The Brooklyn Nets' three-game road trip came to a merciful end on Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Nets, they weren't able to salvage this one. The main culprit behind tonight's failure was three-point shooting. Brooklyn went 1-of-19 from beyond the arc, while giving up 11 to the Blazers, four of which came from Damian Lillard. The lone Nets three pointer came from Deron Williams with 0:18 left in the fourth quarter.
Early foul trouble forced the hand of Lionel Hollins as Jorge Guttierrez and Jerome Jordan, who have been out of the rotation lately, were on the floor in the first quarter.
Four of the Brooklyn starters were in double digits with Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and KG earning 19, 20, 21 and 12 points respectively. Bojan Bogdanovic was unable to score. The only productive bench play came from Jarrett Jack who scored 10.
The Portland Trail Blazers were able to secure the win at home despite the absence of LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. Damian Lillard handled the bulk of Portland's dirty work with 28 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
Brooklyn returns to Barclay's Center on Monday night to face off against the Miami Heat for the first time since the second round of the playoffs, and the first time since the departures of both Paul Pierce and LeBron James. The Blazers will be back in action Monday, November 17, versus the New Orleans Pelicans.
Portland improves to 7-3 on the season, while the Nets drop to 4-5.