ATLANTA -- The Portland Trail Blazers might be down two starters, but that hasn’t stopped them from winning their first two games of their last extended trip of the season.
After starting the trip with a comfortable victory versus the Bulls in Chicago, the Trail Blazers used a 16-0 run in the third quarter to blow past the Atlanta Hawks 118-98 in front of a crowd of 16,182 Friday night at State Farm Arena.
“From a defensive standpoint, Atlanta had been on a roll scoring 120 or so a game since the All-Star break, so to hold them under 100 speaks a lot for our defense," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "First quarter we probably didn’t defend as well as we needed to, but after that it was pretty good. Damian was terrific again, scoring and passing. I though Enes did a nice job in the lane, both offensively and defensively. So, against a team that has been playing pretty well lately, it was a good win.”
The Trail Blazers are now 48-27 overall, 19-18 on the road and have swept the season series versus the Hawks 2-0 while improving their record versus the East to 24-5.
Portland has won six straight, their longest winning streak since a 13-game run during the 2017-18 season, and nine of their last 10. They remain in third-place in the Western Conference standings, three games behind the conference-leading Nuggets and Warriors, both at 51-24, and a half game up on the Rockets for fourth with seven games remaining in the regular season.
The Hawks and Trail Blazers entered Friday’s game ranked first and third, respectively, in scoring since the All-Star Break, and the first quarter reflected that statistic. Portland shot 70 percent from the field compared to 52 percent for the Hawks, while Damian Lillard and Trae Young each put up 18 points.
"For rookies coming in, the game is faster, guys are more athletic, and guys are longer," said Damian Lillard. "So you have to figure out how to get to your spots, how to manipulate the defense to make plays. Being a smaller guard, you have to figure out how to use your body and your quickness, be crafty, and I think (Young) has grown in that area.”
Between shooting 16 percentage-points better than the home team and going 3-of-5 from three, Portland took a 38-30 lead into the second quarter.
But the percentages of both teams plummeted in the second with both Lillard and Young spending the majority of the quarter on the bench. Both teams made nine field goals and neither team shot a free throw but the Blazers made one more three-pointer to outscore the Hawks by one in the quarter to take a 60-51 lead into the intermission.
Atlanta cut Portland’s lead to four with a Justin Anderson three-pointer with 7:41 to play in the third, and at the time, it looked if the Blazers had a fight on their hands versus a team coming off wins versus the Jazz, 76ers and Pelicans.
But Portland responded by scoring 16 straight points, many of those coming on free throws from Damian Lillard and Al-Farouq Aminu, which rolled into a 20-3 run that gave the Trail Blazers an 88-67 lead with 2:55 to play in the third.
The Hawks had one last push in them, but never managed to get the deficit to fewer than 10 points in the fourth quarter. And rather than leaving the outcome to chance, Portland pushed the lead back up to as many as 22 to come away with another comfortable road win.
“At the start of the game they were getting some things," said Lillard. "I don’t think it was because of effort or not focusing, they just came out competing, playing hard, and making some good plays. We tightened it up in the third and again in the fourth and we were able to get another win."
The Trail Blazers were led by Damian Lillard, who put up a game-high 26 points on 13-of-25 shooting from the field to go with seven assists and three rebounds in 32 minutes.
Atlanta native Al-Farouq Aminu put up another double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds while also adding two assists in 30 minutes. Enes Kanter, who has started at center with Jusuf Nurkic (left leg) out for the season, went 7-of-11 for 14 points to go with eight rebounds in 25 minutes.
Seth Curry added 12 points off the bench and both Jake Layman and Zach Collins finished with nine points, with the latter also grabbing nine rebounds in 19 minutes.
Rookie Trae Young led the Hawks with 26 points, with 20 of those coming in the first half, nine rebounds and seven assists in 32 minutes. John Collins added 20 points on 50 percent shooting.
Next up, the Trail Blazers head to Detroit to play the second game of a back-to-back versus the Pistons at Lil’ Caesars Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.