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Roy helps Trail Blazers blow out Kings

Dec 17, 2008 - 6:43 AM By James Reddick PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- On a night that the Portland Trail Blazers retired Terry Porter's number 30, Brandon Roy did his best to emulate the team's greats of the early 1990s.

Roy finished with 29 points and five assists in 31 minutes as the Trail Blazers destroyed the Sacramento Kings, 109-77, on Tuesday.

"What you are seeing is what stars do - the Kobes, the Nashes, the Wades," coach Nate McMillan said about his shooting guard. I'm not saying Brandon is Kobe, but he's doing for our team what those stars do for theirs."

Playing under interim head coach Kenny Natt for the second time, the Kings shot 31.6 percent and turned the ball over 17 times. After defeating the Wolves on Monday, against a more formidable opponent they looked even worse than they had under Reggie Theus.

The Kings hit 11-of-17 shots from the field in the first quarter and trailed, 28-27. In the game's final 36 minutes, they were 13-of-59 from the floor.

"We didn't hit shots and guys started hanging their heads and feeling sorry for themselves," Natt said. "My job is to try and keep these guys motivated and encouraged as much as possible."

The game was close throughout most of the first half. John Salmons had a huge half for the Kings with 21 points on 8-of-10 field goals. He had 16 in the first quarter, scoring 12 of the Kings' first 14 points. He missed his next seven shots, however, and failed to score a point in the second half.

With the Kings only down by two points, Bobby Jackson was ejected in the second quarter. After thinking he was fouled on a layup attempt, he received a technical for protesting the no-call, and was then hit with another technical after he continued to argue with the referee.

Immediately following Jackson's departure, the Blazers went on a 21-5 run over the last 4:33 remaining in the first half and first two minutes of the third period. Roy had 15 points during that stretch.

Despite only shooting 41 percent, the Blazers dominated on the boards, pulling down 21 more rebounds than their opponents, 59-38. LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden each had 10 rebounds and backup center Joel Przybilla finished with 14 in 22 minutes.

"We just outworked them," Przybilla said. "We did the scrappy things."

With 9:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, Przybilla rejected a Jason Thompson dunk. On the other end, backup point guard Sergio Rodriguez served up an alley-oop slam to Aldridge to push the Blazers' lead to 88-60. That hoop came during a 12-0 run that upped the difference to 93-60.