1994–95 Portland Trail Blazers season

The 1994–95 Portland Trail Blazers season was the 25th season for the Portland Trail Blazers in the National Basketball Association.^[1] The Trail Blazers' 25th season was marked by change, as this was the team's final season in which they played their home games at the Memorial Coliseum. The Trail Blazers had the 17th overall pick in the 1994 NBA draft, and selected shooting guard Aaron McKie out of Temple University.^[2][3][4] During the off-season, the team hired P.J. Carlesimo as their new head coach.^[5][6]

Early into the regular season, the Trail Blazers traveled overseas to Yokohama, Japan to play two games against the Los Angeles Clippers at the Yokohama Arena.^[7] In the first game on November 4, 1994, the Trail Blazers were the road team and defeated the Clippers by a score of 121–100, in front of 14,229 fans in attendance; Clyde Drexler led the team with 26 points, while Clifford Robinson finished with 22 points, and Rod Strickland contributed 17 points and 7 assists.^[8][9][10] In the second game on November 5, the Trail Blazers were the home team and defeated the Clippers by a score of 112–95, in front of 14,239 fans in attendance; Drexler led the team with 41 points, and made all four of his three-point field-goal attempts, while Strickland posted a double-double of 23 points and 14 assists.^[11][12][13]

Under Carlesimo, and with Terry Porter only playing just 35 games due to an ankle injury,^[14][15][16] the Trail Blazers got off to a 6–6 start to the regular season in November, and later on held a 25–20 record at the All-Star break.^[17] At mid-season, the team honored Drexler's request to be traded to a contender, sending him along with three-point specialist Tracy Murray to the defending NBA champion Houston Rockets in exchange for Otis Thorpe;^[18][19][20] before the trade, Drexler averaged 22.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game in 41 games, but was not selected for the 1995 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, Arizona.^[21] The Rockets would go on to win their second consecutive NBA championship, defeating the Orlando Magic in a four-game sweep in the 1995 NBA Finals; it was Drexler's first ever championship.^[22][23][24] With the addition of Thorpe, the Trail Blazers finished in fourth place in the Pacific Division with a 44–38 record, and earned the seventh seed in the Western Conference;^[25] the team qualified for the NBA playoffs for the 13th consecutive year.^[1]

Robinson averaged 21.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, and led the Trail Blazers with 142 three-point field goals, while Strickland averaged 18.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.9 steals per game, and Thorpe played a sixth man role off the bench, averaging 13.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game in 34 games after the trade. In addition, Buck Williams provided the team with 9.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, while Chris Dudley contributed 5.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. Off the bench, Harvey Grant provided with 9.1 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, while Porter contributed 8.9 points and 3.8 assists per game, second-year guard James Robinson contributed 9.2 points and 2.5 assists per game, Jerome Kersey averaged 8.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, and McKie contributed 6.5 points per game.^[26]

In the Western Conference First Round of the 1995 NBA playoffs, the Trail Blazers faced off against the 2nd–seeded, and Pacific Division champion Phoenix Suns, who were led by the All-Star trio of Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, and three-point specialist Dan Majerle. The Trail Blazers lost the first two games to the Suns on the road at the America West Arena, before losing Game 3 at home, 117–109 at the Memorial Coliseum, thus losing the series in a three-game sweep.^[27][28][29]

The Trail Blazers finished 24th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 529,759 at the Memorial Coliseum during the regular season, which was the fourth-lowest in the league.^[26][30] Following the season, Thorpe was traded to the Detroit Pistons,^[31][32][33] while Porter signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Timberwolves,^[34][35][36] Kersey was left unprotected in the 1995 NBA expansion draft, where he was selected by the Toronto Raptors expansion team,^[37][38][39] and Mark Bryant signed with the Houston Rockets.^[40]