Rudy Fernandez has 23 in the first half, LaMarcus Aldridge has a great second half, and the Raptors have trouble closing the deal

Rudy Fernandez came off the bench and scored 23 in the first half while have no points in the second half while LaMarcus Aldridge had the majority of his 37 points in the second half as the Portland Trail Blazers with the help of a 32 point second quarter took a 55-47 lead into the second half and a 13-2 run to end the first quarter and a 15-4 run in the second quarter. The Raptors got 12 points from Andrea Bargnani in the first half and then in the third quarter after the Blazers took a big 70-59 lead the Raptors defense really showed up as they went on a 11-2 run to end the quarter down 2 (72-70) and started the fourth on a 15-6 run to give themselves a 85-78 lead on the back of Jerryd Bayless and the 3-ball as he went 4 for 4 from 3 (all of his 18 points were scored in the fourth) with the only other point being a Bargnani free throw off a tech on the Trail Blazers head coach. The Trail Blazers came back with a 10-0 run of their own to tell the Raptors that they were taken the game as they got a couple more stops while the Raptors could not stop them in this huge part of the game with them taken a 98-92 lead and the Raptors got a couple late stops and had to hope the Trail Blazers would miss free throws but they did not as they won 102-96. The Raptors gave up 32 in the second quarter to put them behind the 8-ball into the half and 30 in the fourth as they did not get very defensive stops when they had to get down and dirty in the point of the game where the winning time happens which is usually late in the fourth quarter but the Raptors got good efforts from Andrea Bargnani (27 points), DeMar DeRozan (17 points), and Ed Davis (13 boards and 7 of them on the offensive board while he had 6 points). Rudy Fernandez and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for 60 of their 102 points and the Trail Blazers lead in assists (23-21) and the Raptors lead in boards (35-33) but they were at least in the game which I have a hard saying about a lot of other games is season.

Only 28 left and Bosh is in on Wednesday

Tom Mehegan