The Portland Trail Blazers earned a spot in the 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament on Monday night with a 124-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. The Blazers dominated the game, never allowing Brooklyn to have a chance. The victory pushed Portland’s record to 35-37. It’s not sterling, but neither was the opponent. As has been true of most of the season, for the Blazers, good enough is good enough! They’ll take the chance at the playoffs and run with it.
Here are some observations from the game:
Big-Stack Poker
When holding
more chips than the opponent in No-Limit Hold-Em, one of the strategies professionals employ is “Big-Stack Poker”. In essence, they bully opponents, going aggressively into every hand by pushing in huge piles of chips. Since they have the funds and opponents don’t, it ends up scaring away competitors from the pot.
The more-talented, healthier Blazers played Big-Stack Poker with the Nets tonight, bumping, grinding, rebounding, and shooting confidently. They never let Brooklyn feel like they had a chance to stop anything, let alone mount a run. Every time they tried, it got physical. The result was a blowout win against a currently-inferior team instead of Portland’s usual close contest. That’s good no matter who the opponent is.
Camarvelous
Toumani Camara is, and always will be, known for his full-court pressure and defensive acumen. But man, when his offense gets going, the Blazers get plenty dangerous. I’m not sure if this is chicken or egg. It could be that Camara scoring is the pressure than spreads opposing defenses too thin. It could also be that Camara scoring is a symptom of the defense being spread thin already. Either way, it just works.
Camara shot 9-11 from distance tonight on his way to 35 points. He and Scoot Henderson accounted for basically all of Portland’s three-point production before garbage time. Watching Brooklyn’s defense scramble to compensate, and ultimately give up, was a thing of beauty.
If Camara ever ends up as a consistent scorer, or even a good scorer against teams of higher quality than the current Nets, the Blazers are going to go up a level in NBA competition.
Jrue Holiday
Near the end of the second quarter, Jrue Holiday muffed an out-of-bounds play. He threw away an otherwise-save-able possession. It looked like he realized the mistake, because on the ensuing defensive possession he guarded like an All-World defender, followed by an offensive set in which he called his own number and scored easily. All credit for those things! But it feels sometimes like those are discreet plays and possessions rather than a way of life for Holiday nowadays. Part of that is age and season-fatigue, I’m sure, but “into-it” Jrue is sure a lot better than “mostly-there” Jrue. Maybe that brings hope for the Play-In Tournament and/or playoffs when the games matter more? I don’t know.
Scoot’s Steals
Scoot Henderson’s live-ball turnovers are definitely a thing. They’re bad to commit under any circumstances, but Scoot’s often come when he’s trying to manufacture something on the (often complex) dribble-drive or making a lateral pass across the floor. In both cases, he has zero momentum towards the defensive end or is actively going the opposite way by the nature of the play. Those turnovers lead to disastrous run-outs more often than not. It’s one of the things Henderson really needs to limit more.
That said, Scoot only committed 2 turnovers tonight against 4 steals. The defensive potential is there! He seemed to relax overall once the game unfolded, perhaps realizing that the Nets just aren’t that serious. When he’s in sync and under control, Scoot’s athleticism pays off instead of becoming a curiosity, fully-realized moments before you wince.
The Ratio
That the Blazers outrebounded the Nets 45-32, 8-6 offensively is not a huge surprise. That’s a low aggregate number for Portland but they shot 55% from the field, so opportunities for offensive rebounds were more limited. Either way, Donovan Clingan alone (15 rebounds, 3 offensive) took care of most of that. The Nets are a young team, not a big or particularly aggressive one. Portland had free rein rebounding.
An emphasis on the offensive glass leaves loopholes, though. One of those occurs when you don’t secure the board and the opponent runs out. Tonight Portland snagged those 8 offensive rebounds while giving up only 9 fast break points, just 6 at the end of three quarters. That’s near-perfect, a fantastic ratio. Chalk up a win nearly every time they do that.
Up Next
The Blazers’ homestand continues with a contest against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night with a 7:00 PM, Pacific start.
