The Portland Trail Blazers couldn’t capitalize on three golden opportunities in crunch time Sunday night during a 19-112 loss to the Detroit Pistons at the Moda Center.
The home crowd rallied behind the surging Blazers as they crawled back from an 18-point second-half deficit. The fans also rebelled against a struggling officiating crew that pleased neither bench all night with its slow, inaccurate whistle. A heater from Anfernee Simons at the end of the third quarter ignited the comeback, and the tide of momentum continued to swell Portland’s way as the Blazers pieced together late stops and cut the deficit to just three points.