Blazers eliminate Hornets, 112-101

Brandon Roy scored 28 points and the Portland Trail Blazers eliminated the New Orleans Hornets from playoff contention with a 112-101 victory Saturday night.

Roy hit 11 of his first 12 shots, only two of them layups. He finished 12 of 14 in 32 minutes. LaMarcus Aldridge added 24 points, and Nicolas Batum had 13 for Portland.

The Blazers won for the 10th time in 12 games to strengthen their hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western conference and move within percentage points of idle San Antonio for seventh.

Darren Collison had 22 points for New Orleans on a perfect 10-of-10 shooting from the field and 2 of 2 from the foul line. David West added 18 points for the Hornets, who've lost two straight and eight of 10.

Emeka Okafor scored 14 for the Hornets, while Chris Paul had 10 assists. Marcus Thornton failed to score in double digits for the first time in 21 games, going 2 for 7 for eight points.

Portland put the game away early, hitting 18 of 20 from the field from the 6:30 mark of the second quarter until 4:08 remained in the third quarter. At that point, the Blazers led 81-59. Portland shot nearly 63 percent through three quarters, after which coach Nate McMillan went with a lineup of mostly reserves.

Portland, which didn't miss three straight shots until their last three shots of the third quarter, wound up being outshot by New Orleans, 58.6 percent to 57.3 percent. But the Blazers outrebounded New Orleans 35-25 and outscored the Hornets 17-6 on second-chance points.

The Hornets were as close as 44-39 on Darius Songaila's layup late in the second quarter. Then Batum responded with a 3 and Marcus Camby, who had 11 points and 14 rebounds, threw down an alley-oop feed for one of Andre Miller's eight assists.

That began a 13-2 run to close out the period, highlighted by three-point plays each by Roy and Camby, putting Portland ahead 57-41 at halftime.

New Orleans never got within single digits in the second half, trailing by as much as 26.

NOTES: Miller was called for called for a flagrant foul for tripping Paul on a fast break in the first quarter. ... Portland is 20-16 on the road. ... The Trail Blazers won the season series 2-1. ... Thornton did not score in the first half on 0-for-3 shooting. The last time he failed to score in double digits was on Feb. 10, when he scored two points against Boston. ... Film director Spike Lee sat in courtside seats on the baseline and stood to applaud when Saints coach Sean Payton, who also was at the game, was shown on the video board.