The Portland Trail Blazers came out of the gates on Friday night looking sleepy, sloppy, and like they might just be headed to the worst loss of their season.
Late in the season, playing against the woeful Utah Jazz — a team with a laundry list of injuries, and one that was fined by the NBA last month for unabashed tanking — the Blazers knew they had to avoid an emotional letdown and still bring the right edge. Portland acting head coach Tiago Splitter told the team they had to come out ready from
the get-go. Blazers forward Sidy Cissoko said the message was written on the pregame whiteboard.
Still, the Blazers didn’t press their foot down on the gas in front of the Moda Center crowd. Instead, the Jazz threw the Blazers back on their heels with a powerful first punch. The Blazers started the game with three ugly turnovers, while the Jazz jumped out to an 8-0 lead that soon ballooned to 33-15 on the back of hot shooting and a feast on the offensive boards.
“Not being ready,” Splitter said about what led to the poor start. “Exactly what I said to you guys before the game — that this team is dangerous. They run in transition. They shoot 3s, and we were not ready. Sometimes you gotta see it until you realize.”
Facing that 18-point deficit at the 3:30 mark of the first quarter, the Blazers badly needed a shift in energy. They got it from their bench in the form of third-year spark plugs Scoot Henderson and Sidy Cissoko, and that shift became the defining factor in a 124-114 Portland win.
Splitter turned to Cissoko early at the 4:19 mark of the first quarter. He immediately brought a jolt to his teammates and the crowd with his trademark hustle and grit, while also knocking down consecutive 3-pointers in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Henderson was hot, scoring 18 points in the first half while shooting 7-10 from the floor and 4-5 from long distance. Nine of those points came over the final 3:30 of the first quarter to help Portland get its back off the ropes from that 18-point deficit.
“Whenever the game is not going the way we want, and I throw [Cissoko] out there, he always sparks the whole team and changes the whole momentum,” Splitter said. “He’s not the most talented guy on the team, but he definitely is the guy that sparks energy and enthusiasm and speed and strength in every play.”
“Just that confidence,” Cissoko added about what’s been clicking for Henderson recently. “He’s having way more confidence, and that’s the Scoot I know from the G League Ignite.”
The contributions from Scoot and Cissoko — plus a scoring punch from Jrue Holiday — corresponded with a mega-run by Portland. From late in the first quarter to early in the second, the Blazers ripped off 20 unanswered points — the beginning of a 35-8 extended run that gave Portland a 57-46 lead with 3:49 left in the second quarter.
“I feel like the first unit, none of us really came in with the right spirit,” Blazers forward Toumani Camara said. “Of course, it’s not intentional, it’s part of the game. Sometimes you come a little bit flat, the energy’s not there. And the bench guys seeing that from the bench and being able to come in and have the right energy — matching their energy or even exceeding it — I feel like that was the biggest moment of this game.”
Henderson rode that first half to finish with 25 points, five rebounds, three assists, five 3-pointers and five turnovers while shooting 57.1% from the floor. He was tied for the team-high in scoring with Holiday, who finished with 25 points and eight assists. Cissoko added 14 points, one block, one steal and an impressive double-clutch dunk in the second half that excited the home crowd.
Blazers starting center Donovan Clingan was also huge, especially in the second half, as he punished Utah’s size disadvantage for 21 points, 15 rebounds, six blocks and three steals. Portland All-Star Deni Avdija had a quiet showing, but still finished with 17 points on 7-9 shooting and eight assists (plus five TOs).
After the sleepy start and the big resurgence, the Blazers still didn’t cruise to an easy victory. The Jazz hung around, thanks in large part to 31 points from Blazer killer Brice Sensabaugh. Utah got within two points late in the third quarter and within five points with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. But the Blazers never surrendered the lead, and they pulled away in the final minutes to avoid what would’ve been a lousy, lousy loss at this stage of the play-in race.
“I feel like lately we’ve had a couple of those, where it’s not really a pretty game, but we find a way to win, and I think that’s the biggest thing,” Camara said. “Being able to learn through wins is definitely better than through losses.”
