The Portland Trail Blazers earned their third win of the season on Monday night against a very tight New Orleans Pelicans team. The Blazers won 118-100 after Dalano Banton single-handedly defeated the Pelicans during a huge fourth-quarter burst.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the win.

Banton’s exploits

Banton outscored New Orleans 20-18 in the final quarter. He scored all his points on ultra-efficient 8-9 shooting from the field, making two of his three attempts from deep. He helped Portland break the game wide open and pulled away from the injured Pelicans to close out the game.

Banton first entered the game in the fourth and made sure he was never taken off the field. His late-game performance was a key part of Portland’s eventual victory.

Win the third quarter

Going into this game, Portland was the worst in the league with a third quarter point differential of -11.0. However, the Blazers were able to come away with a 31-27 victory in the third quarter. Strong play from Jerami Grant, who made all three of his attempts in the quarter, and Toumani Camara, who had six points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, helped Portland turn the game around after a slow first half.

Battle in the first half

Although Grant finished strongly in the second half, he shot just 1-10 in the first half and was a major contributor to the slow start to the game. The Blazers never led the entire half and went into halftime trailing by seven points. Scoot Henderson also struggled, recording four turnovers in the half, including two early in his first stint on the field.

Slow down Ingram

Brandon Ingram led all scorers with 27 in the game. His start almost seemed like too much to handle. The Pelicans took a 26-13 lead midway through the first quarter on an Ingram jump shot that gave him 12 points in the opening minutes of the game. He finished the first half with 16 and scored another 11 in the second half.

Portland’s ability to slow down or even contain Ingram late in the game gave them the edge they needed to finally knock off the small Pelicans.

The big men make an impression

Deandre Ayton recorded his seventh double-double of the season with a 19-point, 13-rebound performance while making 9 of his 14 attempts from the field. The Bahamian big man leads the NBA in double-doubles, recording one in every match but one so far.

Donovan Clingan looked great too. The defensive-minded rookie was on the floor for 16 minutes, scoring four points and adding three rebounds. The highlight of his performance, however, was his three blocks. Clingan is now averaging 4.8 blocks per 36 minutes, which ranks first in the league among players who have played at least 100 minutes so far this season.

Where was Robert Williams?

With Ayton and Clingan looking as impressive as they did, it was easy to forget that this match would mark the return of Robert Williams III after nearly a year in the lineup. However, Williams was inactive again, this time a healthy scratch. The center rotation for Portland was a question that came up this season. Have Ayton and Clingan played well enough to answer the question yet? Or was Williams not quite healthy enough to appear?

It remains to be seen where Williams will fit into the rotation going forward, but a DNP coach’s decision isn’t the warm welcome many expected when his name was ultimately removed from the injury report.

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Box score

The Blazers will take on the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night at 5:00 PM PST.