Golden State's 50-point quarter had me thinking about this one for a couple weeks now. Their scoring is nice, but it ain't all that. This is the story of the true greatest quarter of basketball ever played:
It was 1991, and it was only the 11th game of the season. On one side you had the Portland Trailblazers, 10-0 on the year already and cooking behind Clyde "the Glide" Drexler and a balanced starting lineup. On the other side you had the San Antonio Spurs, 7-2 and starting 1st-team All-NBA David "The Admiral" Robinson at center. The Spurs were looking to avenge a Western Conference Semifinals loss to Portland the previous year that had gone to overtime in Game 7. This was not a lopsided matchup, but a heavily anticipated clash between two elite teams.
And then the game began.
San Antonio wins the tip, misses a jumper, Kevin Duckworth comes right back with a jumper on the other end.
San Antonio makes an ill-advised pass, Drexler grabs it and glides to the other end for an easy lay-in.
San Antonio misses a shot and can’t get the tip, Duckworth-to-Terry Porter-to-Buck Williams and Portland is dunking on the other end.
After a made San Antonio free throw, Portland pushes again, Duckworth open for a jumper again, barely a minute gone by in the game and it's 8-1 Portland.
A Drexler three followed by a behind-the-back pass from Drexler to Buck Williams for another dunk, and it began to look like Portland was just fukking with them. 13-3 Portland.
Less than 10 minutes later, the score was 49-18.
Portland was up by 31 points before the 1st quarter ended and they hadn't shot a single free throw.
The Blazers went 22-25 from the field for the quarter and 5-5 from three, with 18 assists on the 22 made shots.
They shot 90% from the field and 100% from three!
To put that in perspective, two years later Portland would go only 10-60 from three against Chicago for an entire 6-game Finals.
Individual box lines were ridiculous.
The legendary Kevin Duckworth, matched up against superstar David Robinson, went 6-6 for 12 points. In one quarter.
Terry Porter nearly had a double-double before the 2nd quarter started, going 3-3 with two threes for 8 points and 10 assists.
Blazer star Clyde Drexler put up the kind of stat line in a single quarter that Draymond Green would be proud of for an entire game, blocking four San Antonio shots and grabbing two steals while putting up 15 points and 3 assists on 7-8 shooting with his broke-ass jumper humming to perfection.
The crazy thing about it was at the same time the Blazer offense was cooking, their defense was making the Spurs look pathetic. San Antonio shot 8 for 23 for the quarter with 8 turnovers.
Larry Brown had called two timeouts before the quarter was even halfway over. It didn't make a difference at all. There were no real runs, just constant consistent domination from beginning to end. 13-3 became 28-9 became 37-15 became 49-18, with almost perfect pacing. Reserves Danny Ainge and Cliff Robinson swished a three each to end the quarter, just to make the final score as stupid as possible.
The domination was so extensive that Rick Adelman called it a night, telling his assistants that he’d done his work and letting them coach the final three quarters of the game. Portland ended up only winning 117-103 as the Spurs slowly chipped away at the lead over the course of the game, but it wasn’t really that close as everyone was treating the game like garbage time from the second quarter on.
By the next morning a hundred thousand Blazer fans had already independently created the moniker “The Perfect Quarter” to describe what had just happened. Spurs coach Larry Brown said it was the best period of basketball he had ever seen, as did several other players and coaches who watched it. In his autobiography Clyde the Glide, Drexler referred to it as the best quarter a team of his had ever played.
Portland would go on to face the Pistons in the Finals that year, and lose. I don't remember the score of a single one of those Finals quarters. But I won't forget The Perfect Quarter.
Here are the full highlights. Craziest thing - watch Portland make 22 of 25 shots, and I dare you to find any of those 22 shots touching the rim.
Second craziest thing - you have NEVER heard an NBA crowd in your life be that loud, that consistently, from the opening tip to the end of the first. That White-ass Blazer crowd was wilding the whole time.
It was 1991, and it was only the 11th game of the season. On one side you had the Portland Trailblazers, 10-0 on the year already and cooking behind Clyde "the Glide" Drexler and a balanced starting lineup. On the other side you had the San Antonio Spurs, 7-2 and starting 1st-team All-NBA David "The Admiral" Robinson at center. The Spurs were looking to avenge a Western Conference Semifinals loss to Portland the previous year that had gone to overtime in Game 7. This was not a lopsided matchup, but a heavily anticipated clash between two elite teams.
And then the game began.
San Antonio wins the tip, misses a jumper, Kevin Duckworth comes right back with a jumper on the other end.
San Antonio makes an ill-advised pass, Drexler grabs it and glides to the other end for an easy lay-in.
San Antonio misses a shot and can’t get the tip, Duckworth-to-Terry Porter-to-Buck Williams and Portland is dunking on the other end.
After a made San Antonio free throw, Portland pushes again, Duckworth open for a jumper again, barely a minute gone by in the game and it's 8-1 Portland.
A Drexler three followed by a behind-the-back pass from Drexler to Buck Williams for another dunk, and it began to look like Portland was just fukking with them. 13-3 Portland.
Less than 10 minutes later, the score was 49-18.
Portland was up by 31 points before the 1st quarter ended and they hadn't shot a single free throw.
The Blazers went 22-25 from the field for the quarter and 5-5 from three, with 18 assists on the 22 made shots.
They shot 90% from the field and 100% from three!
To put that in perspective, two years later Portland would go only 10-60 from three against Chicago for an entire 6-game Finals.
Individual box lines were ridiculous.
The legendary Kevin Duckworth, matched up against superstar David Robinson, went 6-6 for 12 points. In one quarter.
Terry Porter nearly had a double-double before the 2nd quarter started, going 3-3 with two threes for 8 points and 10 assists.
Blazer star Clyde Drexler put up the kind of stat line in a single quarter that Draymond Green would be proud of for an entire game, blocking four San Antonio shots and grabbing two steals while putting up 15 points and 3 assists on 7-8 shooting with his broke-ass jumper humming to perfection.
The crazy thing about it was at the same time the Blazer offense was cooking, their defense was making the Spurs look pathetic. San Antonio shot 8 for 23 for the quarter with 8 turnovers.
Larry Brown had called two timeouts before the quarter was even halfway over. It didn't make a difference at all. There were no real runs, just constant consistent domination from beginning to end. 13-3 became 28-9 became 37-15 became 49-18, with almost perfect pacing. Reserves Danny Ainge and Cliff Robinson swished a three each to end the quarter, just to make the final score as stupid as possible.
The domination was so extensive that Rick Adelman called it a night, telling his assistants that he’d done his work and letting them coach the final three quarters of the game. Portland ended up only winning 117-103 as the Spurs slowly chipped away at the lead over the course of the game, but it wasn’t really that close as everyone was treating the game like garbage time from the second quarter on.
By the next morning a hundred thousand Blazer fans had already independently created the moniker “The Perfect Quarter” to describe what had just happened. Spurs coach Larry Brown said it was the best period of basketball he had ever seen, as did several other players and coaches who watched it. In his autobiography Clyde the Glide, Drexler referred to it as the best quarter a team of his had ever played.
Portland would go on to face the Pistons in the Finals that year, and lose. I don't remember the score of a single one of those Finals quarters. But I won't forget The Perfect Quarter.
Here are the full highlights. Craziest thing - watch Portland make 22 of 25 shots, and I dare you to find any of those 22 shots touching the rim.
Second craziest thing - you have NEVER heard an NBA crowd in your life be that loud, that consistently, from the opening tip to the end of the first. That White-ass Blazer crowd was wilding the whole time.
