Trail Blazers End Rockets Incredible 41-Game Streak in Upset Win

The Trail Blazers upset the Rockets on Saturday.

Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

Just one day after Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups said the Houston Rockets beat them "in every way," the Trail Blazers earned revenge over the Rockets. The Rockets had defeated the Trail Blazers 116-88 on Friday, handing the Trail Blazers one of their worst losses of the season and their second game with fewer than 90 points.

Coming out of that loss, the Trail Blazers knew they had an immediate rematch against the Rockets the following day. Billups said he was "looking forward to the challenge" of facing the Rockets again.

Billups and the Trail Blazers proved they were ready for the rematch against the 12-6 Rockets on Saturday. The Trail Blazers defense showed up and limited the Rockets to just 98 points in their 104-98 win.

This was not just a great effort, but especially impressive against a Rockets team that had scored at least 100 points in each of their 41 games prior. The Blazers ended the Rockets' streak and earned their seventh win of the season in the process.

In Saturday's victory, the Trail Blazers improved from the first game in nearly every category. They shot more accurately than the Rockets this time (37.8 percent to 35.6 percent), and significantly improved their accuracy from the three-point range. The Trail Blazers shot 40.9 percent on three-point attempts, 15 percent more than on Friday when they shot 25.6 percent from that range. Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, and Shaedon Sharpe each hit four three-pointers, and Simons led the team with a total of 25 points.

Along with improved three-point shooting, the Trail Blazers were much better at grabbing rebounds. They notched 53 rebounds in this game, eight more than they did during Friday's game. A significant reason for this was the Trail Blazers' rookie Donovan Clingan, who came up with 19 rebounds in the game. Clingan became the first player in over a decade with zero points and at least 16 rebounds.

It was not necessarily a high-scoring day for the Trail Blazers, but they still pulled off an impressive rebound and upset over one of the NBA's better teams. The Trail Blazers will look to avenge their woes again on Monday when they take on a Memphis Grizzlies team that previously defeated them 134-89 two weeks ago.

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