Portland, Ore. ? Shareef Abdur-Rahim hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to an 89-87 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
Boston led 87-84 with 29.3 seconds left, but Zach Randolph made two free throws to make it a one-point game. After letting time run down, the Celtics’ Gary Payton tried to get the ball in to Paul Pierce, but the shot-clock expired and left Portland with one final chance to win.
Abdur-Rahim caught an outlet pass from Derek Anderson, set up from 25 feet and drilled the winning shot. He was then mobbed by his teammates, who celebrated a hard-fought victory.
Abdur-Rahim finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Randolph has 22 points and 17 rebounds for the Blazers, who ended a two-game losing streak.
Payton and Mark Blount had 14 points each for Boston, which has lost three straight on its West Coast road trip. Leading scorer Pierce, suffering from flu symptoms, played but was ineffective, finishing with six points.
Portland shot just 35.5 percent, but dominated the offensive boards and ended up with several second-chance looks. The Blazers outrebounded Boston 62-39, with 26 offensive.
With Nick Van Exel sitting out with a hip injury and Damon Stoudamire struggling, rookie point guard Sebastian Telfair saw plenty of action for the Blazers. The 19-year-old had 11 points in 25 minutes, two more than Stoudamire, who finished with two points and seven assists.
The Blazers returned the favor on Pierce, whose last-second jumper beat Portland when the teams met Nov. 10. Pierce had a 104-degree fever when the Celtics were traveling up from their game at Golden State on Wednesday, and was questionable up until gametime.
Theo Ratliff had 10 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks for Portland, his first good game in two weeks. Stoudamire, mired in a terrible shooting slump for much of the season, went scoreless for most of the first three quarters and ended up 0-of-8 from the field.
Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks suggested after Portland’s 22-point loss to Phoenix on Sunday that lineup changes were possible, though he later backtracked and kept his usual starters: Stoudamire, Anderson, Abdur-Rahim, Randolph and Ratliff.
It was another heartbreaking loss for the Celtics, who have lost eight by a single-digits.
Payton took control on offense near the end of the game, hitting a jumper and two free throws to give Boston an 85-80 lead with 3:28 to go.
Notes: Both teams were excellent from the free-throw line. The Celtics were 18-of-19, while Portland made 19 of 21. … Boston had won three of its last four at Portland. Last year, the Blazers got off to 22-0 lead and won 105-84. … The Celtics face Seattle on Saturday and then end their five-game road trip against the Los Angeles Clippers. … Portland play-by-play man Brian Wheeler and color commentator Mike Rice wore mullet-style wigs as part of an ’80s night promotion.
Portland, Ore. ? Shareef Abdur-Rahim methodically stayed with his game and didn’t let the theatrics get to him.
Abdur-Rahim scored 25 points and was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a come-from-behind 100-94 victory over Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday night.
The Sonics, who entered with a league-best 13-2 record and a four-game winning streak, but unraveled after taking a 13-point lead in the second half. Trash talk, technicals and a couple of key flagrant fouls aided the disintegration, and Danny Fortson was ejected.
All the while, Abdur-Rahim kept his cool.
“He wasn’t saying I’m going to fight you or I’m going to hurt you,” Abdur-Rahim said of Fortson, who has been under the close watch of officials all season. “To me I think the referees were making too much out of it. I was telling them to let us play.
“I think in light of everything going on around the league they are cracking down or whatever.”
Zach Randolph had 19 points, including a key jumper with 17.2 seconds left, while Darius Miles came off the bench to score 20. Portland’s reserves outscored their Seattle counterparts 43-15.
The Sonics, who have lost five straight visits to the Rose Garden, were led by Rashard Lewis with 29 points.
The Sonics got into trouble when Fortson was ejected in the fourth quarter after a flagrant foul and his second technical foul.
Abdur-Rahim made all three foul shots, narrowing the score to 74-72, and the Blazers kept it close until Randolph hit a jumper to put Portland ahead 78-77.
The Blazers stretched it to 87-81 on Abdur-Rahim’s layup and a pair of free throws. But Lewis answered with a 3-pointer with 4:50 left to close the gap.
Still, the Blazers tenaciously held on to the lead, going up 96-91 on Randolph’s free throw. Seattle’s Vladimir Radmanovic hit a 3-pointer to make it 96-94 before Randolph’s 18-footer, and Abdur-Rahim sealed it with a pair of free throws. He was 10-for-10 from the free throw line.
Seattle’s Nick Collison was also called for a flagrant foul during the game.
“We can’t do that as a team,” guard Ray Allen said. “We gave them eight or nine free throws and they got the ball every time … And we were playing so well up to that point. It just defeated everything we tried to do. That was a big turning point in the game.”
The Sonics led by as many as seven points in the first quarter, but the Blazers went ahead 35-34 on Miles’ driving layup midway through the second quarter.
Portland extended the lead to 39-34 on Abdur-Rahim’s 17-foot jumper, then held on for a 45-42 advantage at the half.
Seattle came back with a 11-2 run to open the second half and had a 53-47 lead on Jerome James’ dunk.
Once the Sonics found their pace, they went up 66-53 on Lewis’ three-pointer and a dunk, with a pair of assists going to Luke Ridnour.
Ridnour, who went to the University of Oregon, was greeted with warm applause at the start and cheered throughout the game. He finished with 11 points and 10 assists.
“We had the game,” Ridnour said. “Little things that we didn’t do, we kind of let it get away.”
Ray Allen scored 21 points while Reggie Evans had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Sonics, who were coming off a victory over shorthanded Indiana 103-95 on Sunday.
Portland, which has won two straight, was coming off a sloppy 83-71 win over struggling New Jersey on Sunday. The Blazers led the Nets 30-25 at the half, which matched the NBA record for the lowest first-half combined point total.
Notes: Seattle guard Ronald Murray, who has missed 14 games with a left quadriceps strain, has returned to practice, but probably won’t play until Dec. 8 at San Antonio. … Allen’s jumper midway through the third quarter was incorrectly recorded as a 3-pointer, drawing the ire of Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks. … Seattle has not won at the Rose Garden since 2002.
