-75, but Lillard answered with a 3-pointer for the Blazers.

NOTES: Freeland played for host Britain in the London Olympics last summer. ... Denver reserve forward Anthony Randolph returned after missing Tuesday night's game against San Antonio because of a sinus infection. ... It was Portland's sixth straight victory over the Nuggets at the Rose Garden. ... Portland hasn't won four straight games since March 2011. ... Babbitt's 14 points were a season high.

Notebook: Blazers 101, Nuggets 93

Kerry Eggers, for NBA.com
Posted Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:51 AM - Updated Fri Dec 21, 2012 6:20 AM

THE FACTS: Denver went 0-for-22 from the 3-point line and Portland took full advantage in a 101-93 victory Thursday night at the Rose Garden. The Nuggets shattered the NBA mark for futility the Blazers set 10 days earlier by going 0-for-20 in a 92-74 win over Toronto. Nicolas Batum scored 11 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and Portland (12-12) held off a Denver rally to record its fourth straight win, all in the midst of a six-game homestand.

J.J. Hickson collected 18 points and 18 rebounds for his sixth straight double-double and 14th of the season for the Blazers, who led the entire way. They won without the services of leading scorer LaMarcus Aldridge, sidelined by a sprained ankle, getting 20 points from Wesley Matthews and 12 points and 10 assists from rookie point guard Damian Lillard.

Andre Iguodala, Ty Lawson and Corey Brewer scored 13 points apiece and Andre Miller came off the bench for 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Denver (14-13), which saw an end to its three-game win streak.

QUOTABLE: "Weird. Ugly. We got the job done, but it was ... interesting tonight."
-- Nicolas Batum

THE STAT: Denver's 0-fer night from 3-point range broke the NBA record ... which was set 10 days earlier by the Blazers. Portland went 0-for-20 from 3-point range on Dec. 10 in a 92-74 win over the Kings.

THE STAT II: Portland, which made 14-for-36 3-point attempts, outscored Denver from beyond the arc 42-0.

THE STAT III: The Nuggets struggled to score anywhere but from close range, going 0-for-28 outside the paint before Lawson made a jumper with 38 seconds left.

TURNING POINT: Denver had closed what was once an 18-point deficit to 71-67 early in the fourth quarter. Then Batum scored five points in a seven-point Portland run to jack the lead to 78-67 with nine minutes left. The Nuggets closed to within three points a couple of times late, but the cushion was what the Blazers needed.

QUOTABLE II: "If you make threes, it's a different game → a totally different game. I don't think anybody took a bad three ... if you're going to have that line out there, you have to use it ... you need to shoot around 33 percent, and we were far from that tonight."
-- Denver coach George Karl

HOT: Matthews, who had played only 3 1/2 minutes in the previous three games due to a hip injury, came out smoking, sinking a pair of 3-pointers in the first five minutes and scoring 10 points in the first nine minutes.

NOT: One guess. You got it → the entire Denver team from 3-point territory.

GOOD MOVE: In the third quarter, Lillard and and rookie center Meyers Leonard hooked up for a sensational play. Lillard drove and dished to Leonard, who scored on a backhanded throwdown, then sank the free throw to convert a 3-point play.

BAD MOVE: Portland coach Terry Stotts failed to remove Hickson → a 61 percent free-throw shooter → from the floor in the final seconds when the Nuggets were fouling intentionally to stop the clock. Fortunately for the Blazers, they didn't foul Hickson.

QUOTABLE III: "Sometimes you throw the stats out. It's not how well we play, but how we play."
-- Terry Stotts

NOTABLE: With 74 points in the paint and 17 free throws, Denver had only one basket from outside the paint → believed to be an all-time NBA low.

UP NEXT: For the Nuggets, Saturday vs. Charlotte, Tuesday @ L.A. Clippers, Wednesday @ L.A. Lakers. For the Trail Blazers, Saturday vs. Phoenix, Sunday @ Sacramento, Wednesday vs. Sacramento.

• Nuggets: Chandler, Stone
• Trail Blazers: Smith, Williams

• Nuggets: --
• Trail Blazers: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: Rose Garden, Portland, OR
• Officials: #48 Scott Foster, #45 Brian Forte, #44 Eli Roe
• Attendance: 19982
• Duration: 2:16