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Blazers continue to roll, dominate Raptors

Xinhua, March 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portland Trail Blazers beat Toronto Raptors 113-97 in Sunday Night NBA action.

With the win, Portland improves to 44-20 on the season and have won eight of their last nine games.

"I thought offensively the ball moved really well," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts following the win. "We got a lot of our threes off of good ball movement."

Portland executed on the offensive end hitting 13 three-pointers made and finished with 27 assists.

"27 assists means you're scoring well. In this league, if you get 25 assists, you're going to win most games," said Stotts, who is proud of his team's unselfish attitude. "It was the second pass, third pass we got a lot of our threes off of good ball movement. When the ball moves it creates rhythm to the shot and it was moving tonight."

All-Stars Damian Lillard is one of the biggest advocates of Stott's philosophy.

"I think it's the right choice (to make the extra pass) because everybody can probably take that first shot and have a good chance of making it," said Lillard, who finished the game with 23 points and five assists. "Lately, we've done a good job of passing up that good shot for a better shot. Tonight, we made that better shot."

Portland currently ranks 9th in the league in assists with 22.2 per game and also rank top-3 in three pointers made (10.1 per game) and three pointers attempted (27.7 per game).

Portland's other All-Star, forward LaMarcus Aldridge believes that the team has re-discovered the formula that led them to success last season when they reached the second-round of the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.

"I think at times our offence can stall but the last few games we definitely go that rhythm back," said Aldridge who had a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. "You want to peak towards the end of the season and I think right now we're peaking at the right time."

With 18 games remaining on the season, Portland are currently in a tight race with Memphis and Houston. They trail Memphis by one game and lead Houston by one game. Endi