The Portland Trail Blazers got right back to practice on Thursday morning in Tualatin following a 123-118 win over the Golden State Warriors in their preseason opener the night before.
Following practice, the media availability session included interviews with Blazers head coach Micah Nori, Ja Morant and Scoot Henderson. Here are some insights from those conversations, along with the video.
Cleaning Up the Turnovers
After new head coach Micah Nori harped during summer and training camp about taking better care of the ball,
the Blazers got off to a rough start in that department in the preseason opener. The Blazers turned the ball over 22 times, leading to 23 points off turnovers for Golden State.
Nori told reporters that a major emphasis of practice on Thursday was analyzing those turnovers in film and then cleaning them up on the floor.
“We just gotta take care of the ball, not play in crowds, all those things,” Nori said. “We gotta make sure we’re not playing too fast. Play with pace but just make the simple play. We don’t need home runs with this squad. When we’re healthy and the way we are right now, we should be able to get good looks without having to take a bunch of chances. … I think a lot of it is just playing in a rush. And some of it is a little bit of over-dribbling. And it’s crazy because usually when you get turnovers, it’s because a guy is trying to create for himself. It was almost like at times we had layups or had shots but we were over-passing. Again, game one, so what you take out of it is that we can’t turn the ball over and we have to make sure that we rebound, but you don’t want to overreact to game one.”
A 6.5 on the Ja Scale
Blazers guard Ja Morant didn’t have the smoothest preseason debut with his new team in Portland. The two-time All-Star registered eight points on 3-8 shooting, five assists, two rebounds and two steals in 19 minutes, but he also coughed up four turnovers.
When asked to rate his preseason opener, Morant said he’d give it a 6.5 out of 10. Morant said he “definitely could’ve been better offensively,” though he added with a chuckle that his good effort on the defensive end gave him some leeway with the rating.
Morant explained what went into those offensive troubles and how he’s adjusting to his new team:
“Going back and watching, I was a little passive. I just gotta be more decisive when I have the ball with what I want and where I want to go with the ball. … [The reason for the difficulties is] playing with new guys and then I’ve got so many guys on the floor that can do [a lot]. I feel like now it’s not like ‘Ja go in and score 30,’ so I kinda had that pretty much stuck in my head out there playing, and that kinda had me in spots I didn’t like being in. … It’s definitely different but something I expect right now. I’m on a new team and this was the first game we played and my first since January pretty much. So a lot goes into the play of that, but I wouldn’t say I’m worried about it at all.”
Scoot: ‘The Sky’s the Limit’
Blazers guard Scoot Henderson was active on both sides of the floor against Golden State. Coming off the bench, Henderson produced nine points on 3-8 shooting, three assists, three rebounds, one highlight block and three turnovers in 17 minutes.
After practice Thursday, Scoot talked about what he thought he showed in the performance:
“I feel like I showed I can do multiple things still, that I’m gonna continue to get better, that only the sky’s the limit.”
The Blazers will have a few more practices this week before playing another exhibition against the London Lions in Portland on Monday at 1 p.m. PDT.
