The Portland Trail Blazers appeared to be in trouble Friday night facing an Atlanta Hawks team that features two high-end scoring guards surrounded by loads of athletic length.
As it turned out, that’s exactly how the game played out on the court.
The Blazers trailed the entire game and had no defensive answer for the Hawks’ offense during a 129-111 loss at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
The Hawks committed six turnovers in a sloppy second quarter that allowed the Blazers to remain in the game at halftime but then began to soar away in the third quarter once point guard Trae Young got rolling.
He scored 15 points in the third quarter to help the Hawks push their lead to 97-78 entering the fourth quarter. He finished the game with 23 points and 11 assists.
The Blazers have now lost five of their last six games and clearly are struggling to turn things around without Jusuf Nurkic, Justise Winslow and Anfernee Simons.
“I’m not an excuse coach at all,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told reporters. “I don’t do that. I don’t condone that with my guys. We’re not playing great and teams are starting to play better than us. I think teams are playing harder than us enough for the most. I don’t question the effort of our guys. But inexperience really shows up in a lot of our games. We’ve got some really important pieces that we’ve been relying on that are not playing. But that’s how this game goes.”
Damian Lillard led the Blazers with 33 points on 10-of-21 shooting and added eight assists. Jerami Grant scored 14 while hitting 1 of 6 threes.
On the other side, Dejounte Murray led all scorers with a career-high 41 points on 17-of-22 shooting.
“Obviously, Dejounte really had it going,” Billups said. “Even when we started doubling him, he was still finding a way.”
Murray’s previous career-high was 40, which he had on Jan. 30 during a loss at Portland.
ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 03: Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers reacts during the first half against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena on March 3, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)Getty Images
De’Andre Hunter added 17 points for the Hawks and Clint Capella produced 11 points with 12 rebounds.
The Hawks shot 57.1% from the field and 46.2% on threes. Compounding that problem was that when they did miss shots, they managed to scoop up 10 offensive rebounds that led to 24 second-chance points.
“I think the biggest takeaway for me is I don’t care how good you are, it’s tough to absorb 24 second-chance points,” Billups said.
Portland managed just nine second-chance points while shooting 47.1% from the field and 33.3% on threes.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Blazers (29-34) fell to five games under .500 for the first time this season, while the Hawks (32-31) were able to pick up a big win before starting a four-game trip. The Blazers moved into a tie for 12th place in the Western Conference after Oklahoma City (29-34) won 130-103 over Utah (31-33).
CAM REDDISH
Reddish started in place of Anfernee Simons (ankle) and played some point forward against the team that made him a lottery pick in 2019 before trading him last season to the New York Knicks. Reddish played just under 33 minutes and scored 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting while hitting 4 of 9 threes.
NEXT UP
The Blazers play at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Orlando Magic (26-37).
— Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook). Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts
