Some NBA games are dramatic, others challenging, others intense and fun. The matchup between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night in Portland was none of those things. Perfunctory is more like it.
Fortunately, the Blazers aren’t interested in any of that fancy stuff. All they want nowadays is enough wins to secure them decent position in the upcoming NBA Play-In Tournament. A win is exactly what they got, disposing of the plunging Nets 134-99 in a game they led from the opening
to close.
With the win, the Blazers guaranteed themselves no worse than a 10th-place finish in the NBA’s Western Conference, thus putting themselves in the Play-In Tournament.
Player of the Game
There were a couple of legitimate competitors for Player of the Game, but Toumani Camara shot 9-11 from distance on his way to 35 points, so it has to be him. Anyone else would get us yelled at, and appropriately so! What a shooting display Camara put on. More about him coming in the extended recap!
Stat of the Night
The Blazers shot a comparatively modest 70% at the free throw line tonight, but that hardly mattered. Their 28 makes pretty much equaled the 29 attempts that the Nets got at the line. Deni Avdija led Portland with 12 free-throw attempts.
What We Noticed
The post-All-Star-Break part of Portland’s season can by described by one quality: physicality. Maybe it’s playing more veterans. Maybe it’s the continued ascendance of Donovan Clingan and Deni Avdija, both bangers. Whatever it is, the Blazers are bumping and grinding their way to victories, at least against lesser teams who don’t fight as hard and don’t get the benefit of star whistles from the refs. It’s a nice quality to cultivate. Hopefully the Blazers don’t forget it when the season resets next year. This would be a good place to start in their quest to make a real run at relevance.
Up Next
The Blazers’ homestand continues with a contest against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night with a 7:00 PM, Pacific start.
