The Portland Trail Blazers got some good news out of their trip to play the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. The Los Angeles Clippers, the team the Blazers are racing in the road to the NBA Play-In Tournament, lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder. That took the sting out of Portland’s 112-101 defeat at the hands of a Spurs team playing without all-world center Victor Wembanyama. (Which is the same as world-famous author Stephen King writing without…I don’t know…vowels.) The Blazers put out energy
of a sort, but it was chaotic and ineffective, like a high-schooler throwing punches at an MMA fighter: lots of flurries, little result.
Here’s the rundown of some of the key factors in the game:
Respecting the Speed, Not the Shot
The Blazers started the night trying to take advantage of size, using center Donovan Clingan at the rim, trying to collapse in the lane against Spurs penetration and form a wall of defense and rebounding. It worked pretty well early when San Antonio was missing threes. As soon as they started hitting and the floor spread, Portland was cooked. Their mid-range game got deadly quick. Soon after they went for cuts and lobs that destroyed the Blazers’ pretense at defense. San Antonio ended up shooting 49% from the field on a host of easy shots.
Had the Spurs missed more threes (11-29), 38% or had the Blazers made more (12-37, 32%) the game might have been closer. No such luck.
Turnover Battle
Freed from having to watch Wembanyama with both eyes, some ESPN, and a bevy of drones, the Blazers were able to concentrate a little more on spacing in the passing lanes and attacking San Antonio dribblers. Portland forced 17 turnovers and were getting great effect off of them in the early quarters. As is typical, the Blazers ended up giving them all back. Portland ended up with 16 miscues for 26 Spurs points, an ouchy number.
Scoot Henderson deserves special mention for some seriously acrobatic plays in the midfield, preventing Spurs’ breaks and converting them into Portland possessions. He had three steals, as did Toumani Camara. Matisse Thybulle had a pair in 24 minutes.
More Scoot
Say what you want about Henderson, but he’s one of the few players whose energy and effectiveness GROW as the game wears along. Opponents may tire, but not he. Scoot played 38 minutes tonight. His shots and defense looked as fresh at the end of the game as they did at the beginning. Scoot was the only true guard who shot decently from range tonight (3-9, which looked like a bonanza compared to his backcourt mates) and he committed only one turnover. Granted, he was playing off-ball mostly, but still.
Isolation Station
Obviously scoring 101 points on 45% shooting isn’t a great look for the Blazers, particularly without Defensive Player of the Millenium Victor Wembanyama on the court. The Spurs overplayed for the pass, keeping single coverage on most Portland ball-handlers until they got inside. When they pinched and the Blazers passed out, San Antonio did a great job of recovering, sacrificing size for speed effectively.
The end result was a lot of Portland players making covered jumpers or trying for double-covered layups. That wasn’t pretty. Deni Avdija was the best at it, of course. He scored 29 but also had 6 turnovers. Jrue Holiday got stumped and bumped into oblivion. The attempts of Camara and Donovan Clingan were limited inside the arc. It was just a fruitless evening for the offense, not at all the best Blazers basketball we’ve seen this season, or even this week.
(N)Orebs
In part thanks to what we just said, the Blazers got a paltry 11 offensive rebounds in this game. The Spurs matched them exactly. That’s a strong point for Portland, an advantage that they can’t afford to give up against any team, let alone one of the conference leaders.
Up Next
We could go on, but the better thing to do would be circling Friday night’s game versus the Clippers. That starts at 7:00 PM at the Moda Center. With the Blazers at 40-40 and the Clippers at 41-39, that matchup will almost certainly decide the 8th seed in the Western Conference and the critical Play-In privileges that come with it. If the Clips win, Portland is done and will take the 9th-place spot in the Tournament. If the Blazers win, the teams will be tied and Portland will own the tiebreaker. That leaves one victory remaining on Sunday against the Sacramento Kings to determine Portland’s fate. Win it and they’re 8th. But they have to get there first.
