Morrow, Rookies And Connaughton Impress In Preseason Win Versus Raptors

PORTLAND -- The Portland Trail Blazers got their first preseason victory of their six-game exhibition schedule Thursday night by defeating the Toronto Raptors 106-101 in front of 15,505 at the Moda Center. Portland is now 1-1 in preseason play. “We played a pretty good game,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “We did a lot of good things defensively. I thought our ball movement win the first half was very good, which led to a lot of good opportunities. Got to look at different combinations. It’s always good to get a win.”While the win was nice, results in preseason aren’t all that important. That was the case in their loss to the Suns on Tuesday, just as it was in Thursday night’s victory. What matters is how much progress they’re making toward being prepared for the start of the regular season, and in that regard, the Trail Blazers seem to be doing just fine. After starting Ed Davis and Evan Turner at the forward spots Tuesday versus the Suns, head coach Terry Stotts opted to go with Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu at the three and four alongside Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkić. The result was a quicker start, with the home team taking a 13-point lead before a 10-2 run helped the Raptors cut the lead to 27-26 by the end of the quarter. “I thought we got off to a good start, obviously,” said Stotts. “They’re used to playing with each other, they looked comfortable. I thought Moe did a really good job defensively. I thought our help defense was pretty solid most of the night.”