The Portland Trail Blazers’ preseason opener is just one day away, as they’ll host the Golden State Warriors at the Moda Center on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. PDT.
On Tuesday morning, the Blazers held one more practice in Tualatin to prepare before the preseason slate tips off. Afterward, the day included a light media availability session, featuring just one interview with Portland head coach Micah Nori.
Below are some noteworthy insights from the five-minute conversation with Coach.
The Rotation Plan for the Preseason Opener
Nori told reporters
he plans to deploy a normal first-half rotation, in terms of minutes, during the preseason opener, and then the main rotation players will probably play just one stint in the second half. That means he expects the majority of players to get between 18-20 minutes of action against Golden State.
As far as starters for Wednesday, Nori said he has a pretty good idea of which five players will form the starting lineup. However, he also said the preseason slate will likely feature some different starting lineups, particularly because the Blazers play a back-to-back on Oct. 12-13, and he’s unsure which players will be available for both of those games.
“I don’t know,” Nori said about if he plans to try different starting combinations during the preseason. “I know we have that flexibility to do so. We’ll start with whatever we do tomorrow and then see how that one looks.”
When asked if people should read into the starting lineup for Wednesday and what it means, Nori said this:
“I don’t think it’s a whole lot of reading into it, quite honestly. It’s just, again, like we talked about, trying to find the right combinations, whether it’s to start, be in the middle and to end games.”
