The Portland Trail Blazers had little to no chance of defeating the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night at the Moda Center but at least they put forth a much better effort than they did during Monday night’s lopsided loss to New Orleans.
Well, they did for nearly three quarters.
With only seven players available, the Blazers started Shaedon Sharpe, Matisse Thybulle, Nassir Little, Kevin Knox II and Drew Eubanks against the Kings, who are in third place in the Western Conference.
The Blazers put forth a solid effort into the third quarter before the Kings began running away with the game by building what became a 34-point lead early in the fourth quarter before Sacramento ultimately won 120-80.
Still, it was a better overall showing than Monday’s 124-90 loss to New Orleans.
The Blazers on Wednesday actually won the first quarter 20-18 despite shooting just 30.8% from the field because the Kings shot 29.2% and hit only 2 of 13 threes (15.4%).
The Kings built a 12-point lead in the second quarter but the Blazers hung tough and trailed just 50-46 at halftime despite Sharpe shooting a poor 3 of 12 from the field for nine points.
Sharpe got hot in the third, scoring 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting. But his teammates went 2 of 13 while the Kings found their shooting touch. Sacramento won the quarter 33-18 to go up 83-64 heading into the fourth.
Things got ugly from there.
With the victory, Sacramento clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2006.
Sharpe led the Blazers with a career-high 30 points to go along with seven assists and seven rebounds. The Blazers shot 32.3% from the field and went 9 of 39 on threes (23.1%). Nassir Little went 0 of 8 on threes.
“Our guys were kind of tired in that second half but we just couldn’t make shots,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups. “The biggest difference was, in the second half, they started making threes. They are that type of team. They are going to play the same way. They are going to shoot a lot of threes ... They finally started to make some and we couldn’t and we just couldn’t keep up.”
After making just 5 of 24 threes in the first half, the Kings made 13 of 24 in the second half.
The Kings played 15 players in the game. De’Aaron Fox put up 18 points and six assists. Domantas Sabonis finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Blazers (32-44) fell into a tie for the fifth-worst record in the NBA with the Orlando Magic (32-44). The Magic, off Wednesday, have won three of their last four games, allowing the Blazers to fall to their level.
The team with the fifth-worst record will have a 10.5% chance of winning the NBA lottery in May. The team with the sixth-worst record will have a 9% chance.
The Magic have two very winnable games coming up this weekend at Washington (34-42) on Friday and then home Sunday against Detroit (15-59).
The Blazers host the Kings (46-30) again on Friday and then start a four-game trip Sunday at Minnesota (39-37).
NEXT UP
The Blazers host the Kings at 7 p.m. Friday.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook). Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts
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