The Portland Trail Blazers played one of their most maddening halves of the 2023-24 season against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night. Following that, they put together one of the most sparkling 18 minutes of basketball you could hope to see from a young, incomplete team. The second part outweighed the first, leaving the Blazers with a 103-95 road victory.
If you missed the action, you can find our quarter-by-quarter recap here. Read to the end, because not all quarters were created equal in this one! After you’ve seen that, here are other key points that defined the game.