The Portland Trail Blazers once again played a summer league game without rookie point guard Scoot Henderson and once again came out victorious while doing so.
The Blazers, led with 18 points from point guard Michael DeVoe, and 12 each for Shaedon Sharpe and Jabari Walker, moved to 3-1 with an 88-71 win over the Orlando Magic at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Portland is now 3-0 since losing Henderson to a shoulder injury during Friday’s loss to Houston. The No. 3 pick in June’s NBA draft has been ruled out for the rest of the summer session.
How long the session will last for Portland remains up in the air. The Blazers, following Thursday’s win, sat in fifth place. The top four teams will reach the playoffs after every team has played four games.
Cleveland (4-0) and Houston (4-0) are in. Utah (3-0) plays Phoenix (1-2) on Friday night. Brooklyn (3-1) is in fourth, for the moment.
The Nets, with a plus-10.0 point differential, are guaranteed to finish ahead of the Blazers (plus-6.3).
Portland, the defending summer league champions, need the Jazz to lose on Friday and have their point differential of 7.0 drop below Portland’s 6.3 in order for the Blazers to move into the top four.
Other threats also loom. There were eight 2-1 teams that could leapfrog the Blazers, Jazz and Nets. They all play on Friday in Las Vegas.
At the very least, the Blazers will play a fifth game on Saturday or Sunday, even if they fail to qualify for the playoffs, which will be held on Sunday. The championship will be played Monday.
Back to the Magic game.
The Blazers dominated the first half, 45-19 and the Magic (1-2) never recovered. Orlando, which received 16 points from Dennis Dexter, shot 30.6% from the field and 17.1% on threes (6 of 35).
Portland committed 17 turnovers that Orlando turned into 25 points and also didn’t shoot well, hitting 40.5% from the floor and 20.8% on threes (5 of 24). The Blazers helped overcome their poor shooting by dominating in the area of points in the paint (54-34).
Rookies Kris Murray and Rayan Rupert struggled offensively. Murray scored nine points on 4-of-14 shooting and hit just 1 of 7 threes. Rupert went 1 of 7 from the field for four points but did contribute 12 rebounds off the bench.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook). Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts