PORTLAND -- The Portland Trail Blazers turned in arguably their best defensive effort of the season to best the New Orleans Pelicans 101-93 Thursday night at the Moda Center in the second consecutive game between the two Western Conference clubs.
“This was our best defensive game of the year,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “We didn’t have a bad quarter, every quarter our defensive rating was really good. We rebounded the ball well... we limited their fastbreaks, we limited their points in the paint, we limited their second-chance points.”
The Trail Blazers are now 24-16 overall and 13-7 at home season. With the win, the Trail Blazers have swept the three-game season series versus the Pelicans while remaining tied with the Denver Nuggets for fifth in the Western Conference standings.
“I just think that we came out sharper defensively,” said Damian Lillard. “We took it to heart. We knew what we were capable of if we put a solid defensive effort together and was able to sustain it. We’ve had a couple opportunities to beat a team twice this season and we haven’t been able to do it, so I think we all understood that and had that in mind. We defended start to finish.”
After getting 50 points from Lillard in Tuesday’s improbable comeback victory versus the Pelicans, the 6-3 guard out of Weber State came out on fire Thursday night, scoring 21 of Portland’s 31 first-quarter points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from three.
But while Lillard’s scoring was certainly a plus, it was Portland holding the Pelicans to 23 points on 36 percent shooting in the first quarter that would put the Trail Blazers on the winning path.
So even when Lillard went to the bench in the second quarter, the Blazers were still able to retain the lead, which grew to as many as 13 in the second half before it was a trimmed to nine by the intermission.
“At the halftime we talked about the difference is we were communicating out there,” said Enes Kanter. “We were talking, we were loud and we were trusting each other.”
That trust and communication on defense allowed Portland to endure an abysmal offensive performance in the third quarter. Typically when their offense fails, their opponent can make up nearly any deficit due to a defense that ranks as one of the worst in the NBA. But Thursday night, their defense in the third more than made up for their lack of shot-making, with Kanter, Robert Covington and Derrick Jones Jr. bottling up Brandon Ingram (0-of-6 shooting) and Lonzo Ball (1-of-3).
“When we make shots, I think we have more energy and we defend a little bit harder and smarter,” said Lillard. “And once we start missing, that’s usually when the drop off is, when the offense isn’t going great it kind of effects out defense. Tonight we didn’t have that. When we were making shots, we defended hard, we were on a string, we communicated. And then even when the shots weren’t falling, we was able to still get stops.”
After going into the fourth leading by seven, Portland got three-pointers from CJ McCollum, Covington and Carmelo Anthony at the start of the quarter to take their largest lead advantage of the night at 86-72 with 9:11 to play. New Orleans cut the lead to single digits with a ball three midway through the quarter, but Portland would allow just four points over the the next three-plus minutes to keep the Pelicans at arm’s length.
New Orleans got the lead down to two possessions with 1:20 to play, but Portland always came up with a stop or an offensive rebound when they needed to come away with the eight-point win while holding the Pelicans to 92 points, the fewest a Portland opponent has scored this season.
Lillard Portland with 36 points and six rebounds. Kanter finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds and two steals in 34 minutes.
Anthony came off to bench to score 15 and McCollum, in his second game back after two months with a broken bone in his left foot, went 3-of-6 from three on the way to 11 points, two rebounds and two assists.
Covington, whose impact Thursday night was primarily felt on the defensive end, put up 10 points and 10 rebounds to go with two blocks and a steal in 36 minutes. Jones Jr. logged a career-high four blocks -- Portland had a season-best eight blocks -- to go with eight points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist in 32 minutes.
Zion Williamson led the Pelicans with 26 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes. Ingram scored 10 of his 19 points in the first quarter and Ball had 15 points and eight assists.
Next up, the Trail Blazers once again will host a Western Conference team, this time the Dallas Mavericks, in consecutive games at the Moda Center. The first is scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. in the second game of a back-to-back for the Trail Blazers.