PORTLAND — As the speculation about his impending free agency hangs over the Portland Trail Blazers like a spectre, LaMarcus Aldridge seemed possessed by an unholy basketball ghost for much of Game 3 against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Aldridge’s missed nine of his first 10 shots and as Portland’s poor perimeter defense continued to struggle the Blazers’ season — and maybe more — went up in smoke with it, 115-109 on Saturday.
The Blazers face a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 deficit in the best-of-seven series, something from which no team in NBA history has ever come back.
“I was very disappointed in the first half,” Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said of his team’s defense. “To give up 30 points in the paint when essentially they didn’t have any put-back points or transition points per se. To give up that many points in the paint, I didn’t think we controlled the ball very well.”
With a season on the brink and his future hanging over every moment, Aldridge was ice cold. On one attempt, after Zach Randolph fell to the floor Aldridge, Portland’s four-time All-Star, airballed a layup attempt.
His night did not get much better and undermined the first night that Portland’s guards got anything going offensively.
Nicolas Batum led Portland with 27 points, tying a franchise record with 6 3-pointers, as well as six rebounds and four assists.
Aldridge was 6 of 18 from the field with seven rebounds and five assists, but could never get his shot going.
Portland cut the lead to three points after Batum’s 3-pointer with 2:23 left. But a Tony Allen lay-up assisted by third-string point guard Nick Calathes put Memphis back up by five points, and they never looked back.
The night that ended with a whimper started with a bang.
Five minutes prior to tipoff, things got wild at the Moda Center. Wesley Matthews made his return to the arena like a luchador, donning an “Iron Man” mask in his Tony Stark suit.
Shortly after seeing Matthews walk to the court with a specialty fitted walking boot on his left leg — the first time for a game since rupturing his achilles on March 5 — the crowd quickly erupted in a “WES-LEY MAT-THEWS” chant.
Two important figures for the Blazers broke through in the first half with CJ McCollum hitting his first 3-pointer of the series and Damian Lillard connecting on just his second.
McCollum buoyed Portland offensively in the first half and finished with 26 points off the bench. Lillard, too, had his best game of the series with 22 points and nine assists.
Aldridge made his first field goal at the 7:31 mark of the 2nd quarter.
During one stoppage of play, Aldridge put up practice shots with the game ball with Meyers Leonard rebounding for him.
Even that did not help his shot.
Making matters worse, the Grizzlies continued to light the nets on fire.
Memphis shot 58 percent in the first half with their guards, sans Blazers-killer Beno Udrih who was out with an ankle injury, ran ruff shod on the Blazers once again.
Mike Conley went to the locker room after an inadvertent elbow from McCollum on a loose ball with 4:03 left in the third quarter.
Conley would not return after heading to a local medical facility.
Calathes made a cameo appearance, scoring 13 points off the bench in 26 minutes.
But Portland could not stop its own bleeding. Marc Gasol took control late and little plays from everyone from Vince Carter, to Tony Allen, to Calathes, made plays to hold off Portland’s final push.
Portland’s offense finally broke through but their defense remained broken.
And now, their season too, is broken.
