March 19th, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
The Portland Trail Blazers had the ideal opponent – or at the very least center Greg Oden did – in the Indiana Pacers as both teams are going in opposite directions. Both teams got together for a game Wednesday night at Conseco Fieldhouse; Oden is originally from the Indianapolis area, so the game was a homecoming, of sorts. But Oden didn’t factor into the game very much as six Trail Blazers scored in double-digits, with the end result being Portland defeating Indiana 95-85.
Indiana was behind by as many as 20 in the second quarter, but cut their deficit to 11 by halftime; they would go on a 10-4 run, capped by a Danny Granger dunk with just over 7 minutes remaining in the third quarter cut the Blazers’ lead to 59-52 and forced Portland to take a timeout.
The Trail Blazers would respond, and an Oden dunk would give them a 16-point cushion with 3 minutes left in the period; they would go into the final period up 76-55. Despite scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter, the Pacers couldn’t mount a challenge in the last 12 minutes as the Blazers would hold on for the win.
Portland had six players in double-digits, led by Brandon Roy with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a block while Travis Outlaw, from off the bench, added 15 with 4 rebounds and a steal; Steve Blake had a good game, scoring 14 with 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and a block while Joel Przybilla got a double-double as he poured in 10 with 11 rebounds.
Indiana was led by Granger with 35 points (including five 3-pointers), 10 rebounds and 2 blocks while Roy Hibbert added 14 with 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks; Jeff Foster grabbed 11 boards in a losing effort. Portland (43-25) plays again on Thursday when they travel to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers while Indiana (28-41) remains at home to host the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night.
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