A dream evening at the Garden for Jerami Grant

While they were surfing on their worst series of the season (four losses in a row), the Blazers had to react to the heart of their road trip in the East, in order to evacuate doubts and not to fall too much in the classification.

To do this, what better than a trip to the boards of Madison Square Garden, facing an affordable team?

Based on its performance, it is assumed that Jerami Grant had planned to relaunch his team on the floor of the Knicks. Author of 44 points (his personal best) in 40 minutes, 10/20 on shots, 3/7 on 3-pts and… 21/28 on free throws, he simply delivered one of his best matches in career, to enable Portland to win in overtime.

But his coach, Chauncey Billupsstill had a criticism to make to him, after the meeting…

“ I’m really disappointed with Jerami [Grant]. He had a chance to break the 50-point mark at Madison Square Garden, but he missed all of his shots… », he saidin a joking tone.

A fiery duet with Anfernee Simons

More seriously, Chauncey Billups could only be delighted with the performance of Jerami Grant, who accumulated the trifle of… 82 units (!) with Anfernee Simons (38 points), whose cardboard almost found itself relegated to the background.

Note that this is only the sixth time that two Blazers players have scored at least 35 points each in the same game!

“ [Jerami Grant] and [Anfernee Simons] Were really having a good evening. But Jerami was aggressive all night “, then rejoiced the coach of Portland, who was also able to count on the valuable contributions of Jusuf Nurkic (20 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists) and Josh Hart (10 points, 19 rebounds).

Being aggressive is exactly what Jerami Grant wanted to do last night. Like every time Damian Lillard, currently injured in the calf, is absent…

“ We know we have to be aggressive when [Damian Lillard] is not there. We need to pick up the pace, get fouls and control the game added the winger, who set two new franchise records (21 free throws scored and 28 free throws attempted).

With this victory, certainly acquired in pain, in particular by filling a delay of 14 points, the Blazers therefore recover their heads in the place and go back to 5th place in the West (11 wins and 8 losses). As for Jerami Grant, he confirms his very good start to the season: 21.1 points on average, 48% on shots and 48% at 3-pts!