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As Phoenix Suns<\/a> assistant coach DeMarre Carroll strutted off the Moda Center court and made his way into the bowels of the arena toward the visiting locker room, he couldn\u2019t help but bask in the moment. <\/p>\n \u201cNice road win, boys,\u201d he shouted out loud. \u201c Nice road win.\u201d<\/p>\n It was also another rough loss for the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Suns defeated the Blazers 130-125 Tuesday night before 16,092, overcoming a 19-point first-half deficit to deliver Portland its season-worst sixth-consecutive loss. <\/p>\n Cole Gillespie and Grayson Allen took turns punishing the Blazers from the outside and Mark Williams sprinkled in a little damage in the paint as the Suns spoiled the Blazers debut of newly-acquired V\u00edt Krej\u010d\u00ed<\/a>. <\/p>\n The loss wasn\u2019t as ugly as last week\u2019s at the Washington Wizards or as lopsided as recent setbacks against the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. But it was just as hard to stomach because the Blazers opened with dominance and flare, playing fast, playing hard and playing as free as they have in weeks.<\/p>\n With Donovan Clingan<\/a> and Toumani Camara<\/a> splashing three-pointers, the defense applying pressure all over the court, and the blazing speed and depth of a nearly-healthy roster providing balance, the Blazers built an early 19-point lead and had that old killer look in their eyes. <\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re definitely going through a rough patch right now,\u201d said Camara, who finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. \u201cBut I think today our energy was picking back up. I think we showed a lot of great things, a lot of good effort. Our heart was there.\u201d<\/p>\n But heart was not enough Tuesday. Not against a red-hot Suns (31-20) team that shot 51% from the field, including 49% from three-point range, and won for the seventh time in the last 10 games.<\/p>\n Gillespie and Allen might as well have been playing a game of tag against the Blazers, alternating who was \u201cit\u201d to deliver the next haymaker. They combined to score 54 points and make 14 threes, exploiting the Blazers\u2019 \u201cdrop\u201d defensive scheme with precision and poise. The Suns started to seize control in the third quarter, when they outscored the Blazers 34-22, and Phoenix\u2019s backcourt did most of the damage, combining to make 7 of 9 threes and score 24 points. <\/p>\n By the end of the night, Gillespie had recorded 30 points and 10 assists, while making a career-high eight three-pointers, and Allen had produced 24 points thanks to six threes. <\/p>\n Once they opened up the exterior, Williams took over inside, finishing with 24 points and 12 rebounds, while making 11 of 14 shots. <\/p>\n \u201cThey made a lot of tough shots, they made a lot of threes,\u201d Camara said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to beat teams when almost everybody\u2019s hot and everybody\u2019s making good shots. So props to them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Blazers\u2019 newest player, Krej\u010d\u00ed, was not as hot in his Blazers debut. He entered the game with 5:06 left in the first quarter and didn\u2019t waste much time testing his touted shooting ability, firing a step-back three less than two minutes into his first shift. It bounced off the front iron. <\/p>\n And that was a recurring sight Tuesday. Krej\u010d\u00ed didn\u2019t arrive in Portland until Monday after enduring two canceled flights, an unexpected overnight stay in Miami and a restless night that included just two hours of sleep. Then, after passing his physical, he went through a Tuesday morning shootaround with coaches and teammates that featured a crash course on the Blazers\u2019 offensive and defensive principles. <\/p>\n It was, as Krej\u010d\u00ed said<\/a>, a \u201clong 48 hours\u201d and it showed. He scored just five points in 14 minutes and made 2 of 7 shots, including 1 of 6 threes, with most of them falling short off the front iron. <\/p>\n But he brought plenty of energy and hustle, recording back-to-back blocks during one defensive possession and diving for a loose ball along the sideline during another. When he hit his first shot \u2014 a three from the top of the key off a pass from Robert Williams III \u2014 Krej\u010d\u00ed pumped his fist and smiled in his new No. 27 uniform. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was just awesome to hit that shot,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, not the best shooting night. But it\u2019s been a crazy couple days and once I get my legs under me and get adjusted to that time zone \u2014 it\u2019s, what, 2:00 a.m. right now? \u2014 I\u2019ll be fine. All of those shots felt good. I think three or four of them were short. So we\u2019ve got two days now in between, so just get in the gym, get in the weight room, just get my legs underneath me.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest question hanging over the struggling Blazers (23-28) Tuesday was whether Krej\u010d\u00ed will be the only new addition to the roster. <\/p>\n\n The NBA trade deadline is Thursday at noon and the league-wide rumor mill is churning with innuendo surrounding everyone from Giannis Antetokounmpo to Anthony Davis to Ja Morant. There were multiple headline-grabbing deals on Tuesday and acting coach Tiago Splitter<\/a> has acknowledged that the week is \u201ckind of tough for everyone\u201d and impossible for players to completely tune out the noise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a great timing for sure,\u201d Splitter said, when asked if his players seemed affected by the deadline. \u201cThere\u2019s always something about that. But hopefully we can get past the deadline \u2026 and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Splitter and general manager Joe Cronin<\/a> have not discussed \u201cconcrete\u201d details about what players the Blazers could use, Splitter said, but have toyed with \u201cideas on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n But this much is certain: A team that is limping through its longest losing streak of the season will be happy when the deadline passes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an awkward situation,\u201d Camara said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s trying to figure it out. Everybody is kind of nervous about getting a random a phone call. But it\u2019s just a part of the business we are in. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something that\u2019s at the top of our minds \u2026 but it\u2019s possible it has an effect, maybe just subconsciously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As Phoenix Suns assistant coach DeMarre Carroll strutted off the Moda Center court and made his way into the bowels of the arena toward the visiting locker room, he couldn\u2019t help but bask in the moment. \u201cNice road win, boys,\u201d he shouted out loud. \u201c Nice road win.\u201d It was also another rough loss for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/With-NBA-trade-deadline-looming-\u2018nervous-Trail-Blazers-lose-to.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19550,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548\/revisions\/19550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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