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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- It's the time of season when every game is
labeled "big."
The Portland Trail Blazers responded by winning their third
straight Monday night, downing the Los Angeles Clippers 104-96 as
Rasheed Wallace and Steve Smith each scored 19 points.
"We're in the thick of a fight right now," Portland coach Mike
Dunleavy said. "These last games coming down the stretch, (we're)
jockeying for position, so every game's big."
The Blazers are finally starting to play like they are big, even
the ones against the Clippers. Bonzi Wells added 15 points for the
Blazers, who evened their season series with the Clippers and won
for the fourth time in five games after dropping five straight.
Portland shot 62.5 percent from beyond the arc to move within one
game of Sacramento and a half-game of the second-place Los Angeles
Lakers in the Pacific Division standings.
Corey Maggette scored 19 for the Clippers, who cut the Blazers'
lead to seven points in the fourth but got no closer in dropping
their sixth straight road game.
"We didn't have everybody clicking at the same time, and it
cost us the game," said Jeff McInnis, who finally started clicking
in the fourth quarter after going one for eight in the first three.
Portland built a 12-point lead when Arvydas Sabonis hit a
wide-open jumper 1:20 into the second half, and the Blazers
answered every Los Angeles run to keep a double-digit lead nearly
the rest of the way. Wallace had nine points in the period,
including two 3-pointers that stopped Clipper comebacks.
When the Clippers cut the lead to 70-60, the Blazers answered
with a 10-6 run capped by two 3-pointers that put them up 80-66 by
the end of the third quarter. Sabonis hit the first, after the
Blazers passed around the horn and back to their center with 1:13
left, and Wallace hit a wide-open 3 with 32.2 seconds left for the
quarter's last score.
After the Blazers went up 88-70 on Steve Smith's layup with 7:50
left in the game, though, Los Angeles started to cut into the lead.
McInnis hit a 3-pointer with 4:01 left to cut Portland's lead to
91-83, and hit another with 1:16 left to bring the Clippers within
102-95.
But after Portland failed to score, Darius Miles hit only one of
two free throws, and Lamar Odom fouled out with 19.1 left, putting
Steve Smith at the line for his third and fourth free throws of the
quarter.
"We always gave them that 8-point cushion," said Clippers
coach Alvin Gentry. "It never came down to one big shot. If it
had, it might have been interesting."
The Clippers never seemed to click together though, and the
Blazers jumped on the lapses.
Portland went up 20-6 with 3:37 left in the first quarter on
Wells' 3-pointer that just beat the shot clock. Wells hit all three
of his shots and finished with seven points in the opening period,
but the Blazers managed only one point in the final three minutes.
The Clippers shot just 30 percent from the field and Lamar Odom
was their only starter to hit a field goal in the period, but they
trimmed their deficit to 21-15 with an 11-3 run.
Portland got 14 points from Shawn Kemp -- nine in the second
quarter to help hold the Clippers off -- and 11 from Stacey Augmon as
the Blazers got at least 17 minutes from 10 different players.
"They played five guys off the bench and every one of those
guys has been on the all-star team before," Gentry said. "We
weren't even born when some of them were on the all-star team.
"They are a great team. I still think they are going to be a
force to be reckoned with in the West."
Game notes
Wallace's long, high inbound pass with 2.6 seconds left in
the first quarter shattered a mirror on the bottom of the
scoreboard, bringing officials and ball boys on the court to clean
up the debris. ... Augmon started for the first time since a Feb.
22 loss to Utah and scored five of Portland's first nine points.
Augmon started ahead of Scottie Pippen, who was feeling under the
weather. ... The Clippers took two games from the Blazers in Los
Angeles, but lost the last two of the series in Portland. ...
Portland has now won 18 of the last 19 in Portland. The Clippers'
last win in Portland was April 11, 1999, when they won 89-83.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
LA Clippers Clubhouse
Portland Clubhouse
RECAPS
Philadelphia 90
Milwaukee 78
Denver 109
Chicago 104
Phoenix 104
LA Lakers 83
Dallas 98
Utah 90
Portland 104
LA Clippers 96
Seattle 104
Cleveland 86
New York 89
Golden State 87
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Darius Miles goes up and under for the score.
avi: 466 k
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