Trail Blazers’ Anfernee Simons goes scoreless in loss to Clippers

For the second game in a row, the Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson shot well early while colleague Anfernee Simons struggled to put the ball in the basket.

And for the second game in a row, the Blazers were blown out, this time 118-89 by the LA Clippers at the Moda Center.

Simons, 0 of 9 from the field in 30 minutes, was held scoreless for the first time since Dec. 2, 2021, when he played just under 11 minutes in a loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

On Tuesday night, Simons went scoreless on five first-half shots in a 132-114 loss to the Brooklyn Nets before finishing with 11 points.

Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was at a loss to explain Simons’ off night beyond the obvious.

“It just looked like a rough night,” Billups said. “They have a really good defense. They hit him a lot. I didn’t think they were too aggressive against him tonight. Their defense, they make you take a lot of tough shots. And he could never really get away from them … It was just a rough night on offense, as all players have them.”

Simons left the locker room almost immediately after the game.

Henderson, who scored a career-high 39 points against the Nets, had 14 points in the first half against the Clippers but added just two in the second half. He finished with 16 on 6-of-14 shooting with six assists.

That’s about the only interesting things from this game that started off bad for the Blazers and got worse as the night went on.

The Clippers shot 66.7% in the first quarter to build a 32-22 lead over the Blazers, who shot 37%. That lead grew to 21 points in the second quarter. But the Clippers’ scoring slowed enough for the Blazers to get within 52-38 at halftime.

The Clippers got hot again in the third quarter, going up by as many as 32 while shooting 61.9% from the field.

The Blazers closed out the third quarter well enough to trail 86-66 entering the final quarter trailing by 34, and that was pretty much it.

James Harden led the Clippers with 19 points, 12 in the first quarter. Former Blazers guard/forward Norman Powell scored 23 points. Former Portland forward Derrick Jones Jr. added 13.

The Clippers shot 56.6 from the field and 45.5% from beyond the arc.

The Blazers connected on just 37.4% of their field goal attempts and shot 26.5% from three-point range, the ninth-worst performance this season.

Dalano Banton led the Blazers with 23 points, 21 of which came in the second half. Shaedon Sharpe scored 12 points and Deandre Ayton had 14 points and seven rebounds.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN

The Blazers (13-27) lost their fourth straight game. The Clippers (23-17) won the season series 2-1.

CLINGAN AND AVDIJA OUT

Rookie center Donovan Clingan (right ankle sprain) will be reevaluated in a week. Deni Avdija (right ankle sprain) missed his second game. Robert Williams III returned to score four points with seven rebounds in 17 minutes.

NEXT UP

The Blazers are playing back-to-back games this weekend. At 19:00 on Saturday, they host the Houston Rockets (27-12). Sunday at At 18.00, the Blazers host the Chicago Bulls (18-23).