Everything was rolling for the Portland Trail Blazers in the first quarter against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.
Center Donovan Clingan buried three straight 3-pointers in the opening minutes. Forward Toumani Camara knocked down three 3s in the quarter. And the Blazers shot 8-15 from deep in the quarter, bursting out of the gate to take a 34-15 lead in the opening nine minutes and carry a double-digit lead into the second quarter.
Even without All-Star Deni Avdija (still out with a bad back),
it looked like the Blazers would break out of their five-game losing slump with a vengeance and get back some of the winning mojo that defined the first two-thirds of January. If only, if only.
After that hot start, the Blazers got progressively colder, and it was the Suns turn to become flamethrowers. Phoenix guards Collin Gillespie and Grayson Allen looked like the new iteration of the Splash Bros, combining for 14 3-pointers. Their teammates didn’t miss much either, as Phoenix shot over 50% from the field and almost 49% from deep. The Suns slowly overtook Portland over the next three quarters. They kicked away in the fourth to hand the Blazers their sixth straight loss in a 130-125 defeat at the Moda Center.
“Their shooters really shot the ball well,” Blazers acting head coach Tiago Splitter said. “They always were finding open shots, and we couldn’t respond. … We were not good enough.”
Gillespie, Phoenix’s third-year revelation, looked particularly unstoppable. With starting guard Devin Booker out, Gillespie stepped into the star role with 30 points while shooting 10-17 from the field and 8-14 on 3s. He also added 10 assists, three steals and just one turnover, as he picked Portland apart coming off dribble hand-offs and screens.
“He has great chemistry with the bigs,” Splitter said. “Playing hand-offs, getting [it] back, passing, changing speed, coming back. We were not good enough to send him the direction that we wanted, and he was getting open.”
Forward Jerami Grant led Portland with 23 points on 8-15 shooting and Shaedon Sharpe scored 19 points on 7-16 gunning. Jrue Holiday added 12 points and five assists but logged five turnovers. Camara (13 points, 11 rebounds) didn’t score again after the first quarter and Clingan (14 points, 15 rebounds) scored just three additional points.
The Blazers got a decent boost from their bench. Robert Williams III (14 points), Sidy Cissoko (12 points) and Blake Wesley (10 points) all scored in double figures and brought good energy. But on a night when Phoenix was so hot and Portland turned the ball over 17 times (12 in the second half), the effort wasn’t enough.
“I think today we played hard and fought,” Holiday said. “Some things didn’t go our way. They shot the heck out the ball, but I think as a team we did our best to play together and try to get a win.”
For what it’s worth, Splitter agreed with Holiday. He thought his team played better than it did in recent losses, so perhaps an end to this losing streak is coming soon.
“You guys might not see this, but I think we played way better than, for example, [recent games] against the Wizards and the Knicks. … I think we stepped to the right direction. We did some stuff better. I think the energy was better. We were trying better.”
Vit’s Debut
It wasn’t the hottest start for the player nicknamed Heat Czech, a name inspired by his shooting prowess and Czech Republic roots. Just two days after Portland acquired him from the Atlanta Hawks, newest Trail Blazer Vit Krejci played 14 minutes off the bench and produced five points, two steals and an assist while shooting 2-7 from the floor.
But all things considered — an unexpected trade; flying across the country in a travel experience that included delays, little sleep, and an unintended overnight stay in Miami; then immediately playing with an entire new team — Krejci had a fine Rip City debut.
“Obviously, there’s gonna be a transition period just to get comfortable with being on the court,” Krejci, 25, said in the postgame locker room. “But for the first game, for being here for two days, it felt good. It felt good to be out there. It felt good to be with the guys on the court and just compete.”
Krejci’s first bucket came at the 2:36 mark of the second quarter. After an offensive rebound and kickout from Williams, the 6-foot-8 forward stepped into a 3-pointer from straightaway and buried it. Then he gave a little fist pump on his way back down the floor.
That would be the only 3-point hit on the night for Krejci, who came into the game shooting 42.3% from beyond the arc on 5.2 attempts per game. He shot 1-6 from deep against Phoenix, but he said this week of travel and change wasn’t the best help for a shooter’s rhythm.
“Obviously, not the best shooting night,” Krejci said. “But it’s been a crazy couple days, and once I get my legs under me and get adjusted to that time zone — it’s what, 2 a.m. [in Atlanta] right now? Like I said, all of those shots felt good. I think three or four of them were short. We got two days now in between games, so [I’ll] just get in the gym, get in the weight room, get my legs underneath me, and I think we’ll be fine.”
More important than one off night from long distance, Krejci fit in seamlessly with his new teammates. He moved on offense well and helped space the floor. He showed a willingness to keep the ball moving and make the extra pass. He got into the lane to convert a floater in the second half for his second bucket. On defense, his length stood out and he showed effort, helping him get those two steals. Krejci said he liked playing in Portland’s aggressive, fast-paced system that emphasizes off-ball movement and sharing the ball, and he’s excited for the rest of the season with his new team.
“He was active, he was cutting, he was trying to do the right play,” Splitter said. “He missed his shots, but that’s understandable — first day here, everybody’s expecting a lot from him. But I liked the activity. I liked how he moved.”
“He just has the type of game that he can fit in anywhere with any team,” Holiday added. “If it’s guarding guys, shooting the 3, he knows how to play off of other people, so I think he fits in very, very well with us.”
The fact the Blazers were willing to immediately throw Krejci into the rotation shows how much they value their new acquisition and how they plan to play him more than the outgoing Duop Reath. Krejci checked in at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter, the second man off the bench after Blake Wesley. If that’s any indication, he’ll likely get more minutes as he finds his footing in his new surroundings.
“Everybody in the organization has been incredibly supportive trying to just make this transition smooth for me and help me through this and just keep getting my confidence [up],” Krejci said. “After every shot, every coach was like ‘Keep shooting. That’s what we want. We trust you.’”
Before the game, Krejci also had a formal introduction with local reporters where he discussed his basketball journey and his trade to the Blazers. You can watch that interview below:
