CLEVELAND -- The Trail Blazers were riding high after two quality home wins when they hit the road for their first extended trip of the season last week.
They now return home to Portland after three disappointing losses.
The Trail Blazers had a chance to send the game to overtime after entering the fourth quarter down 10 but couldn’t get enough shots nor stops to avoid a 107-104 loss to the Cavaliers in front of a crowd of 16,231 Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
“We had a good stretch of games, we 3-2 coming on the road feeling good,” said Damian Lillard. “We come on the road and we don’t have the same energy and the same life that we have at home. When you go on the road you’ve got to have a certain mentality, you almost got to come to bully people and come take games. The things that we do on our home floor is harder to do on the road.”
The Trail Blazers are now 3-5 overall and 0-4 on the road this season. The loss ends a two-game winning streak versus the Cavaliers.
“It’s a disappointing trip, in my opinion, because I felt like we could have won every single game,” said head coach Chauncey Billups. “Every single game I feel like we had a chance and could have won them all and don’t win one. So it is a disappointing trip, I’m pretty sure all those those in the locker room probably feel the same way. But we can’t get ‘em back, the schedule just keeps going.”
After leading by as many as eight points in the first quarter thanks in large part to a flurry of three-pointers -- their first four makes all came from behind the arc -- the Trail Blazers were outscored 17-5 in the first four minutes of the second to fall behind 40-31. Portland would eventually go into the half trailing 60-53 thanks to being outscored by 10 in the quarter.
Cleveland would hold a similar sized lead for the entirety of the third quarter before a 15-6 Portland run to start the fourth cut the Cavaliers’ advantage to one with just over eight minutes to play.
But Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen would outscore the Blazers 8-3 over the next two and a half minutes to push the lead to 101-95.
“In the fourth quarter they just kind of threw it down there to (Allen) and he got those buckets,” said Billups. “Those hurt. This league is like that. Jarrett Allen is a really good young player, he’s not really a scorer, per se, but he had a night tonight.”
A Norman Powell free throw, a Lillard three-pointer and CJ McCollum reverse would get Portland back to within two with three minutes to play, but an Evan Mobley dunk in transition after a missed Lillard layup that would have tied the game and a Colin Sexton floater would once again push the lead back to six.
But Lillard would make up for previous missed layup by finishing his next attempt at the rim while being fouled, converting the three-point play to cut Cleveland’s advantage to three. And after Jusuf Nurkic corralled the rebound off a missed Sexton three with just over 10 seconds to play, Portland had an opportunity to send the game to overtime with a three.
But the Cavaliers managed to limit the Blazers options on their final possession, forcing Lillard to take a tough three over Allen that would miss the mark, securing a Cleveland and a winless trip for Portland.
“It was an action where I would hit CJ if he comes off clean and then Nurk flares me, I go off Nurk, it’s just an action like that” said Lillard of the last play of the game. “When I got it, I was like okay, I’ve got my man in front of me, Nurk is to my left. Nurk moved toward me a little bit, I took a peek at CJ, it didn’t look like he was going to come off and get a clean one, so I held on to it. I came off and the first thing I was like ‘Is he going to try to foul me?’ They up three so they’re going to try to foul me, and when he didn’t, I picked up the clock and I knew I didn’t have a lot of time because the action had developed a little bit. The way (Allen) was pressed up on me, he knew I had to shoot a three.
“So once I realized he was going to foul and he was just gonna make me shoot over him and stay close to me, at that point, I just had to get space and get a shot off. He had a good contest -- he used his length, he used his height -- I got it up high in the air, gave it a chance to go in like I would do in any other situation and it just came off.”
Lillard went 10-of-27 from the field, 3-of-12 from three and 3-of-5 from the line to finish with 26 points in nearly 40 minutes. Lillard also tallied eight assists, three rebounds and two steals while turning the ball over just once.
“I think a game like tonight, if I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, making shots, I could have got this game done,” said Lillard. “I saw an opportunity to do that, I tried to get aggressive. Even when I missed a couple I was like, I’m gonna go out here and I’m gonna live with it if I can’t pull it out. And if I can take over and have a moment, I got to be willing to do that even if it’s not going great.”
Powell carried Portland offensively through much of the game, going 9-of-16 from the field and 3-of-6 from three for 23 points to go with three rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist n 32 minutes.
McCollum added 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists, a steal and a block in 35 minutes. Anfernee Simons scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half.
Six of the eight Cavaliers players who saw time Wednesday night scored in double figures led by 24 points for Allen, who also had 17 rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block in 39 minutes. Sexton had 21 points and Darius Garland went for 19 points and 10 assists in 36 minutes. Dylan Windler and Cedi Osman combined for 25 points off the bench.
With a disappointing trip in the rearview, the Trail Blazers now return home for a all-home back-to-back at Moda Center by hosting the Pacers Friday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.