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Blake guides Blazers to rout of Kings

Nov 22, 2008 - 6:34 AM By Tom Galland PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SACRAMENTO, California (Ticker) -- Steve Blake buried a career-high six 3-pointers, scoring 20 points as the Portland Trail Blazers cruised past the Sacramento Kings, 117-96, on Friday.

It was the second straight dominating performance by the Blazers, coming on the heels of a 42-point win over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.

LaMarcus Aldridge added 19 points for the Blazers, who pulled away by outscoring the Kings, 37-18, in the third quarter.

"Our last two games have been just well-played," Portland coach Nate McMillan said. "(Friday) for the most part we did a good job of taking care of the ball. We got a little loose with it early but, (in) the second half, we did a better job of taking care of the ball and rebounding. We feel, if we can do those two things, we can win some ballgames."

Blake pushed the pace and helped get the Blazers' offense rolling with a 4-of-6 performance from the arc in the first half.

"(I was) just feeling good and trying to be aggressive," Blake said. "I hit that first one, (then) you've got to just keep going until you miss so that's the attitude I took. We have players that get double-teams to get us open threes, which is nice. When you can create that, it makes it a lot easier."

"As we get our rhythm and as we get better, guys are starting to find their role, this is what we're capable of doing," Aldridge said. "We have two units that can score and run and that showed tonight."

Travis Outlaw and Rudy Fernandez led the Blazers off the bench, scoring 15 and 14 points, respectively.

The Kings looked nothing like the team that stunned the Hornets in New Orleans on Wednesday and instead felt the sting of home crowd boos during a disastrous third quarter.

Fernandez and Outlaw each nailed 3-pointers during a 14-2 run to close out the third as Portland boosted its halftime lead from six to 25 - heading into the final quarter at 94-69.

"Sacramento won a big game in New Orleans so, emotionally, they were ready for this game tonight, and we still came out and handled business," said Blazers guard Brandon Roy, who scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting. "I think that says a lot about our focus right now and winning games that we should."

The lead ballooned to 29 early in the fourth on Channing Frye's dunk, sending much of the remaining crowd toward the exits, and bringing out the youngsters on both benches to finish out the game.

Portland, which leads the NBA in 3-point shooting, finished a sizzling 14-of-26 from long range.

"Those guys are pretty good," Kings coach Reggie Theus said. "I mean they played great. They shot the lights out."

Rookie Jason Thompson was the lone bright spot for the Kings, tallying a career-high 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.

Aldridge converted all six of his second-quarter shots for 13 points, including 11 straight at one point, to spark the Blazers to a 57-51 advantage at the halftime break. Portland shot 59 percent (23-of-39) from the floor in the half as the Kings had no answers, inside or outside, on the defensive end.

"We were in it at halftime," said Kings center Spencer Hawes, who scored 15 off the bench. "I can't even tell you when it started to go bad. When it rains, it pours sometimes, and that was definitely the case tonight. I don't how many 3-pointers I was half trying to box out and just watching them go in the hoop every time."

Portland's 14 3-pointers are the most given up by the Kings this season and was one shy of the all-time record by an opponent at Arco Arena.