PORTLAND — Wednesday was the first time 107 regular season games the Portland Trail Blazers had to play without Robin Lopez. But another fan favorite stepped up in a big way.
Behind 29 points and seven assists from Damian Lillard and 15 points and 16 rebounds from Thomas Robinson in his first career NBA start, the Blazers gutted out a 104-97 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
By game’s end, Robinson received a standing ovation from the crowd. He had known he would start since morning, but he didn’t know what he was going to do when his name got called in pre-game introductions.
“I didn’t even know how to give the T-shirt to the little girl,” Robinson said.
Blazers head coach Terry Stotts called the game “unconventional.” The Bucks prefer to play a small-ball style with four perimeter players and only one traditional big man.
So Stotts went with an unconventional move of his own. He started Robinson, the shortest of Portland’s front court players, at center.
“The decision was basically because they are an undersized team,” Stotts said. “I thought from a match-up standpoint it made sense.”
While it was unconventional, it was also an adjustment for the Blazers.
The Bucks came out in attack mode. Without Robin Lopez patrolling the rim, the Bucks attacked the paint. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brandon Knight were instrumental in the Bucks’ attack.
The Blazers struggled early on both ends. It was a product of turnovers on offense and a lack of trust on the defensive end.
“They got the ball to the middle,” Lillard said. “Our help side defense wasn’t where we were supposed to be. We weren’t trusting the fact where guys needed where they needed to be.”
But half of that successful attack didn’t play in the second half. Antetokounmpo, who had 10 points and six rebounds in the first half, left the game with an ankle injury in the second quarter and did not return.
Luckily for the Blazers, the young Bucks, who hang around in games thanks to their defense, were also loose with the ball. Both teams combined for 19 turnovers. And at halftime, the Blazers addressed their defense.
Portland’s stars found ways to affect the game in the match-up. Lillard picked his spots and was very accurate from the 3-point line, going four-of-seven from deep.
He has been attacking the rim more and has been more conscious of shooting from the outside with splints on two fingers on his shooting hand. The splints didn’t seem to bother him much tonight.
LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds, making some big shots in the fourth quarter. Nicolas Batum was basically silent for much of the game but scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter.
Batum also suffered a nasty fall on a dunk that coincided with a flagrant foul from Milwaukee’s Larry Sanders. Play was stopped and Batum said he couldn’t breathe for five to 10 seconds.
He walked off under his own power and continued to play in the game but said he had yet to be evaluated by doctors.
Lopez’s offensive rebound is a valuable trait for Portland’s offense. But Portland didn’t miss that particular skill too much against the undersized Bucks.
The Blazers exploited their size advantage from the very beginning. They finished with 16 offensive rebounds to Milwaukee’s five, which led to a 22-9 advantage in second-chance points.
Robinson also became a focus in the late stages of the game as the Bucks employed the “hack-a” strategy on him that San Antonio employed on Monday. Robinson was 4-of-12 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Stotts called the strategy “effective” but Portland had a big enough cushion to withstand it.
Milwaukee also couldn’t make enough baskets to really make the game interesting towards the end.
The Blazers now embark on a brutal four-game Western Conference road trip which begins in San Antonio Friday.
