The Portland Trail Blazers returned to some old, bad habits in a 125-103 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday evening. Victor Wembanyama had 29 for San Antonio Nobody for the Blazers scored more than 15 as their offense devolved into desperation in the face of a better-stocked opponent. If Portland hoped to show that their 6-2 record so far this season was no fluke, they failed. Or at least they showed that the distance between good-record teams and the true conference elite is vast.
Here are
a few observations from a difficult evening.
Inside Play Suffers
In an analysis of the Trail Blazers earlier in the week, we made a few claims. First, their ascendance to the top of the Western Conference was built on offense. Their defense is passable, but offense makes them special. Second, the offense is predicated on a fairly consistent pattern: penetrate in the lane, force a decision on the defense, then either lay it in or pass out for an open three. Third, the back-and-forth motion of defenders allowed Portland all of their offensive freedom. If and when they faced a team that could cover the inside with minimal resources—either staying in front of dribblers organically or patrolling the lane with an imposing defensive big—the motion would stop and the offense would come to a stop.
- Welcome, San Antonio.
- That’s pretty much what happened tonight.
Whenever Portland penetrated tonight, they found themselves smothered. The San Antonio guards pressured their counterparts into looping, difficult layups. Nobody had to leave perimeter shooters to make it happen, so passes to the wings weren’t even possible. Eventually the Blazers just gave up on penetrating, setting picks to free up two feet of space on the outside for a long shot, passing the ball laterally if at all. All night, the Blazers were on their heels offensively: not confident, trying to manufacture points out of nothing, ultimately failing.
The result was a fairly-terrible 9-35 rate from the three-point arc, coupled with 46 points in the paint. That’s not going to get it done against Sacramento, let alone the Spurs.
Lack of Depth
The Blazers were missing three of their projected Top 8 starters tonight. It showed. Part of the plan against San Antonio is that Victor Wembanyama can’t play forever. Whenever he sits, the opponent is supposed to make hay. Portland fielded Sidy Cissoko, Chris Youngblood, and Yang Hansen during those bench minutes. All due respect to that trio, but they weren’t going to match up well against the Conference Champions. It might be a learning experience, but the lesson was painful. San Antonio dominated almost as much when Wemby sat as when he played.
Lack of Fight
When the shots stopped falling and the action got confused, the Blazers kind of fell apart in all of the basics. They gave up 8 offensive rebounds. They turned over the ball 18 times. They had 17 assists. They couldn’t put up a credible fight in any area at all. The whole game devolved into desperate attempts to score on a possession instead of sensible plans to win the contest.
Heck, the Blazers couldn’t even get tempo right, really. They ended up with 8 fast break points, a ludicrously low number.
We could go on, but that about summarizes the whole thing. The good news is that there will be another day. The bad news: that day will come against the Oklahoma City Thunder, twice. OKC is injured too, but they’re still a good opponent. If the Blazers don’t find some health and heart, this could be a long week.
Up Next
Boxscore
The Blazers have a couple days off before facing the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night at 8:00 PM, Pacific.
