NBA Score: Portland Trail Blazers Net Big Road Win Over Houston Rockets, 109-98

The Portland Trail Blazers have struggled of late losing four of their previous six games entering the Sunday match-up against the Houston Rockets. NBA All-Stars Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge made sure they won’t return to the loss column too soon getting the huge road victory over the Texas team, 109-98.

Lillard and Aldridge combined to score 47 points and helped the Trail Blazers survive Rockets star James Harden’s explosion of 45 points for the evening. While Harden got his shots and points from everywhere— he shot 11-of-25 from the field, 4-of-10 from three and 19-of-23 from the line— most of his teammates couldn’t buy a basket. The rest of the Rockets starters shot just 9-of-25 from the field for measly 23 points.

Meanwhile, Portland had good contributions from the rest of the starting five or the bench. Centre Robin Lopez had 14 points on 6-of-7 shooing while young guys Meyers Leonard and C.J. McCollum had a dozen markers each.

Aldridge said in the post-game interview that it was crucial that they remained confident despite the recent bad losses. Portland lost to the Dallas Mavericks 111-101 in overtime last Saturday with the Trail Blazers having a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.

And they were confident agains that Rockets as the Trail Blazers played well on both ends of the floor, limiting the Rockets to 37.8% field goal shooting (31-of-82 FGs) while shooting above 52.6% or 40-of-76 for the game. The Rockets are just 2-2 in their last four games.

Lillard was named as an All-Star replacement to Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin, who is out of commission due to an elbow injury.

Upcoming Schedule (Next 3 Games):

Portland Trail Blazers: vs. Los Angeles Lakers, at Utah Jazz, vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Houston Rockets: at Phoenix Suns, at Los Angeles Lakers, at Dallas Mavericks

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