As they faced the Sacramento Kings on Friday night, the Portland Trail Blazers looked like a team in transition. Gone was the carefree, three-point-filled, opening-night romp against the Phoenix Suns. The Blazers would get few easy moments in Sacramento. Instead they battled themselves most of the evening, trying to make defensive rotations, trying to find the right shots, trying to decide who would run the offense. For the first half, the outlook seemed grim. The Kings outhustled their guests; Portland struggled
hard just to keep up. But a 44-point third period lifted the Blazers to a 128-120 victory, proving that the video tape doesn’t have to be pretty as long as the final score reads “W”.
Deni Avdija led the Blazers with 26 points. Darius Acuff, Jr. topped the Kings with 33. Domantas Sabonis registered a 27-point, 19-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, shooting 10-13 from the field.
Here are a few observations from the game.
Spotty Defense
Portland’s main problem in the first half was defense. They are built on a foundation of stopping points. That’s the secret to making their offense work. Their points will come in fits and starts, but it doesn’t matter if they’re cold as long as the opponent doesn’t streak away.
Facing a team with mobile centers (or simply without any true big men) Portland had trouble covering the interior. They field rangy, athletic wings. The basic idea is streaking across the floor, trying to force turnovers, bother dribbles, and help against penetration. Any weak spots in point-of-attack defense are supposed to be covered by multiple actions towards the ball, with players recovering after. This scheme leaves any given part of the floor susceptible to being lightly-defended at any given time, depending on who is coming or going. That includes the lane.
Sacramento took full advantage in the first quarter. It wasn’t just about layups. They threw players down the middle and drew multiple fouls on Donovan Clingan. They forced Portland to send defenders into the lane to stop them, then passed for open threes. The Blazers defense was like a wax museum. It looked good, but it didn’t take long staring at it to figure out it wasn’t real.
Other problems reared their heads. The Kings took no mercy, sending drivers right at Damian Lillard and Ja Morant. They got a step against Portland’s guards whenever they wanted, exacerbating the issues above.
Portland did end up bothering three-point shots above the foul line, but they were slow much of the night closing to corner threes, a serious omission.
Finally, at least in the first half, the Blazers got beat down the floor, especially when the first unit played.
Combine all these things and a fairly-miserable team like Sacramento looked to be Portland’s equal, or maybe even better. The Kings scored 33 in the first. They’d top 30 in three of four periods on the evening.
Bench Saves the Half
Despite the defensive woes, Portland did manage to stay even-ish through the first half. They owed their second unit a huge debt of gratitude. Jrue Holiday calmed down the offense. He and Scoot Henderson stopped the defensive leaks, at least somewhat. And most of all, Robert Williams III took advantage of his own agility against similarly-small opponents to rebound, hound people on defense, and streak down the court for transition dunks. When the Blazers couldn’t score in the halfcourt, they went for the easiest shots in the arsenal. Williams was their point-man on the attack. Sacramento had no answer for RWIII. He finished the game with 13 points on 6-6 shooting and deserves at least a portion of the game ball for keeping his team in business.
Shout out to Sidy Cissoko off the bench for providing a spark in the middle quarters as well. Cissoko had 15 points and 7 rebounds, 4 offensive.
If it weren’t for Portland’s depth, they wouldn’t have won this game.
Threes
During that middling stretch, three-pointers weren’t falling a bit for the Blazers. When they didn’t look like torture, they looked random. Predictably, the offense suffered from the lack.
Portland hit 8 threes in the third quarter, though, going 8-19 in the frame. That made everything seem better.
The Blazers finished the game 14-49, 29% from distance. For those counting, that meant they shot 6-30 outside of that hot third period. Their saving grace was holding Sacramento to 8-30 for the evening. But beware. Portland doesn’t want to leave themselves beholden to the long shot this year. In this game, lacking consistency in other categories, they surely were.
One Magical Quarter
The third period was pivotal in this game. Portland scored 44 points, exceeding the opponent by 18. That’s huge, obviously. Just as impressive was the way they did it. We already mentioned the three-pointers. Here’s another shooting-based stat: The Blazers took ZERO shots in the third in the midrange. Every shot attempt was either in the lane or beyond the arc. And only one of their lane shots was outside of the restricted area. It was as efficient of an offensive period as could be imagined. That sweet, and odd, quarter converted a mediocre loss into a win.
A Different Approach
In the season-opener, Damian Lillard and Ja Morant were featured. They set up most of the offense and did much of the scoring. Deni Avdija was a strong contributor on the glass and defensively, but he wasn’t an offensive focal point.
They changed that up big-time tonight. Deni got possession after possession with the ball in his hands. He put his head down and got into the lane, drawing fouls and trying to score inside. It was like watching a someone ram their head against a defensive wall until it broke.
Avdija finished the game with 26 points on 8-16 shooting, 9-12 from the free throw line. It was pure Deni.
But what about Lillard and Morant? They had just 31 points between them, shooting 12-31 from the field, a miserable 3-16 from the arc, with 9 total assists and 4 turnovers. The Deni offense isn’t the Ja-and-Dame offense.
It’s too early to tell which approach is better, or whether the team will find a mix of the two. But dang, they sure are different looks.
Tipping the Hand
Despite the third-quarter surge, the Blazers didn’t put away the Kings until very late. That gave us a chance to see Head Coach Micah Nori’s go-to defensive lineup with the outcome on the line. It was Lillard-Holiday-Avdija-Camara-Clingan. That’s a solid choice, all things considered. If they had needed more offense, it might have been different, but for stops, it appears that Jrue is the trusted member of the backcourt
Up Next
What did you see in this game? Share your observations in the comments section below!
Boxscore
The Blazers have some time to recoup now. Their next game comes next Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers with an 8:00 PM, Pacific start.
