The Portland Trail Blazers played their second straight up-and-down game on Tuesday evening, taking on the Los Angeles Lakers in a battle of undefeated teams. The game featured all kinds of twists and turns. L.A. scored in transition. The Blazers hit threes. The refs blew whistles that nobody had ever dreamed of before. All we needed was a DJ and some glo-sticks and the evening could have been an insane rave of offensive delirium that nobody would believe when they woke up in the morning.
At the end
of the party, Portland emerged victorious 136-129. The victory will probably get them national attention. It came against the Lakers and was the only game being televised at the time. Ironically it wasn’t their best effort, especially defensively, so they might get noticed for the wrong reasons. But a win is a win and Portland earned this one.
Here are some observations from the game.
Ja Morant Levels Up
Lots of things were sketchy for the Blazers tonight, but Ja Morant was not one of them. Morant channeled some of his old Memphis magic, taking over the offense when teammates were struggling, avoiding the clutches of the Lakers defense by hitting runners and pulling up from short range. He also passed with alacrity, drawing the defense and dishing to hopelessly open teammates. Robert Williams III feasted on short lobs from Morant…a relentlessly beautiful play.
When the rest of the offense broke down—lack of passing, turnovers, crowded shots—Morant seemed to play freely and easily.
Morant finished the night with 23 points on 9-13 shooting with 4 assists against a single turnover.
Defense Slips
Defense was rare in this game on both sides. The Lakers shot 63% in the first half, Portland 70%. Both teams were within shouting distance of 60% at the final horn. I guess that happens when four offensive guards take the floor?
L.A. prospered behind the unstoppable wizardry of Luke Doncic. Portland had no answer for the MVP candidate. They got multiple defenders in foul trouble trying to compensate.
But the Blazers had a worse problem. The Lakers simply beat them down the floor. First unit, second unit…Portland just got outran. Turnovers for run-outs didn’t help the Blazers’ cause, but it was more than that. Los Angeles put on the afterburners, getting down the floor before Donovan Clingan could set up. The Lakers had 22 fastbreak points tonight, way too many for Portland’s taste.
Even when Portland’s center made it into the play, L.A. took him out of it by quick cuts and pull-ups. Clingan was a non-factor for most of the evening. That took a big chunk out of the Blazers defense. Add in Toumani Camara collecting fouls like Halloween candy trying to contain Doncic, and you have Portland’s 1-2 punch becoming, essentially, 0-0.
How bad was the defense tonight? One of the traditional barometers of defensive slippage is letting the opponent score 100 in three quarters. At the end of the third tonight, the score read 103-102, Lakers. 265 points between the teams shows you that the story didn’t change much.
The one bright spot for Portland is that they were finally able to corral Doncic in the fourth period. He might have been fatigued. It might have been because they overplayed him. Either way, he scored very little when the points mattered most, so I guess you can say that the Blazers’ defense did its job, albeit in somewhat tardy fashion.
The Two Sides of Deni Avdija
When we talk Portland defense, we have to mention Deni Avdija. He should be a third strong pillar, along with Camara and Clingan, in the defensive scheme. Instead his defense is looking…mid. He got stuck on screens, looked flat-footed half of the time, and got called for even more fouls than Camara.
Portland has two camps in their starting lineup. There’s the Camara-Clingan defensive mastery group, then there’s the Damian Lillard-Ja Morant “defense kinda optional” group. Avdija stands in the middle of the two. There’s no doubt the group the Blazers need their All-Star to join.
Avdija’s offense was prolific tonight, however. Head Coach Micah Nori took an interesting tack with him. He put Deni in with the second unit, absent Morant and Lillard. That left Avdija free to take the ball in hand and score to his heart’s content. Many fans and analysts thought that Morant would become the second-unit scorer. As it turns out, Deni might be taking that role in a hybrid starter/sub sense.
Avdija was also big in the decisive fourth frame. It’s a testament to Portland’s depth that he wasn’t too tired to produce late in the game, as so often happened last season when everything rode on him.
Avdija finished the evening with 23 points on fantastic 8-13 shooting, with an equally fantastic 4-7 rate from the three-point arc. To complete the fantastic frosting, he added 9 assists.
Bench Duality
There’s some good news about Portland’s bench squad. Avdija’s offensive surge on their shift didn’t stop their ball movement. Deni and the Jets shared the ball, committed to making sweet music together. They caught and shot threes, whipped the rock to the next man when they didn’t have any openings. They actually did far better sharing the ball than the starters did.
The downside of the scheme was that, Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III aside, the bench just couldn’t generate enough great shots to matter. Turnovers hurt them. They also took far longer to get shots up than their first-unit counterparts, slowing the offense even when they were successful in scoring. Worst of all, they shot STATS from the three-point arc. And that despite getting several open looks.
Overall the bench did well in keeping the game alive, but they weren’t able to take control of it against the Lakers bench, though L.A. gave them plenty of opportunity.
Those veterans, though… Holiday scored 22 while shooting 8-12 from the field. Williams added 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Scoot Pains
One of the sore spots for that second unit was Scoot Henderson. He’s had a relatively decent start to the season, but the wheels fell off tonight. His defense was misguided and ineffective. He committed 4 turnovers with 0 points and only 1 assist in his first 10 minutes of play. He finished with 2 points on 0-3 shooting with 3 assists against 5 turnovers in 17 minutes. Henderson is still a work in progress.
You’ve Got To Make Your…
The foul line is one of the things the Blazers will look back on when they consider this game. They missed 15 free throws, hitting just 63% from the foul line. Those points were sorely needed. This team might be talented, but they won’t prosper without basics and fundamentals. Hitting foul shots is about as basic as it gets.
Luka Doncic Is Good
We would be remiss in our recap if we didn’t mention how very, very good Luka Doncic is. He had defenders turning in circles—sometimes literally—on his way to 41 points on 12-22 shooting with 5 rebounds and 9 assists. Toumani Camara looked ineffective against Doncic despite playing some pretty incredible defense. Portland’s centers seemed foolish when they tried to help. Recovering from those help possessions looked all but impossible for them too. Doncic put on a master class in how to score over a defense that was playing hard but, for all intents and purposes, might has well have not been there. Sometimes all you can say is, “Whoa. GG, superstar.”
Threes Late
Despite all the struggles, the Blazers came back in the fourth quarter by hitting threes. Lillard, Camara, and Avdija all hit in succession, Dame on his own, the other two off of action in the middle of the floor. Jrue Holiday would strike later too, then Lillard again. Then Avdija. Then Lillard finally hit a step-back three with 43 seconds left to clinch it. This capped off a good night from the arc overall: 18-36, 50%. It’s the refuge of scallywags and rogues everywhere in the NBA. It’s also the reason the Blazers won despite their generally poor defense.
Dame Time
At the end of the evening, when the game was on the line, Damian Lillard took over the game like he once did on a regular basis in Portland. It wasn’t so much volume of shots or points scored as timeliness and poise. The Blazers were behind as crunch time approached. Lillard hit the aforementioned three to kick off their comeback run. The score remained tight down to the final minutes. Then he hit that step-back triple to bookend the run. He wasn’t Leonardo DiCaprio on the prow of the Titanic proclaiming himself the king of the world as a much younger Dame might have done. He was more Captain Picard, skillfully commanding the action while imparting confidence to his crew.
Lillard finished with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists, hitting 4-8 from the arc.
Micah Nori
We’re continuing to learn about Coach Nori as the early season unfolds. One of the things that’s becoming evident is that he does not put up with B.S. When the game starts to go south, he calls timeouts quickly. When the team doesn’t defend for one possession, he lets it go. If that stretches to two or three, he gets visibly—and vocally—agitated. (He did that a couple of times tonight.) We don’t know yet if his coaching is inspired, but he sure manages the game solidly. And occasionally loudly.
3-0, Coach. Maybe they should extend you.
Up Next
Boxscore
