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Blazers Have No Answer For Russell In Loss To Brooklyn

PORTLAND -- The Portland Trail Blazers fell to 6-6 overall and 4-4 at the Moda Center with a 101-97 loss to the Brooklyn Nets in front of a sellout crowd of 19,393 Friday night. “That was a game we shouldn’t have lost but certainly Brooklyn deserved to win,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “They outplayed us after the first quarter but particularly in the third quarter. They played harder than we did.”The loss snaps a four-game winning streak versus the Nets and is Brooklyn’s first victory in Portland since March 27, 2013. The Trail Blazers have now lost consecutive games for the second time this season and are 2-4 in their last six games, with all but one of those being played at home. In the first quarter it looked as though the Trail Blazers might be on track for a relatively easy victory after their last three games were decided by a total of eight points. Jusuf Nurkić had it going early, scoring 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, and Portland held Brooklyn to 32 percent shooting in the first quarter, which allowed the home team to take a 28-21 lead into the second quarter.