The Summer League edition of the Portland Trail Blazers improved to 2-0 in Las Vegas with a 86-66 victory versus the LA Clippers Tuesday night at Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV.
“What I feel good about is we’re developing good habits,” said assistant coach/summer league head coach Roy Rogers. “That’s more important to me. If you play the right way every possession, good things will happen. All of us want to win, but if we lose playing the right way and we’re building good habits, we can handle that. But we’re building good habits and we’re winning so it makes it a lot of fun.”
The Trail Blazers join the Rockets, Celtics and Kings as teams sitting atop the table at 2-0 in the Las Vegas Summer League standings.
After a first half that saw neither team shoot better than 36 percent from the field in the first half, the Trail Blazers took control of the game in the third quarter. Rookie Greg Brown, who sat out the first half, put up eight points in just under eight third-quarter minutes, Antonio Blakeney, added six while the team held the Clippers to just 4-of-23 shooting from the field.
“The main thing was getting stops and getting defensive rebounds,” said Emmanuel Mudiay of the Trail Blazers improved play after the intermission. “I think they was beating us on defensive rebounds a lot and obviously transition. We took that away, and honestly, the game changed for us when they happened. So it was good for us.”
And after making just four three-pointers in the first half, Portland managed five in the third quarter on the way to outscoring LA by 11 while taking a 64-51 advantage into the fourth quarter.
The final 10 minutes of the game played out about the same as the previous 10 minutes, with Portland doing just more than enough on the offensive end to pull away while once again holding the Clippers in the teens in scoring on under 30 percent shooting from the field.
Kobi Simmons led the Blazers with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, two assists, two steals and two blocks in 22 minutes off the bench.
Mudiay finished with 14 points and four assists, while both Blakeney and George King added 12.
Jay Scrubb led the Clippers with 15 points, albeit on 4-of-20 shooting.