Banton Bombastic but blazers blown out

The Portland Trail Blazers dropped their fourth straight game with a 118-89 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. The Blazers were led in scoring by Dalano Banton, who finished with 23 points in just 24 minutes.

Portland was missing Deni Avdija, Jerami Grant and Donovan Clingan in this game. Those losses were keenly felt as Portland struggled to put together any offensive production.

Blazer of the Game: Scoot Henderson, again. Henderson scored 16 points and had six assists in the contest, but was held out for long stretches by foul trouble. During his time on the floor, Scoot showed confidence in his abilities, including a couple of uncharacteristic three-point attempts and a handful of nice passes. He clearly plays with more poise and looks much more comfortable in his role recently.

Stat of the night: Three-point misery. Generally when a team takes 11 more shots from deep than an opponent, they tend to make more. However, the Blazers made just 9 of their 34 attempts from behind the arc, good for 26% shooting, compared to a 10-23 performance for the Clippers, a 44% clip.

What we’ll remember: Another blowout at home. This loss is the third in a row for Portland at their current home ground and they have come by a combined margin of 68 points. This has been a tough stretch for the Blazers. The product on the pitch has been poor in front of the home crowd.

Box Score

What’s next: Rockets are in town. Blazers will meet Houston Rockets Saturday 18 January at 19:00