January 15th, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
One nice thing about the Portland Trail Blazers – they have a nice core of players who are young, athletic and having nothing but upside as they will eventually be a force to be reckoned with; you also never know who will step up for them on any given night. Most nights it is either Brandon Roy or LaMarcus Aldridge; in Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Nets at Izod Center, Roy would play a part but he got some help form an unlikely source – Jerryd Bayless. Roy and Bayless combined to score 53 points, leading Portland past New Jersey 105-99.
Both teams shot well overall – New Jersey at 51.3% while Portland shot 48.1%; the first quarter was played rather evenly as the Nets outscored the Trail Blazers by just two at 29-27 and 21-19 in the second period, taking a 4-point lead into halftime. After New Jersey’s Devin Harris made a technical free throw – courtesy of a technical given to Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan - Portland got back into the game as they sparked a 9-2 run that was capped by a 3-pointer by Travis Outlaw and a tip-in by Joel Przybilla, which got the Trail Blazers to within 71-68 after 3 quarters.
A trey by Rudy Fernandez early in the fourth quarter tied the game and Portland would take the lead for good when Outlaw made one of 2 free throws with 9:03 remaining in the game. Portland’s high scorer was Roy with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals while Bayless came off the bench to add 23 with 3 rebounds and 3 assists; Aldridge poured in 20 with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a blocked shot. New Jersey was led by Harris with 23 points, 2 rebounds and 8 assists while Brook Lopez added 17 with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and 2 blocked shots. Portland (24-15) plays again on Saturday when they travel to Charlotte to take on the Bobcats while New Jersey (19-21) hosts the Boston Celtics – also on Saturday.
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