Portland Trail Blazers Team Report - January 16

(Basketball News) - Portland suffered a 92-84 loss at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night at the Target Center.

Ruben Patterson scored 25 points and Nick Van Exel added 19 with eight assists for Portland, which lost its seventh contest in eight tries. Damon Stoudamire, who scored a career-high 54 points on Friday, finished the contest with 18, six rebounds and four assists.

Portland played without leading scorer Zach Randolph, who is sidelined with a knee injury.

Portland fell to 0-2 against Minnesota this season. The Timberwolves outrebounded the Trail Blazers 44-32 for the game.

Minnesota came out in the third quarter and scored the first seven points to jump ahead, 51-44. Portland didn’t get a field goal until the 8:19 mark when Van Exel knocked down a two-point bucket.

The Trail Blazers stormed back, though, to make it a four-point spread, 67-63 heading into the fourth.

Stoudamire nailed a three-pointer at 7:51 of the final stanza to trim the Minnesota lead, 73-72.

After the two clubs traded baskets for the next three minutes, Troy Hudson and Kevin Garnett put the Timberwolves up for good. Hudson connected on a three- pointer, while Garnett followed on the next Minnesota possession with a lay-in to make it 88-80.

Portland has the next two days off before closing out its season-high six-game road trip at ARCO Arena in Sacramento.