Although your injury-riddled Portland Trail Blazers did ultimately fall against the West’ No. 2-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, 119-114, there are plenty of exciting longer-term takeaways fans can glom onto today.
Reserve center Duop Reath’s career-best scoring night (he scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field, including 5-of-6 shooting from deep) gave Portland fans hope that their team may not be permanently tethered to joyless former No. 1 pick DeAndre Ayton serving as the club’s perennial starter while he fills out his bloated contract.
But most tantalizingly, perhaps, was the play of the Trail Blazers’ high scorer on the night. Guard Anfernee Simons scored a convincing 34 points in the defeat, while dishing out a career high of his own, 14 assists.
After the contest, Simons weighed in on how the club did its darnedest to salvage a W in the game’s last frame.
“I think we had a couple careless turnovers to start in the fourth quarter and we just had to claw back in the game from that point,” Simons reflected. “So as long as we took care of the ball and got good shots we want to live with, you live with results and I think we got a couple stops and obviously we just couldn’t make enough shots to pull it out.”
Portland’s week doesn’t get any easier in the immediate future. Tonight, the team will attempt to fend off the West’s No. 1 seed, the Oklahoma City Thunder, during the second night of a back-to-back set of bouts.
The action tips off at 7 p.m. PT.
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