If you felt miserable watching the Portland Trail Blazers get pounded 125-103 by the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night, I’d argue Deni Avdija was more displeased.
Unlike fans watching at home, who probably turned the channel, or the Blazers faithful watching at the Moda Center, who headed for the exits in droves at the end of the third quarter, Avdija couldn’t look away. After the All-Star forward subbed out for good with 2:09 remaining in the third quarter, he had to keep watching from the bench
while Portland’s deep rotation played 14 minutes of mop-up basketball. As Avdija was minimized to a spectator the rest of the way, it was clear to see he wasn’t taking the loss lightly.
The 6-foot-8 forward sat slumped back in his chair at the start of the fourth quarter, silent, with arms crossed. At around the eight-minute mark, he unlaced his shoes before settling into glum interpretation of The Thinker’s pose — elbow resting on knee, chin resting on palm. Then as the Spurs dribbled out the clock on the game, Avdija was the first to stand up from the bench and the first to head down the tunnel after the buzzer sounded, ready to turn the page on this one quickly.
So what was going through the star’s head as he watched the last 14 minutes of game time from the bench?
“The things we’re gonna do the next time we’re gonna see ‘em,” Avdija answered in the postgame locker room. “Just thinking about the game plan, thinking about the mentality that we’re gonna meet ‘em again.”
Just by reading Avdija’s expression and body language during that fourth quarter, you’d be able to deduce that this was one of Portland’s more frustrating nights of the young season. The Blazers couldn’t buy a bucket for most of the first quarter. The second quarter was an ugly, choppy mess marred by whistles, flops, “Ref, You Suck!” chants, 22 fouls between both teams and 18 San Antonio free throws. Then the Spurs forced Blazers head coach Micah Nori to burn through four timeouts in the third quarter alone as they blasted ahead to an insurmountable lead that reached as large as 35.
“We gotta make sure we compete and be who we are,” Nori said. “And tonight, I thought was the first time that we kind of got away from that.”
While both teams were playing the second night of back-to-backs, in Portland’s defense, not all back-to-backs are created equal. San Antonio was coming off a breezy road win over the Sacramento Kings. For the Blazers, who were missing some key players, this game against one of the league’s heavyweight contenders followed a four-game road trip and a hard-fought loss versus the Los Angeles Lakers that saw starters play heavy minutes.
“Well, first of all, we’re gonna be more fresh,” Avdija said about the next time Portland plays San Antonio (which will be on Nov. 25 in an NBA Cup matchup). “That’s a little crazy coming back from LA, getting home at 5 a.m., and waking up and playing. It’s not the best, but there’s no excuses in the NBA. You’re a professional. You gotta do what you gotta do.”
Understanding the recent schedule, Portland’s still-strong start at 6-3, and the natural ups and downs that go into a long 82-game NBA season, Saturday’s blowout isn’t some sky-is-falling moment in Rip City. It was a really frustrating night. But that’s all it was.
With that in mind, I wish I had worded a question for Nori differently in the postgame press conference. I asked how a “slice of humble pie” like this loss can be good and bad for a team. Admittedly, the choice of expression came across as more disparaging and melodramatic than intended, and Nori pushed back at it with good perspective on the loss and this team.
“I don’t know what humble pie means from the fact that we’ve played really good basketball, we were 6-2 and there’s not one person on our team that was thinking all of a sudden we’re world-beaters and all this,” Nori said. “I think we’ve been going about our business, taking care of business on the road, and the last thing I would think about this is humble pie. I think that they’re a very good team. They’re defending Western Conference champions, and they beat us. But to me, humble pie is when you’re walking around thinking that you can beat anybody, and you’re not putting the work in and just think that you’re gonna show up and win. And we have yet to do that, nor will we do that. So to me, this is not humble pie.”
Nori paused for moment, before ending his answer with one more thought:
“It’s an ass-kicking. But it’s not humble pie.”
