One of the NBA’s rising young stars, Anfernee Simons scored a team-high 25 points, and the Portland Trail Blazers tallied the largest winning margin in franchise history with an emphatic 141-88 clobbering of the road-weary Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night.
Toumani Camara registered a double-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Shaedon Sharpe scored 20 points in a reserve role as the Trail Blazers exceeded their 50-point victory, which was a nearly 43-year-old record, over the Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-79, on November 21, 1982.
Jabari Walker was extremely productive, adding season highs of 20 points and 14 boards, Deni Avdija scored 15 points and Scoot Henderson had 13 off the bench for the Trail Blazers, who needed this decisive win in the worse way, snapping a four-game losing skid while continuing their longstanding home domination of Charlotte.
That arena has been a house of horrors for the Hornets, having dropped 16 of their past 17 visits to Portland with the lone victory since 2008 occurring last season. Overall, Charlotte is 7-28 all-time in Portland.
Miles Bridges scored 17 points for the Hornets, while Charlotte star LaMelo Ball was a no-show, being held to just five points on 1-of-10 from the field.
Embed from Getty ImagesNick Smith Jr. scored 14 points, Jusuf Nurkic had 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench and Mark Williams had 10 points for Charlotte. The Hornets are falling fast, having lost 13 of their last 16 games.
The Trail Blazers could not miss all night long, shooting a sizzling 58.6 percent from the field, including 20 of 43 from beyond the arc. Portland set a season high for points, dominated the boards 57-37 and saw their lead swell to as much as 55 points.
The Hornets could not hit the broad side of a barn, making just 34.7 percent of their shots and was a dreadful 15.6 percent (5 of 32) from 3-point range, while falling to 1-5 in their stretch of nine consecutive road games on both ends of the All-Star break.
Portland came out of the gate ready to go from the opening tip with a 16-4 surge and led by 17, 38-21 after twelve minutes of play.
Sharpe nailed a 3-pointer to make it 48-27 with just under eight minutes to go in the second quarter. The Trail Blazers closed the half with a 19-3 extended run to lead 73-40.
Simons had his fingerprints all over the first half, scoring Portland’s final nine points of the frame to lead all scorers with 22 points at the break. Bridges had 10 points for Charlotte.
The drubbing continued in the third quarter as the Trail Blazers used a 17-4 spurt to take a 44-point lead, 101-57, with 3:31 remaining in the third. Sharpe capped that run with a 3-pointer.
For all intent and purposes, the game was over. The score was 109-66 entering the fourth quarter, and Portland continued its annihilation of the Hornets by scoring 32 points, the Blazers’ lowest quarterly total of the game.
The Hornets continue their road trip with a visit to the capital of California, Sacramento, to take on DeMar DeRozan and the Kings on Monday night.
The Trail Blazers begin a seven-game road trip in Salt Lake City, to square off against the Utah Jazz on Monday.
