2018 playoffs

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Highlights: Portland 123, New Orleans 131

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Lillard & McCollum Postgame Presser After Game 4

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Stotts: 'Ultimately You're Defined By The Postseason'

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CJ McCollum (38 points) Highlights vs. New Orleans Pelicans

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PHOTOS » Trail Blazers at Pelicans, Game 4

Casey Holdahl

NEW ORLEANS – Game 4 in New Orleans wasn’t short on great shots and great performances on both sides, but the Pelicans made a few more plays to sweep the Trail Blazers with a 131-123 win Saturday at Smoothie King Center. A sellout crowd of 18,544 watched the Pelicans earn their spot in the Western Conference Semifinals.

“Each game stands on its own,” said Head Coach Terry Stotts in summarizing the series. “Both Games 1 and 2 were one possession games with a couple minutes to go, could have gone either way and they made the plays. Obviously, the blowout in Game 3, we were just totally outplayed. And I thought tonight, we showed a lot of fight.”

New Orleans opened up a 15-point lead during the third quarter Saturday, but Portland immediately cut into its 13-point deficit to start the fourth quarter, 100-87, with a 15-4 run to narrow the gap to just two points, 104-102. Five straight points by Al-Farouq Aminu made it a one-point game, 112-11, with 5:08 remaining, but Portland never could complete the comeback.

“It’s a disappointing end for us. It’s not how we envisioned it happening for us, especially having home court,” said Damian Lillard. “But they played a great series, you’ve got to give them credit for how they executed offensively. And they came in with a great defensive game plan, they threw something at us that we hadn’t seen and it worked out for them. We just didn’t play great.”

New Orleans made the most of its attempts in Game 4, shooting 57.0% (45-79) from the field, while adding 32 free throws (of 39). Portland went 50-95 from the field (52.6%) but visited the line only 16 times, making 13. The Trail Blazers turned the ball over just six times all night.

After a tightly contested first half in which neither team led by more than six points, New Orleans sprinted out of the halftime locker room. The Pelicans scored 73 points in a high-flying second half where the Trail Blazers nearly answered with 67 points of their own.

“They guarded us the same way each game. I just tried to be aggressive. Offensively, we did some things differently,” said CJ McCollum. “But I know who I am and what I’m capable of.”

The high-scoring game was complete with several terrific offensive performances on both sides, including from McCollum. He tallied 38 points on 15-for-22 field goal shooting, the most by a Trail Blazer in the series against New Orleans and only three short of a playoff career high. Al-Farouq Aminu made 11 of his 20 shots (5-11 3-PT) in scoring 27 points, also just three shy of his career mark in the postseason.

But New Orleans answered with Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday. Davis scored 33 of his playoff career-high and Pelicans playoff franchise-record 47 points (15-24 FG) in the second half and added 11 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double. Holiday also finished with a playoff career best, scoring 41 points (15-23 FG) to go with eight assists.

TOP SCORERS• McCollum recorded the fourth 30-point playoff game of his career. He led the Trail Blazers in scoring in all four games. McCollum has scored at least 20 points in nine of his last 12 playoff games.• Aminu scored 20+ points for the second time in the series (Game 3) and fifth time in his playoff career (all with Portland).• Jusuf Nurkic scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and added 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the series (Game 1).• Lillard scored 19 points and led Portland with six assists, while Evan Turner put all five starters in double figures with 15 points.• Aminu and McCollum each netted 15 points in the first half to lead all players.

NOTABLE• 131 points marks a new playoff record for New Orleans. The Pelicans made 17 of their 20 2-point attempts in the first half.• Evan Turner (right toe) returned and started in Game 4 after missing Game 3. Maurice Harkless (left knee) missed Game 4 after appearing in Games 2 and 3.• Rajon Rondo’s 16 assists were one shy of his playoff career and franchise mark from Game 1 in Portland.• New Orleans heads to the next round winners of nine straight games dating back to the regular season.• During the course of the series, Portland held a 98-67 advantage in bench scoring.

QUOTABLE“It would have been easy for everybody to tuck their tails behind them, but I don’t feel like they did that. So that shows a lot of character, and I’m proud of each one of these guys.” – Al-Farouq Aminu

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Pelicans Sweep Blazers in Game 4 Shootout

NEW ORLEANS -- When the Trail Blazers were the third team to clinch a playoff spot in the Western Conference with a few weeks remaining in the 2017-18 regular season, there was optimism that perhaps they might be able to advance to the second round for the third time in the last five seasons. Now, the question is whether they can even win a game before being eliminated. After losing the first three games to the Pelicans in the three-six first round Western Conference matchup, the Trail Blazers now find themselves with no room for error as they face an elimination game Saturday afternoon in New Orleans. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. It didn’t seem like things could get much worse for the Trail Blazers after they dropped the first two games at the Moda Center in their best-of-seven series versus the Pelicans, but at least those contests were relatively competitive. That was not the case in Game 3 Thursday night in New Orleans, which saw the Pelicans absolutely dominate the Trail Blazers from start to finish before coming away with a 119-102 victory that, truth be told, wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate.“There were a lot of problems (Thursday night),” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "I thought New Orleans played extremely well. They shot the ball well, they shared the ball well. They got out in transition. They defended us well, and we arguably had one of our worst games of the year. So it was a bad combination."

Portland trailed by as many as 33 points in the second half of Game 3, resulting in Stotts putting in the deep bench with well over half of the fourth quarter yet to be played. While CJ McCollum was able to get going after two lackluster performances in Portland, Damian Lillard continued to struggle dealing with the Pelicans' near constant double teams and traps, which resulted in the 6-3 guard out of Weber State going just 5-of-14 from the field for 20 points while also eight turnovers in 35 minutes. “I think we tried to adjust, we talked about a lot of things we could do to attack them," said Lillard, who is averaging 18.3 points on 33 percent shooting from the field, 4.3 rebounds. 4.3 assists and 5.0 turnovers per game in the 2018 postseason. "Having two or three guys on our pick-and-rolls and stuff and that is basically to hit the open man and making them pay on the deep side, and trying to keep the ball moving, it just has not worked out for us. It is one thing to say, ‘This is what we need to do to be successful against them,’ and it is another thing to go out there execute it. When things are not going well and are hitting shots and they crowd gets into it, the game just gets harder."To make matters worse, the Pelicans have gotten an uncommon performance from at least one player in all three of their wins. Thursday night in New Orleans, that honor went to power forward Nikola Mirotic, who went 12-of-15 from the field and 4-of-6 from three for 30 points in 30 minutes. Trying to stop the likes of all-stars Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo is hard enough, but when a player like Mirotic performs like he did Thursday night, the Pelicans become a much more difficult team to beat. "His presence on the court really opens things up for them," said Stotts of Mirotic. "It opens up the middle for penetration, it opens up the middle for (Anthony) Davis. You know and he’s a smart basketball player. He knows how to get shots. He knows how to space, cut. So I think going into the series, those four guys were our biggest concern, and four of those guys have played extremely well. This is the third different guy who’s had a 30-point night. He’s very efficient, and he made a lot of smart basketball plays as well."

Which is something the Trail Blazer have struggled to do for much of the last three weeks and in all of their first three playoff games. Now, facing a deficit that no team has ever come back from in a best-of-seven series, they'll have to play markedly better Saturday afternoon to move the series back to Portland for a Game 5. "We need to win a game," said Lillard. "We just need to win a game. Obviously it's frustrating for us, we haven't played nearly as well as we would have like to as a team or individually, for me. But like I've been saying, you've got to give credit to them for executing their gameplan. They've been the more physical team, the more aggressive team. The first two games we had our opportunities late in the game. They made the plays, they won them and then we come (to New Orleans) and dig ourselves a hole early. We just haven't played well enough."To make matters more difficult, both Evan Turner (right toe contusion) and Moe Harkless (left knee soreness) are listed as questions for Game 4. Turner sat out Game 3, while Harkless started in his place and finished with five points, four assists and three rebounds in 26 minutes. Saturday afternoon's game can be seen locally on NBC Sports Northwest with Kevin Calabro, Lamar Hurd and Brooke Olzendam. Scott Lynn will have the call on Rip City Radio 620 AM.

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Blazers Face Elimination In Game 4 Saturday Afternoon In New Orleans

Greetings from New Orleans. After the Trail Blazers were thumped 119-102 by the Pelicans in New Orleans in Game 3, a loss that puts Portland on the brink of elimination from the 2018 postseason, your humble hosts got together digitally -- Joe is back in Portland while I'm here in New Orleans -- to record yet another edition of the Rip City Report podcast, which you can listen to on various platforms below...

In this, our 136th edition (give or take) we discsuss the Trail Blazers being thoroughly outplayed and outworked by the Pelicans, the stunning reality of going down 0-3 in the series, the Trail Blazers' state of mind going into an elimination game, Damian Lillard being very un-Damian Lillard-like, the Pelicans’ top four players and just how great they've been, play a round of Walton or Oden and answer listener questions about blowing the team up, CJ McCollum’s status with the organization, whether the 13-game winning streak — or this series — is the bigger anomaly, player fatigue, Portland sunshine, expectations moving forward and more.

You can listen to the Rip City Report on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play and Spotify! And as soon as you've gotten over Game 3 or the series at large, considering leaving a review!

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Podcast: Rip City Report, Game 3 Recap/Game 4 Preview Edition

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