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Saturday, Apr. 8 3:00pm ET
Smith scores 27, Wallace 21 to key rally | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Coming off a pair of baffling losses, the Portland Trail Blazers started to straighten themselves out Saturday. Steve Smith scored 27 points and the Blazers held the Vancouver Grizzlies to just one field goal in the third quarter to rally for a 98-85 victory.
"This is one game, and it doesn't get us back on track," Smith said. "If we can get two or three in a row, we'd get our confidence back." Rasheed Wallace added 21 points and Brian Grant had 20 for Portland, which recovered from losses to Vancouver and Houston but couldn't shake its recent sloppy play in the opening half. Michael Dickerson scored 20 points and Shareef Abdur-Rahim added 17 for Vancouver, which was 9-of-29 from the field in the second half after shooting 61 percent in the first to take a 54-47 lead. The Grizzlies scored just nine points in the third quarter. Their only basket came on a Dickerson's layup with 7:26 left. They also missed five free throws in the quarter. "With a good defense, everything had a little more rhythm to it," Scottie Pippen said. "We've been playing -- I don't want to say dumb basketball -- but we've been making bad decisions. Today we tried to play smarter and be patient with our offense." That strategy worked in the third quarter, when the Blazers' defense created their offense much of the time. Vancouver had seven third-quarter turnovers that created nine Portland points, including a charge on Othella Harrington that led to Wallace's deep jumpshot with 6:25 left to give the Blazers their first lead since the opening minutes. "We came out dead, that's all you can say," Vancouver's Mike Bibby said. "That one quarter did us in." Smith, who was 14-of-14 from the free throw line, had seven points during the Blazers' 13-4 run and 11 in the quarter, and Wallace added 10. "In the third quarter we came out and contested shots from the very beginning," Portland coach Mike Dunleavy said. "All of a sudden you've got guys missing shots or questioning their ability to make them." Greg Anthony started the fourth with a 3-pointer, and Portland was never threatened after that. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Vancouver Clubhouse Portland Clubhouse RECAPS Dallas 98 LA Clippers 96
Portland 98
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