Portland Comes Out Blazing, Routs Utah : NBA playoffs: Porter makes six three-pointers, Trail Blazers shoot 63% in first half of 113-88 victory.

Terry Porter wore down the Utah Jazz three at a time.

Porter burned Utah from long range Saturday as the Portland Trail Blazers routed the Jazz, 113-88, in the opener of the NBA Western Conference finals.

Porter broke his Portland playoff record by making six of eight three-pointers, and scored 21 of his 26 points in the first half. His six three-pointers were one short of the NBA playoff record set last year by Chuck Person of the Indiana Pacers.

“He started the game with a three, finished the first half with a three and started the second half with a three,” Portland Coach Rick Adelman said. “He was tremendous.”

Porter has made 22 of 39 from three-point range during the playoffs.

He said he felt hot from the start.

“Even the ones I missed I thought were good,” he said. “They were right on line.”

“I’ve been shooting the ball in such a good groove. When I get wide-open shots, I’m usually pretty good out there. It’s just a matter of feeling really good and confident and strokin’ them.”

The loss was one point short of Utah’s worst playoff defeat ever, 122-96, to the Houston Rockets in 1985.

Jerome Kersey added 20 points and Kevin Duckworth had 18 for the Trail Blazers. This was a rare instance when Portland had no need for a big game from Clyde Drexler, who scored 11 points.

Drexler was often double-teamed, leaving Porter, Kersey or Duckworth open.

“I became a role player,” Drexler said with a laugh. “I’ll take it every time.”

Jeff Malone had 15 points for the Jazz, but Karl Malone took only six shots, making three and scoring 11 points. John Stockton had nine assists but made only one of six shots and scored six points.

Portland led by 30 points in the second quarter, 33 in the third and 28 heading into the final period. No starters for either team played in the fourth quarter.

“That’s about the longest ballgame I’ve watched in a long time,” Utah Coach Jerry Sloan said. “I thought Portland was sensational. They did everything they planned to do. We had one guy I thought had a little bit of life in his body and that was Jeff Malone. Why we didn’t have it is beyond me. I thought we’d be ready to play.”

The Trail Blazers were ahead, 65-37, at halftime even though their only field goal in the last 5 1/2 minutes of the second quarter was Porter’s three-pointer with one second to play.

Portland made 63% of its shots in the first half despite missing eight of its last nine. At one point, Portland’s starters were 21 for 23.

“I don’t know if we can play any better than we played in the first half,” Adelman said.

Portland outscored the Jazz, 12-4, over the final three minutes of the first quarter to take a 37-19 lead, then went on an 11-2 run to start the second quarter to make it 48-21.

“They were two steps ahead of us in everything we tried to do,” Sloan said.

In the first quarter, Kersey was six for six from the field, with five coming from long range. He had 12 points in the quarter.

The Trail Blazers were 16 for 24 from beyond 15 feet in the first half.

The game was played barely 1 1/2 days after the teams wrapped up their conference semifinal series.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night at Portland.