Shaedon Sharpe received a career pile of 36 points from the bench to drive the visiting Portland Trail Blazers to a victory 129-121 over Washington Wizards on Wednesday.
Sharpe made 13 out of 26 shots from the floor, highlighted by a can of this year’s candidate who was the conversation about social media. He intercepted an attempt at an outlet session by Justin Champagnie and covered the sequence with a monstrous one-handed can to give Portland a lead of 38-33 early in the second quarter.
Sharpe also had eight returns and five assists to drive trail Blazers to his third straight victory.
Portlands Scoot Henderson fell four 3-points to join Afernee Simons with 16 points. Jerami Grant scored 15 points for Trail Blazers, who enjoyed a 62-42 edge in points in color and a 17-7 advantage in offensive returns.
Wizards’ Jordan Poole got 24 points and Corey Kispert fell five 3-points to highlight his 20-point performance. Richaun Holmes also had 20 points for Washington, who lost for the seventh time in eight games.
Poole made a couple of arrangements to trim Portland’s lead to 117-114 with 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter before Sharpe responded with an offensive recovery and setback. Toumani Camara then sank two free throw before Marcus Smart counteracted with a 3-pointer. However, he whistled for a technical foul for jaw with the officials. Simons made the free throw and Sharpe added two more to cope with his career-high score in total and effectively seal the victory.
Henderson fell three 3-points in just under three minutes and Simons and Kris Murray also joined Beyond The Arc to Stake Portland to a 94-86 advantage with 26.2 seconds left in the third quarter. Smart finished trail Blazer’s 9-0 driving with a layup.
Portlands Deni Avdija scored five points against his former team before leaving a left Quad injury. He is excluded for the rest of the game at the beginning of the second half.
-Field level media
