Portland may have finally put an end to questions with a 98-84 win over Sacramento today. The team has had its ups and downs recently, with some off-the-field incidents involving key players ruining the team's focus. Smith was at the center of the controversy, after being arrested for weapon violations just three days ago. His legal problems were sorted out quickly, but the attention drawn to the incident received more news than today's game against Sacramento. Smith let his play do the talking today, helping his team put the unfortunate incident behind him with a solid game. "Definitely nice to be asked about a game MVP performance than about an arrest," he said later on.

Portland was led by Smith (18 points, 3 steals), Vanderveer (14 points, 11 boards, 1 assists), Kimbell (14 points, 4 blocks). Sacramento was led by Bravo (20 points, 3 assists, 4 blocks), Stanford (9 points, 22 boards, 0 assists, a block), Davis (9 points, 7 boards, 1 assists).

After this win, Portland stand at 52-22 and 26-10 at home. They hold at #1 in the Northwest and remain at #2 overall in the Western Conference. Sacramento snapped their winning streak at 5 games, and are now 53-21. They move down to #2 in the Pacific and drop to #4 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Portland roster Sacramento roster