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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 13, 1992)
t ■ ■*r-< * May 13, 1992...The Portland Observer...Page 3 Clyde Will Join The USA Basketball Olympic Team In Barcelona Spain THE Greatest Playoff Game Ever by B ill B a r b e r When Clyde D rexler is silting on the plane that w ill take him to Barcelona Spain, w ith the rest o f the dream team, he w ill no doubt take a moment to reflect on the game that took place on Monday. M ay 12th, 1992. That N B A history-making p la yo ff game w ill be talked about for years. Before Monday, the most points ever scored by the Port land T ra il Blazers in a p la yo ff game was 138. Maybe you remember that game against San A ntonio on M ay IS, 1990. W hile Clyde is fly in g east, down the Colum bia River flig h t path on his way to Spain, I w ould like to think he would look out his window and see Kevin Duckworth in his boat. There is Duck, doing what he likes best, fishing fo r sturgeon. Kevin is just below the Bonneville Dam, sitting in the summer sun, enjoying the quiet solitude, th ink ing about the game he called “ The greatest game o f my life .” That train o f thought, broken only by the almost inaudible whoosh o f the lone passenger je t overhead. Maybe they would think o f each other, for ju st a moment. They would th ink back to that momentous day when Duck got to play the heroes role one more time in his career; and Clyde would remember that he was asked to represent his country as one o f the best it had to offer. Maybe one o f the best to ever play the game. Last week’ s Blazer column in the Portland Observer stated that the Blaz ers-Suns p la yo ff series would be TH E series. That was a m outhful, consider ing that Portland had set a new firs t half record o f 75 points against L A . In M onday’ s game w ith the Suns the records fe ll like trees in a clear cut fo re st In all the history o f the N B A no tw o teams had ever scored 304 points. The Blazers-Suns tilt shattered the pre vious mark o f 285 , set by San Antonio (152) and Denver (133) in 1983, and equaled by Boston (157) and New Y ork (128) in 1990. The Portland T ra il Blazers record books w ill have to be altered big time after Mondays game. I t was a trivia lover’ s delight. The old high scoring night o f 138 points gained against San Blazer Photos By Veronic Green Antonioon May 15th, 1990waseclipsed by a ton when the Blazers combined for 153 points total. That was the same night in San Antonio that Portland scored 41 points in the first quarter. The new high water mark is now 42. The Sun’ s players and fans must s till be in shock. Who ever heard o f a team scoring 151 points and still losing the game. The previous mark was set by Dallas on A p ril 18, 1985. Danny Ainge w on’ t have to hold his ears shut when the Phoenix fans start yelling in Portland’ s Memorial Coliseum on Thursday night. It w ill be as quiet asDuckworth’ s fish ing boat. Portland shot 53 free throws (the Suns had 50 themselves). On May 8th 1990, the Blazers only had 51. The T ra il Blazers were 39 o f 53 from the charity suipe Speaking o f free throws, you can imagine Blazer announcer B ill “ Y o u ’ ve got to make your free throws” Schonely was going nuts when the perennial “ M r. C lutch” Terry Porter missed his fifth in a row. “ I ’ ve never seen me miss five before, either,” said Porter. “ I ’ ve been in that situation before and never had that hap pen. A couple o f them were short and the others I just missed. I felt good, my routine was pretty good. I just missed.’ Thank goodness it’s a team sport Kersey and Ainge were hot. Duck was a savior by making the free throws that Terry was missing. D uckworth had to quiet a lo to f detractors after that game. I t takes a lot o f heart and confidence to throw up a left hand jum p shot at crunch-time. American humorist W ill Rogers used to say “ I ’d give m y rig h t arm to be Kevin Duckworth was one of the heroes Monday night. He scored 8 points in the second overtime to help Portland beat Phoenix 153-151. Game 4 of this Western Conference semi-final was the highest scoring game in playoff history. Duckworth and the Trail Blazers can wrap up the series with a win Thursday night in Portland. Game time is 7:30pm. Clyde Drexler makes the Olympic team. Congratulations, Clyde! ambidextrous.” As time goes by, this game w ill be remembered as one o f the greatest play o ff games ever played. Most o f us w ill forget that the home-town team h it on over 58% o f their shots. We probably w ill not remember that we were out- rebounded 64 to 59. Pordand coach R ick Adelman said “ Y o u ’ ve got to be lucky as w ell as good to w in a game like this.” It is a safe bet that Clyde w on’ t be thinking about the Olympics fo r a while. 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