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April 22, 2015
S ports
Blazers Face Grizzlies in Game Two
Memphis rules in series opener
(AP) — Beno Udrih is doing
his best to make sure the Memphis
Grizzlies can ease Mike Conley
and Tony Allen back into the line-
up from their injuries.
Udrih scored 20 points in the
best playoff game of his career,
and the Grizzlies never trailed in
routing the Portland Trail Blazers
100-86 on Sunday night in Game
1 of the Western Conference first-
round series. Game two of the sev-
en game series is Wednesday, also
in Memphis.
Portland coach Terry Stotts
called Udrih the “X-factor” in the
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Memphis guard Beno Udrih scores two of his 20 points to lead the Grizzlies past Portland in the first
game of a best-of-seven NBA playoff series. Game two is Wednesday at 5 p.m. (PDT broadcast on
KGW), also in Memphis. Games three and four are Saturday and Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Portland.
(AP photo)
opening game.
“He did a little bit of every-
thing,” Stotts said. “He’s an NBA
player. He’s been here a long time,
and he’s effective.”
LaMarcus Aldridge led Port-
land with 32 points while taking
more shots than anyone had ever
taken against Memphis in the
postseason, going 13 of 34. Dami-
an Lillard added 14 points, shoot-
ing 5 of 21 overall and 0 of 6 be-
yond the arc. Nicolas Batum had
15 points. The Trail Blazers have
lost five straight overall.
The Grizzlies swept Portland
during the regular season and have
won 10 of the last 11.
The banged-up and short-hand-
ed Trail Blazers proved no threat
to make that kind of comeback
with Aldridge doing everything he
could to keep them in the game.
He played nearly 42 minutes.
Portland had its worst shoot-
ing performance this season
and looked out of synch from
the start. Aldridge and Lillard
combined to shoot 3 of 15 in the
first quarter, and Aldridge even
fell to the court when missing a
dunk off an inbound lob at one
point. It didn’t get much better
as Batum threw the ball to the
sideline missing Robin Lopez in
the third.
“We tried to show Damian Lil-
lard and LaMarcus Aldridge a lot
of crowds and had people in front
of them as much as possible trying
to make it frustrating,” Memphis
coach Dave Joerger said.