Game Rewind: Pacers 129, Trail Blazers 139

In the wake of the tragic news of the passing of Kobe Bryant, the Pacers suited up to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in their final game of a five-game Western Conference road trip. In a touching tribute, a 24 second moment of silence was held before the game to honor the NBA legend. After winning the tip, Portland intentionally committed a 24-second shot clock violation, while the Pacers committed an 8-second backcourt violation – honoring both numbers worn by Bryant during his NBA career.

After a hard fought game, Indiana ended up falling to Portland in a 139-129 shootout at Moda Center. The Pacers have now lost five straight in the series, and have not won on the road in Portland since 2007.

With 9:57 left in the first, Damian Lillard sank his first of eight threes on the night, giving the Trail Blazers a lead which they never surrendered. He finished with a game-high 50 points on 14-of-23 (60.9 percent) shooting. It’s just the fifth time in NBA history a player has scored 50-plus points on 23 or fewer field goal attempts.

With 5:11 remaining and the Pacers trailing 121-114, T.J. Warren was issued a controversial flagrant foul call upon video review after attempting to block a Damian Lillard jumper. On the way down after jumping, Warren’s leg kicked up for balance purposes, but made contact with Lillard’s inner thigh. Lillard fell to the floor in pain.

After video review confirmed the foul, Lillard led a personal 8-0 Portland run to take the wind out of Indiana’s sails. The Pacers managed to trim the lead to eight once again. But it was too little to late.

Lillard’s performance spoiled Domantas Sabonis’ second career triple-double on this road trip. The big man finished with 27 points, 14 boards, and 11 assists. Jeremy Lamb finished with a team-high 28 on 10-of-15 shooting, while Doug McDermott led all bench scorers with 19. McDermott finished the night with six treys – his third time doing so on this five-game road trip.

Despite the loss, the Blue & Gold finished up their Western Conference road trip with a respectable 3-2 record. Now, only three days remain before Victor Oladipo returns for the Pacers on Jan. 29th.

Lillard made his presence known early by scoring six of the Trail Blazers’ first 12 points. His tough and-one finish in the paint gave Portland a 12-5 lead with 8:39 left in the first quarter.

C.J. McCollum’s return to the court sparked the Trail Blazers as well. In his first game back from a left ankle sprain, McCollum drilled his second 3-pointer of the game to widen the margin to double digits, 17-7 with 6:48 left in the first. He finished with 28 points on the night.

Despite having several decent looks from the floor, Indiana failed to trim the deficit to fewer than seven for the next four minutes of the frame. As a team, they connected on just seven of their first 18 shots, and none of their first four attempts from beyond the arc.

But as the reserves rotated in to finish the frame, an 8-0 run capped by a steal-and-finish from Lamb brought the Pacers back to within three, 26-23, with 1:39 left.

But that would be the closest they’d get in the period, as Lillard extended the Trail Blazers’ lead back to nine on a 31-foot dagger with just 0.7 seconds remaining on the clock. He finished a perfect 4-for-4 in the first.

After Portland pushed its lead back to 10, the Blue & Gold managed to chew the lead down to 40-34 after Edmond Sumner completed a tough left-handed layup down the middle with 9:17 left in the half.

Slowly but surely, the Pacers managed to climb back into the ball game. At the 5:36 mark, McDermott’s four-point play cut Indiana’s deficit to 46-42 and provided some spark for the Blue & Gold.

But Indiana failed to make much headway after that. A thunderous alley-oop dunk from Hassan Whiteside pushed Portland’s lead up to 57-49 with 1:51 to go. Lillard then connected for his 21st point of the half just 22 seconds later to give the Trail Blazers a double digit lead once again.

A Lamb three-pointer gave the Pacers a chance to escape the half with just an eight-point deficit, but Lillard shut the door once again to end a period with a layup that appeared effortless despite pressure from three Pacers defenders.

Lamb scored the first seven Pacer points of the third quarter to keep Indiana within striking distance, but Lillard and McCollum’s combined ability behind the 3-point line held Indiana at a distance for the first few minutes of the frame. With 8:28 showing, Trevor Ariza then finished a fast-break dunk give Portland a 78-65 lead over Indiana.

No matter how the Pacers defended Lillard, he appeared to be unbothered. A 30-foot three from the left side gave Portland a 90-76 lead with 5:54 left in the third quarter. Seconds later, Carmelo Anthony found Whiteside streaking down the middle for an emphatic dunk through a foul. Whiteside made the ensuing free throw.

Later, Anthony got in on the 3-point action. The veteran drilled a trey from the left side with 4:21 remaining to extend their lead to 98-80. At the 3:47 mark, Lillard pushed Portland into the century mark and grabbed a 100-80 lead on a running layup from the right side. A pair of JaKarr Sampson free throws finally stopped the 13-4 Portland run.

But Indiana was not done yet. With the score 103-82 in favor of Portland, Indiana reeled off an 11-0 run over a 2:11 span, including back-to-back threes from McDermott, to cut the deficit to 103-93 with 51.9 ticks left in the period. Unfortunately, the run was ended on yet another Lillard three that pushed the deficit back to 13 before the period closed – this time from 26 feet out.

For the first few minutes of the fourth, Indiana found themselves in an uphill battle. They were trading buckets in the paint for Portland threes on the defensive end.

But the Blue & Gold finally began making headway once again after Justin Holiday completed a three-point play to make the score 114-102 with 9:10 remaining. Holiday would then follow a T.J. McConnell three-point play with a tough 3-point shot to pull the Pacers to within eight, 116-108, just over a minute later.

But with 6:44 to go, Lillard casually pulled up for his sixth 3-pointer of the game. The 26-foot shot brought the crowd to its feet as he increased Portland’s advantage to 121-108.

Indiana chewed into the lead once more after reeling off a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to seven. Sabonis’10th assist came on McDermott’s baseline three that brought the score to 121-114 with 5:25 to go.

After the flagrant foul call, Lillard singlehandedly led an 8-0 Portland run, including a wild 33-foot trey, to push Portland’s advantage back to double digits, 129-114, with 4:22 to go. It all but iced the game.

With 2:00 to play, a pair of Warren free throws trimmed the lead back down to eight, 132-124. But they failed to come any closer as the game came to a close.

Portland finished 20-for-35 (57.1 percent) from beyond the arc. It was the most 3-pointers Indiana has surrendered in a game all season.

Indiana was out-rebounded 43-31.

The Pacers committed just seven turnovers compared to dishing out 31 assists. It is the 12th time this season the Blue & Gold have finished with 30 or more assists in a game.

"Absolutely, absolutely, I said to all of our guys 'good road trip,' it was a good road trip for us. We had an opportunity to make it an even better road trip going four and one, but three and two, we'll take that. We’ve done some good things, played good basketball on this road trip, and we'll take three and two." – Nate McMillan on being happy heading home with a 3-2 record on this road trip.

"If we had gone 0-5 it would have felt different losing this game. We came in trying to go 4-1 on this road trip. I thought we fought, and we gave it our all. Obviously, we are down a couple men but our mindset is always next man up. Whether we went 4-1 or 3-2 or 2-3, with a loss you got to learn from it and move on to the next." – Jeremy Lamb on this loss feeling different than another loss

After 394 consecutive games without a Pacers player recording a triple-double, Domantas Sabonis has posted two triple-double performances in the last five games.

After a five-game road trip, the Pacers will return home to host the Chicago Bulls at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 7:00 PM ET. All-Star guard Victor Oladipo plans to make his season debut that night. Find Tickets »