portlandtrailblazers Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Local Columnist Whining About Blazers' Culture Gets Roasted By GM Neil Olshey<em></em>
The Portland Trail Blazers were swept by the Golden State Warriors last night, 128-105, although practically speaking, Game 4 was over after the first five minutes. Though the Blazers got rocked, they lost to the most dominant team in basketball. It was a bit of a down season, but Damian Lillard and...

Holy Shit, That Warriors First Quarter
When the Warriors are hot, there’s nothing you can do. No other team so gleefully tosses their opponents in the trash and sets that trash on fire as the Warriors, and no Warriors run this playoffs has been as violent or as thorough as the incredible first quarter they put together tonight in Portlan...

The Warriors Got The Blazers' Hopes Up, And Then They Killed Them In Four Minutes
Exactly halfway through the third quarter against the Trail Blazers last night, the Warriors were down by 14 points. After four more minutes of play, they had a two-point lead, and from there, they didn’t look back. ...

Hell Yeah, We Got The JaVale McGee Game
The journey from “cheap Shaq punchline” to “competent role player on contender” continues straight through the playoffs, as JaVale McGee gave us the purest 13 minutes he might ever produce: 15 points (on 7-of-7 shooting!), five rebounds, and four blocks. Good for him, and for any sap watching, becau...

Actually, Moe Harkless Is The MVP
With 11:46 remaining in the third quarter of the game way back on April 3 between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Blazers forward Moe Harkless received a pass from Damian Lillard in the right corner, rose to shoot, and rattled in his third three-point basket of the night. ...

Jonathon Simmons Dunked All Over Meyers Leonard And It Was Gorgeous
Look at the image up there and tell me if this man is about to put that basketball in that hoop....

This Blazers Game-Winner Was So Strange Even Gregg Popovich Had To Chuckle
With the Spurs up one on the Blazers in the last six seconds of tonight’s game, Shabazz Napier had an open look at a three-pointer for Portland, but he drove into the lane and lost the ball. It pinballed around a few times before landing fortuitously at the feet of Noah Vonleh, who picked it up and ...

Damian Lillard Went Off Last Night
Damian Lillard let teammates Meyers Leonard and C.J. McCollum score the Blazers’ first two buckets of last night’s game against the Jazz. Then he took over. Lillard scored the next 22 (!) points for Portland, giving them a 16-point lead by the end of the first quarter, and he didn’t stop from there....

Maybe Don't Trade Players To Your Closest Conference Rival
Former Nugget and current Blazer Jusuf Nurkic smacked around his former team with 33 points and 16 rebounds last night. It was a career night for the 22-year-old big man, and one that all but assured his team will be going to the playoffs while the Nuggets sit at home and smart. But to say Nurkic ki...

Jusuf Nurkic Shattered The Nuggets' Playoff Hopes And Roasted Them Afterwards
Before the Nuggets flipped him to Portland for one of the Plumlee twins, Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkic was averaging 17 disgruntled minutes and eight points a game. Since the trade, he’s started almost all of Portland’s games and has nearly doubled his stats across the board as the Blazers have stead...

Wizards Come Back From 21-Point Deficit, Win On Out-Of-Bounds Last-Second Shot
Up by 21 at halftime, the Trail Blazers had just about everything going for them against the Wizards last night. But they then collapsed in the second half and ultimately went down in overtime, falling victim to a game-winning shot from a seemingly out-of-bounds Markieff Morris with 0.4 seconds rema...

This Was Jusuf Nurkic's Night
Jusuf Nurkic has been thriving since being traded a month ago, and tonight he was at his absolute best. With five blocked shots in the first quarter against the 76ers, he’d tied his career high for blocks after just twelve minutes of play—and he was just getting started. ...

Russell Westbrook, Oh My God
Russell Westbrook’s season-long mania reached a furious, wailing-electric-guitar pitch in Tuesday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. He scored a career-high 58 points, but it wasn’t enough to get Oklahoma City Thunder the win, an apt metaphor for their season....

Blazers-Timberwolves Game Canceled Due To Sweaty Hardwood
A few hours before the Timberwolves and Blazers were supposed to tip off in Minnesota, ominous reports about sweaty ice in the stadium started sprouting up. Damian Lillard and the rest of the Blazers cut their warm-ups short due to the wet floor, and Lillard later gave an interview where he called f...
![Festus Ezeli Will Have Season-Ending Knee Surgery Involving A Cadaver Donor [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/hjpdsrgsnyqu65dqtipq.jpg)
Festus Ezeli Will Have Season-Ending Knee Surgery Involving A Cadaver Donor [UPDATED]
It’s been reported for months that Festus Ezeli would need season-ending knee surgery, but until yesterday, no date had been set or details announced. Now, the situation and timeline are clearer—Ezeli will undergo a procedure requiring a cadaver donor, and he’s spent the last several months waiting ...

Jusuf Nurkić Loses Two Teeth, Misses Zero Minutes<em></em>
P.J. Tucker managed to both draw a personal foul on Jusuf Nurkić and commit a technical on him as the Blazers big man had two teeth knocked out by the Raptors swingman—teeth Nurkić had to later hand over to the team trainer:...

Nuggets And Blazers Get The NBA Started On The Race To The Trade Deadline
The Trail Blazers and Nuggets have kicked off the NBA’s trade activity with a week and a half to go before the deadline, with Denver sending Jusuf Nurkic and a 2017 first-round draft pick to Portland in exchange for Mason Plumlee and a future second-round pick....

Dirk Turned Back The Clock, But It Didn't Even Matter
The Mavericks have been quite feisty over the past few weeks, quickly climbing out of the Western Conference toilet and into the group of bad teams contending for the eight seed. Tonight, they played the Blazers, a fellow mediocre contender to get waxed by the Warriors in the playoffs, and lost in o...

Blazers Promise To "Be More Mindful" After Sparking Chandler Parsons-C.J. McCollum Twitter Spat
Here is a great petty tweet from the Portland Trail Blazers during last night’s game against the Grizzlies:...

The Blazers Are Bad And Tired Of Being Lectured By Festus Ezeli
Following last season’s surprise second-round playoff appearance, the Portland Trail Blazers are 15-21 and struggling badly. ESPN’s Chris Haynes has a good story examining the Blazers’ summer, and why they failed to sign any free agent of note, re-signed all their own players, gave way too much mon...