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Roy leads Trail Blazers to 13th straight win

Dec 31, 2007 - 2:43 AM PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- Brandon Roy and the Portland Trail Blazers kept the good times rolling.

Roy scored 22 points as the Trail Blazers won their 13th consecutive game, rallying for a 97-72 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.

Reserves Travis Outlaw and James Jones each scored 12 points and Steve Blake scored 11 for Portland, which rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit with a 21-0 burst, bridging the third and fourth quarters.

"It was a big win for us," Roy said. "At the half, coach said this is a team that will take it to you. They'll try to take the air out of game. He said don't let that happen again. In the fourth quarter, we just ran it down their throats."

The winning streak is the longest for the Blazers since the 1990-91 club won a team-record 16 straight.

Portland trailed by 11 in the third quarter after a pair of free throws by Andre Iguodala put Philadelphia up, 47-36, a minute into the period.

However, the Blazers mustered a 10-4 run later in the quarter that was capped by a 3-pointer by Blake to narrow their deficit to 61-59 with 2:18 to play.

After a layup by Louis Williams put the Sixers back up by four with 1:24 left, Portland exploded to put the game away.

"The coach got into us at the half. He said you all have got to pick it up, and you've got to execute better," Outlaw said. "He said we looked a little bored, so we came out and we were trying to pass it around and get their defense moving around."

The Trail Blazers began the run with three free throws by James Jones with 28 seconds remaining in the third, and then capped it when Jones hit a technical foul shot with 5:45 remaining to make it 80-63.

It was one of four technicals the 76ers received in the last period as they grew frustrated by the outburst.

"I'm not going to attribute (the loss) to us losing our composure or collapsing," said 76ers coach Maurice Cheeks, who was hit with one of the infractions.

Jones had 10 points in the run while Outlaw had seven and Roy four, including a slam dunk in the face of Philadelphia shot blocker Samuel Dalembert with 8:32 left.

"There were a lot of questionable fouls on some of their guys driving to the basket," Dalembert said. "But you have to realize this is the type of game it's going to be. The crowd was really pumped up and got the Blazers going. But we know it was going to be like that. We just can't go out and be affected by it."

Roy, who connected on 9-of-17 from the floor, had his 10th 20-plus point effort during his team's winning streak.

Outlaw also had an in-your-face dunk on Rodney Carney with 4:58 left to give the Blazers an 82-66 advantage, sending the partisan crowd into a frenzy.

"He (Carney) blocked me last time when we were in Philly so I was like 'Ahhhh, Hahhhh,'" Outlaw said. "Brandon saw me underneath and it was a good feed."

Portland, which outscored Philadelphia, 35-9, in the fourth, shot 47 percent (36-of-76) from the field while holding the Sixers to 39 percent (30-of-78).

Iguodala scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Philadelphia, which saw its three-game winning streak end.