Trail blazers dominated by nuggets; Ayton, Henderson wounded

Portland Trail Blazers may have turned the corner in terms of competing with mid -term competition, but based on the last two matches they remain far behind the best teams at the Western conference.

Denver Nuggets demonstrated their superiority Monday night with a 146-117 win over Blazers at the Ball Arena.

In the process, the Blazers Center Deandre Ayton lost to a calf injury in the third quarter, and Point Guard Scoot Henderson for a right ankle injury in the fourth quarter.

Nikola Jokic led all scorers with 40 points, 25 in the first half. Denver scored 88 points in the paint while shooting 65.9% from the field. Christian Braun added 26 points.

Blazers’ starters combined for only 55 points, led by 17 from Anfee Simons. Rookie Center Donovan Clingan came from the bench to score a career high 21 points on 8-of-8 shooting with seven rebounds. Backup Dalano Banton scored 22 to go with six assists.

“It was an interesting game,” Blazers told Chauncey Billups to journalists. “I thought we were still in it most of the evening until the obvious fourth quarter, it escaped. But we played pretty well. The first quarter was rough, obviously the third quarter was rough. But we were at a striking distance and we just couldn’t make them miss. “

This game leaned early in Denver’s way and never wandered.

Nuggets shot 75% in the first quarter, while generating 11 assists on 15 made field goals. After falling afterwards by 15 points in the first quarter, Blazers arrived within 61-53 in the second quarter before nuggets went on a 9-2 race to lead 70-55 at the break. Denver shot 69% in half.

Blazers’ violation kicked into a higher gear in the third quarter. Led by Clingan’s 12 points, Portland shot 54.2% from the field and made 5 out of 10 triangles. However, Blazers Outscored 42-37 in the quarter with nuggets shooting 64%.

Denver led 112-92 into the fourth quarter.

What that means

Blazers (23-31), who won 10 out of 11 games before falling Saturday on Minnesota, went in Monday only 3½ games out of 10. At the western conference.

They lost against Nuggets (35-19) on an evening when Golden State (27-26) won 125-111 at Milwaukee, San Antonio (23-28) won 131-121 in Washington and Sacramento (27-26) won 129 -128 of overtime in Dallas.

The flurry of activity left Blazers 4½ matches behind Warriors and Kings, which are tied to ninth.

Damage

Jerami Grant (right knee -low), Kris Murray (left Quad Contusion) and Robert Williams III (right knee -soreness) did not play. Billups started Henderson instead of Grant and he scored six points with three assists in 24 minutes.

Next up

Blazers play at 1 p.m. 18 Wednesday at Nuggets.