Blazers Big First Half Sinks Cavs

The February schedule hasn’t given the shorthanded, and now road-weary, Cavaliers a break – running them into one Playoff-caliber Western Conference squad after another.

J.B. Bickerstaff’s team took another one on the chin on Friday night in Portland – and it doesn’t get any easier to wrap up the roadie.

The Wine & Gold got off to another sluggish start and by the time they found their bearings, the Blazers had opened up a double-digit first-quarter lead. They’d proceed to score 73 points in the first half – cruising home to hand Cleveland its sixth straight loss, a 129-110 on Friday night at the Moda Center.

Running their win streak to three straight and winners of five of their last six, the Blazers jumped Cleveland early and didn’t let up. After falling behind by double-figures less than four minutes into the game, the Cavs cut the deficit to single-figures only once from there.

The formula was simple – Portland made shots – hitting on 52 percent from the floor, drilling 13 triples and connecting on 91 percent (30-of-33) from the stripe.

The damage was done in the first half, when the Blazers shot 61 percent, 50 percent and 95 percent in those respective categories.

Collin Sexton finished with 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting, going 8-of-9 from the stripe with three boards, five assists and a pair of steals.

After two straight starts, Jarrett Allen came back off the bench but was just as effective – finishing with 22 points in 24 minutes of work, going 7-of-12 from the floor and 8-of-15 from the stripe, adding six boards, two assists and a pair of blocks.

Darius Garland finished with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including 3-of-6 from long-range to go with four assists.

Dylan Windler registered his first double-double as a Cavalier – coming off the bench to tally 12 points and a team-high 10 boards in 22 minutes of work.

Lamar Stevens rounded out the Cavaliers in double-figures, chipping in with 10 points and six boards.

The Blazers featured five players in double-figures and four of them finished with at least 20 points.

Gary Trent Jr. led all scorers with 26 points, going 8-of-12 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from long-range and 6-of-6 from the line. One night after scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter against Philly, Carmelo Anthony came off the bench to net 23 against the Cavs. Damian Lillard added 20 points and a game-high nine assists and Enes Kanter doubled-up with 21 points and game-best 13 boards.

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Damyean Dotson drops a pass off to a cutting Jarret Allen in the lane who catches and dunks with one hand late in the first quarter.

This one was literally a wire-to-wire victory for the Blazers, who allowed the Wine & Gold to tie the game at 2-2 on Taurean Prince’s floater to in the first minute.

Gary Trent Jr. was fouled on a three-point attempt on Portland’s next possession, canned all three, and things went accordingly from there.

The Blazers opened up a double-digit lead at the 8:30 mark of the first quarter, led by 21 at intermission and opened their edge to as many as 30 in the fourth period.

By the Numbers - 52 … points in the paint for the Cavaliers on Friday night in Portland, slightly less than their league-leading average of 54.1 points per.

The Cavs have scored 60-or-more in the paint on 10 occasions this season, already the most in the past 20 years.

Andre Drummond, on getting back to their basics from earlier this year …

"We just need to find the will, the will to do it. We’re playing really good teams right now, playoff teams, Championship-contending teams. This is a great test for us as a young team to go against these teams and see who we are. We know we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of young guys who need this kind of exposure to see how much work we have to put in to become a good team."

Enjoy the best broadcast calls of the night from Cavaliers Radio Network's Tim Alcorn and Rafa Hernandez-Brito from Power 89.1.

After dropping the first three games of their West Coast trip, the Cavs close out with a back-to-back – taking on Tyronn Lue’s Clippers on Monday before wrapping up the five-gamer the following night in San Francisco, taking on the Warriors in their first-ever visit to the Chase Center.

The Cavaliers return for the first of four straight at home when they welcome the Spurs to town on Wednesday. After a well-earned three-day respite, the Thunder come to town on Sunday, followed by visits by the Hawks and Rockets.