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Back on track Blazers warm up for playoffs at expense of Grizzlies
Posted: Sunday April 09, 2000 01:43 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Coming off a pair of baffling losses, the Portland Trail Blazers started to straighten themselves out Saturday. Steve Smith scored 27 points and the Blazers held the Vancouver Grizzlies to just one field goal in the third quarter to rally for a 98-85 victory. "This is one game, and it doesn't get us back on track," Smith said. "If we can get two or three in a row, we'd get our confidence back." Rasheed Wallace added 21 points and Brian Grant had 20 for Portland, which recovered from losses to Vancouver and Houston but couldn't shake its recent sloppy play in the opening half.
Michael Dickerson scored 20 points and Shareef Abdur-Rahim added 17 for Vancouver, which was 9-of-29 from the field in the second half after shooting 61 percent in the first to take a 54-47 lead. The Grizzlies scored just nine points in the third quarter. Their only basket came on a Dickerson's layup with 7:26 left. They also missed five free throws in the quarter. "With a good defense, everything had a little more rhythm to it," Scottie Pippen said. "We've been playing - I don't want to say dumb basketball -- but we've been making bad decisions. Today we tried to play smarter and be patient with our offense." That strategy worked in the third quarter, when the Blazers' defense created their offense much of the time. Vancouver had seven third-quarter turnovers that created nine Portland points, including a charge on Othella Harrington that led to Wallace's deep jumpshot with 6:25 left to give the Blazers their first lead since the opening minutes. "We came out dead, that's all you can say," Vancouver's Mike Bibby said. "That one quarter did us in." Smith, who was 14-of-14 from the free throw line, had seven points during the Blazers' 13-4 run and 11 in the quarter, and Wallace added 10. "In the third quarter we came out and contested shots from the very beginning," Portland coach Mike Dunleavy said. "All of a sudden you've got guys missing shots or questioning their ability to make them." Greg Anthony started the fourth with a 3-pointer, and Portland was never threatened after that. The Grizzlies made just three 3-pointers after the Blazers had allowed 16 in the back-to-back losses to Vancouver and Houston. "We believe we can beat this team, so we're not happy with this loss," Dickerson said. "Overall the team played well, we just lost focus in the third quarter. With a good team like that, you can't do that." Vancouver went up eight points late in the first quarter, thanks in part to its work on the boards. The Grizzlies got eight second-chance points in the period, including four during a 10-0 run that put them up 26-18 with 1:31 left. Brian Grant, who got his first start since Feb. 27, scored 17 points in the first half to keep the Blazers close. "The second half is the best we have played in the last four to five weeks," Anthony said. "If we continue to play that way it will be tough for people to beat us. Unfortunately we have not been doing that on a consistent basis the last few weeks."
NotesThe Blazers did not grab a rebound until Jermaine O'Neal hauled in Bibby's miss with 59.6 seconds left in the first quarter. ... Vancouver had three 24-second clock violations. ... Smith's 14 free throws tied the Blazers' season high, set by Anthony on Nov. 20, when he was 14-for-15 against Charlotte. ... Heading into a three-game road trip, the Blazers are 26-10 on the road, just one victory shy of the franchise record of 27 set in 1990-91.
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