Trail Blazers pound Pacers, snap five-game skid
FILE — Anfernee Simons #1 of the Portland Trail Blazers rebounds against the Chicago Bulls as teammate Robert Covington #23 watches at the United Center on January 30, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images/AFP
Anfernee Simons’ 27 points on 9-of-10 shooting from 3-point range led a dominant effort by the Portland Trail Blazers during a 133-112 win over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night in Indianapolis.
The Blazers (33-28) snapped a five-game losing streak as seven players scored in double figures, including Damian Lillard (23 points) and CJ McCollum (20).
The nine made triples were a career high for Simons and the scoring output was the second-highest ever for the Blazers’ 2018 first-round pick.
"It feels good. All the hard work you put in … I’m just glad to see it come to fruition." @Anferneesimons catches up with @BrookeOlzendam in tonight's @biofreeze Top Performance Review. pic.twitter.com/PSmiYGwkFr
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) April 28, 2021
Indiana (29-32) had its three-game winning streak snapped and took its 18th defeat at home this season, which guaranteed a .500 or worse record in Bankers Life Fieldhouse. That snapped a streak of 31 consecutive seasons with a winning home record for the Pacers.
Oshae Brissett and Malcolm Brogdon led the Pacers with 18 points each. Brissett also grabbed 10 rebounds. Caris LeVert had 16 points and Doug McDermott finished with 13.
Lillard was held under his season scoring average of 28.4 points per game, but he didn’t need to be spectacular as Portland opened things up by outscoring Indiana 79-43 over the second and third quarters.
Lillard contributed six assists and four rebounds in 31 minutes for the Blazers, who led by as many as 43 points in the fourth quarter. McCollum hit 9 of 13 field-goal attempts.
"He knows I'm his biggest supporter … I just got a lot of confidence in him, I know how talented he is, how much ability he has."
💬 @Dame_Lillard on @AnferneeSimons pic.twitter.com/waKQhP91ZZ
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) April 28, 2021
The Pacers continued to compete without a player taller than 6 feet 7 as Domantas Sabonis missed his fifth consecutive game with a lower back strain. Indiana was also without Myles Turner (foot) and Goga Bitadze (ankle) in addition to Jeremy Lamb (knee) and T.J. Warren (foot), who is out for the season.
Portland took advantage of its size advantage as three frontcourt players — Robert Covington (15 points and 11 rebounds), Enes Kanter (12 points and 14 rebounds) and Jusuf Nurkic (11 points and 10 rebounds) — recorded double-doubles. Carmelo Anthony added 13 points.
