PORTLAND, Ore. — The Trail Blazers are doing a good job of protecting their home court so far.
Portland has won seven straight at the Rose Garden, where they improved to 22-5 overall with a 108-98 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.
LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds in the win, said the Blazers will need to make sure they maintain that home-court advantage if they’re going to make it to the playoffs.
“As long as we keep playing hard, and taking care of the home court, we’ll be good,” he said.
The Blazers have the second-best home record in the Western Conference, behind the Los Angeles Lakers (25-4).
“It’s important to get any win at this stage, especially those at home,” coach Nate McMillan said.
Brandon Roy added 27 points for the Blazers, who have won nine of their last 12 overall.
Mike Bibby scored 27 points for the Kings, who kept it close in the first half but fell behind midway through the second and trailed by as many as 16. Joe Johnson added 21.
“They made a run in the second half and it really put them over the hump,” Johnson said. “We just couldn’t recover from it.”
Blazers center Greg Oden missed his second game because of a bone chip in his left knee. He was hurt in a collision during a game at Golden State before the All-Star break. It forced him to miss the All-Star rookie challenge and Wednesday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
He was also expected to miss Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers and will be reevaluated Monday. The top pick in the 2007 draft, Oden sat out last season after microfracture surgery on his right knee. He missed six games at the start of this season with a foot injury.
Joel Przybilla started in Oden’s absence, finishing with six points and 10 rebounds.
The teams traded the lead back and forth 13 times in the first half. Portland made a move in the second, going up 58-50 on Roy’s 3-pointer.
But Bibby and Johnson each had 3-pointers to answer for the Hawks. Marvin Williams added a running jumper to narrow it to 60-58.
Portland quickly extended its margin, taking a 78-68 lead on Rudy Fernandez’s 3-pointer. The Blazers went up 92-80 on Roy’s 3-pointer with 7:50 left.
Fernandez’s 3-pointer made it 104-88 late, and the Spanish forward finished with 19 points.
Fernandez has hit a three in 32-straight games, an ongoing rookie record. He has at least one 3-pointer in 52 of 53 games this season.
The Hawks, who had won six of their last nine, did not make any moves by Thursday’s trade deadline. Meanwhile, the Blazers were involved in a three-way deal that sent forward Ike Diogu to Sacramento and brought Chicago forward Michael Ruffin to Portland.
Ruffin was activated for Friday night’s game in Oden’s absence. He entered with 17.3 seconds left, but didn’t not score.
Aldridge, who had his 10th double-double of the season, said the Blazers were relieved no major moves were made.
“We’ve been together and I think we built a chemistry,” he said. “I think all the guys wanted to keep it that way.”
The Blazers were coming off a 94-90 victory over Memphis on Wednesday. The same night, the Hawks defeated the Kings 105-100 in Sacramento.
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