Trail Blazers vs Kings Friday, 03/12/10 AT 07:00PM

Roy Scores 28 In McMillan's 400th Coaching Victory

03/13/10

Written by: trailblazers

Brandon Roy scored 28 points and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Sacramento Kings 110-94 on Friday night for their third straight victory and the 400th coaching victory of Nate McMillan's career.

“I’m really pleased with these guys," said McMillan. "To face the Kings and Golden State, games we really needed, our guys came out with a business-like approach. They played the game from start to finish in a back-to-back. Sometimes letdown is written all over a game like this."

Ahead by 15 at the half, the Trail Blazers came out strong in the third quarter in building the lead to as high as 26 points. Following a quiet first half with two points, LaMarcus Aldridge scored 12 in the period as Portland went ahead 87-66.

Roy scored 20 first-half points and helped the Blazers assume a 61-46 by intermission.

“Tonight, I wanted to come out and be aggressive," said Roy. "Coming off a back-to-back, I wanted to come out and play hard and let the team know that that was last night and this is another game. Second half, late in the third quarter, I wanted to be patient and get guys involved."

Carl Landry had 18 points and Francisco Garcia scored 17 for the Kings, who committed 20 turnovers and have dropped four of five. Jason Thompson scored 15 points, Beno Udrih had 13 and Tyreke Evans had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Aldridge scored 18 points, Andre Miller had 15 and Nicolas Batum added 11 for Portland, which never let the lead dip close to single digits in an uninspired fourth quarter by both teams.

The victory keeps the Blazers four games ahead of Memphis in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Blazers, who have won six of seven games and are 8-2 since a Feb. 21 loss to Utah, are now a season-high 12 games over .500 at 40-28.

“We know we are in eighth place, but we want to move up," said Roy. "It may be tough, but our biggest thing is to try to continue to move up in the standings. I feel like if we look behind us, we may put too much pressure on ourselves. Why settle? Let’s move up as high as we can."

The Kings had a brief 7-5 lead in the opening quarter, but the advantage was fleeting. The Blazers frustrated the Sacramento defense repeatedly and also visited the free throw line frequently in building the sizable lead by halftime.

The frustration boiled over for Kings coach Paul Westphal late in the third quarter. Following a foul call against Kings reserve guard Garrett Temple with 1.1 seconds left, Westphal strolled up the sideline and told referee Derek Richardson that, ``You guys are worse than we are tonight.''

Coming off his fourth career 40-plus game Thursday night when he scored 41 points to halt a nine-game losing streak at Golden State, Roy got going early against the Kings. He had 13 points in the opening quarter, overshadowing Evans, the Kings' heralded rookie.

The Kings look at Portland and the team's progress under Roy and hope they can emulate it with Evans leading the way. Roy was Rookie of the Year in 2006-07 and has played a major role in the past three years in transforming the Blazers from a former lottery team to last year's Northwest Division co-champs.

A rookie from Memphis, Evans was coming off his first career triple-double, getting 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists Wednesday in a convincing win over Toronto.

Landry had 12 points for the Kings, who shot nearly 53 percent but committed 10 turnovers.

Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

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Trail Blazers vs Kings Friday, 03/12/10 AT 07:00PM

Roy Scores 28 In McMillan's 400th Coaching Victory

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