Portland Trailblazers beat Haifa 121-74

The Portland Trailblazers continued their preparation for the NBA season by sweeping aside Israeli visitors Maccabi Haifa 121-74 at the Moda Center. It was a convincing win for the franchise and perhaps Haifa had one eye on the Israel Winner League which is already underway. The distraction of playing an NBA team was a lucrative one, but hardly the most important game the visitors will be playing this week.

However, credit must go to the Blazers for a very good performance from top to bottom, with most of the available roster getting in on the action. Through the game, head coach Terry Stotts shuffled the pack plenty of times, handing each of his starters less than 25 minutes on the floor. The rotating of personnel did little to stop the Portland charge as the team put nearly half a century on their opponents.

It was more of a methodical approach from the hosts in the first quarter, not an all guns blazing ethos. However, the Portland Trailblazers looked instantly the better team and through the opening term carved out a 27-19 lead after the first quarter. While Haifa kept consistent scoring, Portland always seemed one step ahead and the US team extended through the second period to lead 54-35 at halftime.

With twenty points already separating the teams, the Israeli’s were on damage limitation duty in Q3, but the NBA franchise kept pushing. The host threw in 32 points through the third period, while Haifa only offered 20, the score board reading 86-55 through three stanzas. With the game already in the bag the Portland Trailblazers brought some ShowTime to the court and poured in 35 points during the final frame. The flurry broke the century and any remaining resistance the visitors had left.

The winners spread the points around with Robin Lopez scoring 13 points, Chris Kaman 12, Damian Lillard 11, and Wesley Matthews 11.

Brody Angley picked up a game high 18 points in the losing effort, while Jeff Allen nabbed 14.