PORTLAND, Ore. -- After four playoff games, there didn't appear to be much difference between the team with the NBA's best record and the eighth-best club in the Western Conference. All that changed Sunday.
Terry Porter scored 23 points, Clyde Drexler added 22 and Cliff Robinson had 20, leading the Portland Trail Blazers to a 119-107 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics in the decisive Game 5 of their series.
The win moved the Trail Blazers into a second-round meeting against the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals. The best-of-seven series begins Tuesday night in Portland.
'This was a tremendous win,' Portland Coach Rick Adelman said. 'We turned our intensity up a level and our defense up a level. Great teams have to do that.'
It seemed earlier in the week that the Trail Blazers, who finished the regular season with a 63-18 record, brought themselves down to the level of the SuperSonics with two embarrassing losses at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
'You learn a lesson in every game and we are going to remember this series,' Adelman said. 'You don't want to get your back to the wall like we did with the Sonics. We are going to remember that.'
On Sunday, the Trail Blazers took control late in the first quarter and never looked back.
'We were in a similar situation against San Antonio last year when it came down to the final game of the series,' Robinson said. 'We knew what we had to do today.'
Eddie Johnson and Shawn Kemp each scored 17 points to lead the SuperSonics, the first No. 8 seed to win two games in a series. Seattle was trying to become only the fourth team to win a five-game series after losing the first two.
'We made a good accounting of ourselves for next year,' Seattle's Ricky Pierce said. 'Everyone thought we would be swept. I figured if we were going to win in the playoffs, it was important to win one of the first two games here.'
Seattle jumped out to an early 23-19 advantage on the strength of Johnson's 10 first-quarter points, but Portland came roaring back with 11 straight points to post a 30-23 advantage. The big basket was Porter's three-point shot that gave the Trail Blazers the lead for good at 24-23.
Portland used a pair of seven-point runs in the second quarter, both capped by 20-foot jumpers by Danny Ainge, to push its advantage to 51-35 midway through the period. From there, the Trail Blazers continued to build on their lead.
'We started the game with the same intensity that we maintained in our two wins in Seattle,' Seattle Coach K.C. Jones said. 'The difference is the last game we kept it and this time we didn't. They put pressure on us and took us out of our game. After that it was totally their game -- a blowout.'
Porter pushed the advantage to 62-40 on a layup in the final minute of the first half. The Trail Blazers led 63-43 at intermission and 90-68 after three quarters.
Portland ran its fast break to perfection early in the fourth quarter, threatening to push its lead over the 30-point mark, finally taking a 104-74 lead midway through the final period on a Cliff Robinson layup.
'I think we were mentally drained by our efforts in the two wins and we had to come down here and play on their home court,' Jones said. 'We would have had to be totally focused to get it done today.'
That gave Portland coach Rick Adelman a chance to rest his starters, allowing Seattle to make a closing run. The SuperSonicsshot 52 percent from the floor compared to Portland's 48 percent, but the Trail Blazers managed 19 more attempts and made six more.
'I like our efforts throughout the playoffs. It is something to build on,' Jones said. 'We'll start looking to next season and we have much to start with. We came together about seven games before the regular season ended and a lot of the things we did in the playoffs are heartening.'
