PORTLAND — Before Arron Afflalo’s Portland debut and before the Memphis Grizzlies came back from 13 points down in the fourth quarter to win 98-92, the Blazers honored the late Jerome Kersey.
Kersey passed away earlier this week at the age of 52 from a blood clot that travelled to his lungs.
The Blazers honored the man who touched the community both off the court and on it.
Black placards that said “JK25” on the front and “Mercy Mercy” on the back were on every seat. The players wore patches honoring Kersey a white “JK25” in a red circle. The Blazers had 25 seconds of silence to honor Kersey. And in place of a traditional National Anthem, the Blazers replayed a video from April 1989 with Kersey singing the anthem.
During the first timeout, they played a video tribute honoring Kersey featuring audio from the late Blazer great talking about the city of Portland
Jerome’s wife Teri was in attendance.
Then there was a game to be played. And the news didn’t start well as before tip-off, the Blazers announced LaMarcus Aldridge would miss the game.
Aldridge’s absence was especially noticeable in the last five minutes.
Without Aldridge, the Blazers could not find a source of efficient offense in the final minutes.
The Grizzlies outscored the Blazers 13-7 in the final 4:30 and Portland missed 10 of their final 12 shots.
“We’ll look at it again, I’m still in awe of what happened,” said Wesley Matthews, who scored only four points.
“Last five minutes, we didn’t execute anything,” Nicolas Batum said. “We didn’t panic but we went too quick. Still, we got to make some stops again. Get rebounds. We can’t do it like that. We’ve done that the last 10-15 games already. This is not us.”
Batum brings up a disturbing trend.
Overall, the Blazers have been one of the top-six teams in the NBA in point differential in what NBA.com defines as “clutch” — the last five minutes of games that are within five points.
In the last 15 games, the Blazers have been outscored by more than 17 points per 100 possessions in the clutch.
The source of the problem? Defense, which has been the Blazers’ backbone all season.
They’ve allowed a wretched 130.6 points per 100 possessions over that stretch.
And for their coach, defense was the main concern Sunday.
“We didn’t get as many stops as we needed to,” head coach Terry Stotts said. “They got in the bonus early. It’s easier when you’re getting stops, not at the free-throw line, to play in flow and get out in transition and if nothing else, not play against set defense.”
For Memphis, their biggest concern in the locker room was whether guard Nick Calathes had spilled on Tony Allen’s Kanye West-designed adidas Yeezy Boost shoes.
With the win, the Grizzlies keep on setting themselves apart from the pack, holding a 3½ game lead for second place in the Western Conference.
Afflalo hit a jumper off a screen on his first touch as a Blazer, finishing with eight points and four rebounds.
He wasn’t pleased with how he played as it was in a losing effort.
“Wins and losses, that’s everything,” Afflalo said. “I look at my performance as how did I impact the team.”
Damian Lillard sparked Portland’s dominant third quarter by scoring 14 of his 18 points. But Lillard was scoreless in the fourth quarter.
The Blazers hit four straight three-pointers in the final 1:33 of the third quarter, three of which came from Steve Blake, including a buzzer beater to put Portland up by 13 going into the fourth quarter.
According to Stotts, the Aldridge injury isn’t serious.
“It’s not serious but there’s still pain,” Stotts said.
Stotts said he hopes that Aldridge plays Wednesday when the defending champion San Antonio Spurs come to town.
