The Portland Trail Blazers came to Chicago and got a fight. What they also got was a win.
Jerami Grant dropped 27 points, Robert Williams III put together a dominant double-double, and the Blazers survived a wild fourth-quarter comeback attempt by the Bulls to walk out of the United Center with a 121-112 victory on February 26, 2026.
It wasn’t always clean. It was rarely comfortable. But when it mattered most, Portland made the plays.
Grant Was the Closer the Blazers Needed
You want to know what separates a good player from a clutch player? Watch Jerami Grant in the fourth quarter.
With Chicago breathing down the Blazers’ neck, cutting what had been a 15-point lead all the way down to three, Grant did what great players do. He hit a three-pointer at the 1:57 mark to push the lead back to six. Just like that, the game changed. That shot — one of three he knocked down from deep on the night — didn’t just go through the net. It broke Chicago’s spirit.
Grant finished 6-of-10 from the field and 12-of-14 from the free-throw line. That’s not lucky. That’s a player who wanted the ball when everything was on the line.
A Fourth Quarter That Had Everything
If you stepped away from your TV in the fourth quarter, you missed a game within a game.
Portland looked like they had it locked up. They pushed the lead to 105-90 with just over nine minutes left in the game, and at that point, most people would’ve written Chicago off. The Bulls had other ideas.
Leonard Miller hit a three-pointer. Josh Giddey connected from deep. Guerschon Yabusele knocked down a pair of free throws. Suddenly, the United Center was loud again. Chicago pulled it all the way back to 108-105, and for a moment, you could feel the momentum shift.
Then Grant hit that three.
From there, Portland rattled off a 13-7 closing run to seal it. Blake Wesley, Toumani Camara, and Jrue Holiday all made key plays down the stretch. The Blazers had enough.
Role Players Showed Up When It Counted
Grant was the headliner, but Portland got contributions from everywhere.
Toumani Camara was steady and efficient, finishing with 16 points and five rebounds. He knocked down his free throws late when the Bulls were fouling, and he never looked rattled. Vit Krejci added 14 points and hit a clutch shot in the fourth quarter to help push the lead back out to double digits. Those aren’t glamorous stat lines, but they’re winning ones.
And then there was Robert Williams III. RoWill put together one of those nights that don’t always show up in the highlight reel but show up in the box score where it matters most. Fourteen points. Fourteen rebounds. Four blocks. The man was a wrecking ball on the defensive end and a force on the glass all game long. You can’t win games like this without a performance like that.
Chicago’s Homestand Nightmare Continues
For the Bulls, this loss stings in a specific way. They’re now 0-5 on a seven-game homestand. Zero and five. At home. That’s not a slump — that’s a crisis.
Matas Buzelis led Chicago with 20 points and showed flashes of the player everyone believes he can be. Tre Jones poured in 19. Josh Giddey had 15 points and nine assists and was arguably the most versatile player on the floor for either team. Nick Richards gave them a double-double off the bench.
But none of it was enough. The Bulls shot 50% from the field and still lost by nine. They had the lead 17 times in this game. They tied it up 13 times. And they still couldn’t close it out.
That’s a problem that goes beyond talent. That’s a mental hurdle that Chicago has to find a way to clear before this homestand gets any uglier.
What’s Next
The Blazers head to Charlotte on Saturday, looking to build on back-to-back momentum. The Bulls host Milwaukee on Sunday, and based on how this stretch has gone, they’ll need a seriously different approach to end the bleeding at home.
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