MILWAUKEE -- Very few teams in the NBA have the luxury of having a bad quarter and still coming away with a victory on the road.
And unfortunately, the Portland Trail Blazers are not one of those teams.
The Trail Blazers were outscored 34-18 in the third quarter Wednesday night in Milwaukee, which was more than enough to tilt the scales in favor of the Bucks, who would go on to defeat Portland 115-107 at BMO Harris Bradley center.
"I thought the difference in the game was in the third quarter," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "They shot the ball really well. We struggled on offense. They did a good job defensively disrupting us and converted some of our poor offense into offense for them. They made like six threes in the third quarter. The third quarter was the difference."
The Trail Blazers are now 12-11 overall and 5-7 on the road this season. Portland has now lost their last three games in Milwaukee.
Portland looked as though they might get their second-consecutive road victory after taking a 58-51 lead into the halftime intermission of Wednesday night's contest. But the Bucks would shoot 61 percent from the field and 66 percent from three in the third, with Jabari Parker leading the way with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
"We knew they would make a run," said Damian Lillard. "We allowed them to play to their strengths, I think, more so in that (third) quarter than in the beginning of the game. They got out in transition, then they started hitting threes and guys got comfortable. We turned the ball over and that made it easier... When we turn the ball over they get going and they get numbers and they're drawing fouls, getting to the line, guys getting to the corner hitting three-pointers."
To make matters worse, Portland would shoot just 6-of-23 from the field and 1-of-9 from three in the third, which, along with Milwaukee's improved shooting, resulting in being outscored by 16 in the quarter.
“We felt like we had a good thing going," said Mason Plumlee. "We had strung some games together, and I don’t think this is the one we should have dropped it on. We let them play to their strengths. They got a lot of transition buckets and points in the paint."
Despite entering the fourth trailing 85-76 and turning the ball nine times in the quarter, Portland would cut Milwaukee's lead to a single possession with just over four minutes to play after CJ McCollum and Crabbe hit three-straight three-pointers to cut the Bucks' lead to 101-99. But any chance of completing the comeback would come to an end with Matthew Dellavedova scoring six points late in the game to help Milwaukee outscore Portland 14-6 to come away with what would ultimately be an eight-point victory.
"I thought we had a good chance," said Crabbe of Portland's thwarted fourth-quarter comeback. "Should have gotten the stop when Dellavedova hit that floater. That's frustrating. Just got to move on from it. I just didn't get that stop that we needed down the stretch, y'all saw the results."
The Trail Blazers were led by Lillard, who scored 22 of his team-high 30 points in the first half while also finishing with seven rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes. McCollum finished with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting while also adding five assists. Maurice Harkless and Mason Plumlee combined to score 21 while Crabbe came off the bench to score 14-points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field.
The Bucks were led by 27 points from Jabari Parker and a 15-point, 12-rebound, 11-assist triple-double from Giannis Antetokounmpo, who also added four blocks and two steals in 40 minutes. Six Bucks players would finish the night in double-figures in scoring.
Next up, the Trail Blazers head to Memphis for the second night of a road-and-road back-to-back versus the Grizzlies. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 pm.