PORTLAND — Trail Blazers starting forward Nicolas Batum will miss at least three games with a “scary” knee injury. And for at least half of Tuesday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets, the Blazers were the living embodiment of the phrase “adding insult to injury.”
But with persistence, a dynamic duo performance from Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge and crunch time contributions from Steve Blake and Joel Freeland, the Blazers came back from 23 down to defeat the Hornets 102-100 at the Moda Center.
They escaped by a stinger’s length when Gary Neal’s overtime-forcing shot was waved off as replays showed the ball didn’t leave his hand before the final buzzer.
“I think it was the way you’re supposed to fight your way back into a game. It wasn’t a 20-2 run,” said Lillard who had 29 points, seven assists and four rebounds. “It was alright, four stops here, 10-3 run. They’ll have their way, and then we’ll do it again. We were just steady. We didn’t go away.”
Aldridge, who finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds, had a second-chance basket with 14.2 seconds left to put Portland up by four to give him his 24th and 25th points, and Lillard gave him a furious chest-bump.
“I said ‘Way to man-up on ’em.’ That was a man’s play,” Lillard said.
The Hornets played like a talented team coming off an embarrassing loss.
Lance Stephenson, who came into the game shooting just barely 30 percent from the field, hit four of his first five shots from the field.
But it wasn’t just him.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist going to work on the block? Check. Kemba Walker banking in jumpers? Check. Al Jefferson going to work on the block? Check.
Everything for the Blazers and Aldridge in the first half was clang, clang, clang.
The Blazers started second-year forward Allen Crabbe in Batum’s place, but it looked like coach Terry Stotts spent the entire first half searching for an answer to the Hornets without their reliable French forward. He used 10 players in the first half, and none seemed to be the right combination.
Chris Kaman picked up a technical after arguing a call, and the Hornets’ lead reached as high as 23.
An 11-2 run sparked by a Wesley Matthews three-point play when the Blazers were down by 22 with 2:04 left in the first half cut the lead to 13.
Stotts stuck with Crabbe in the line-up to start the second half.
“I felt like starting him, it’s easier playing with the starters than coming off the bench. I thought he’d be a good mix with them,” Stotts said.
Aldridge found a better rhythm and was aggressive on the boards.
The Blazers went to a zone defense towards the end of the first half and stuck with it to begin the third quarter.
“We were having trouble guarding them,” Stotts said.
The offense that started to pick up toward the end of the first half continued on the same pace, but the Hornets didn’t make it easy, holding a 10-point fourth quarter lead.
Crabbe forced Neal into a turnover, and then Blake picked up the energy all over the place for the Blazers. Blake had two steals, a block, an assist and the go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:03 left in the fourth doing everything he could to affect the game, even using his fouls effectively.
The Blazers trailed all game until that shot.
“I think the way he plays is contagious,” Stotts said of Blake. “The deflections, the toughness, all that stuff in the second half. I think the young guys on the court with him really fed off that.”
“Situations like that, it really shows how big of a pickup he was for our team, just his presence,” Lillard said. “He’s that tough guy. He’s that fighter and we get energy from that.”
Robin Lopez added: “I love having Steve on this team. That’s the way basketball should be played. You know even if he picks up a foul it’s for a good reason and it’s going to come back for us in a good way.”
The Blazers fly to Denver to play the Nuggets on Wednesday to cap off their fourth game in five nights.
