Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson was calm and measured speaking with reporters in the Moda Center locker room Sunday night, unwilling to make much commotion about his best performance of the season.
The third-year guard didn’t puff out his chest about his stellar stats or the fact he was the decisive spark in Portland’s 131-111 no-frills win over the Indiana Pacers. He also didn’t exhale some big sigh of relief given the performance came on the heels of highly scrutinized struggles after
his return from a hamstring tear that forced him out of the season’s first 51 games.
“Nah,” said Henderson when asked if there was anything relieving or gratifying about his play considering his recent struggles. “ … That’s just me as a person, man. If shit don’t go right, I’m not tripping. I never get too high, I never get too low.”
While Henderson said he wasn’t rattled, he did make a key mental switch earlier in the week centered around focusing on his love for the game. That switch shone through on the floor as he sped around the Indiana defense and celebrated 3-point hits on his way to a season-high 28 points, six assists, three rebounds and zero turnovers while shooting 10-15 from the floor and 3-7 from deep.
“I was like, ‘Just have fun with it, bro. Don’t think about it too much,’” Henderson recalled. “ … It’s easy to kind of get in your head, but for me, it’s just getting back to being me.”
Scoot’s breakout was one of many fun storylines at Moda on Sunday. Blazers All-Star Deni Avdija returned after a six-game absence from that bothersome back injury and looked much more like his old self, attacking the defense for 18 points, eight assists and four and-1 finishes. Veterans Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant were dialed in from deep, combining for nine 3-pointers and 21 points apiece. Backup center Robert Williams III was the glue holding together and enhancing every lineup, contributing a hyper efficient 12 points and seven rebounds. Then late in the fourth quarter, with the game well out of reach, Blake Wesley broke a defender’s ankles and linked up with Yang Hansen for a joyous highlight to put a cherry atop it all.
Still, among all the fanfare, the biggest story was Scoot. For better or worse, it seemed like he was always going to be the topic of discussion versus Indiana.
“This is just me being very honest, he can be way better than how he’s playing right now,” Blazers head coach Tiago Splitter said before the game.
That was the context entering Sunday’s matchup after a troubling five-game road trip saw Henderson average just 8.6 points and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 30.2% from the field and 3-26 on 3s. Carrying the burden of expectations that accompanies the No. 3 overall pick, all eyes were on Henderson in the aftermath, speculating if he could turn things around. Then he stepped up amid the noise and delivered.
“I think it was a great bounce-back from him,” Splitter said following the win. “ … The confidence was there.”
Henderson started to find a flow when he scored six straight points to close the first quarter, including his first bucket on a pull-up 3-pointer over Pacers guard Ben Sheppard. Then during his second shift in the second quarter, he broke loose for 13 points on 5-6 shooting and four assists. On a two-for-one sequence just before the end of the half, Henderson buried a deep triple on the first possession. On the second opportunity, he drove hard to the paint and shed his defender with a stepback before sinking a midrange jumper with three seconds left.
Scoot’s big second quarter — featuring blow-by drives, cutting dunks, stepback jumpers, nifty passes and a playmaking steal — overlapped with a 32-14 Blazers run that helped them seize a commanding 69-52 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Henderson didn’t outdo his lofty first-half production, but the solid play continued, along So with the highlights. Scoot blew by Pacers forward Pascal Siakam for a pretty reverse layup and threw a skip-pass dart to Grant for a wide open corner 3. He helped force two shot-clock violations with his hounding on defense. He knocked down the game’s spiritual dagger, burying a 3-pointer with 4:50 left to put Portland up 24.
The 22-year-old looked decisive and dangerous probing the defense on pick-and-rolls and dribble hand-off actions. He penetrated the paint. And he knocked down shots. The performance was a far cry from that difficult road trip where he often looked tentative with the ball in his hands.
“When he plays like that, with that level of intensity and that will to beat his defender, I feel like he’s unstoppable,” Blazers forward Toumani Camara said about Henderson. “I was telling him during the game, I feel like there’s times when he can play a little bit too much with the ball and stuff like that. And he’s too fast and too strong for people to stay in front of him, so he’s just gotta keep playing with confidence.”
Both Camara and Avdija commended Henderson’s confidence, especially in the face of adversity. But they both weren’t surprised by the mentality or the performance. That’s who they know Scoot to be.
“He didn’t play the whole season, and people forget it,” Avdija said. “And it’s very, very hard to jump right into a team you haven’t played with. … You’ve gotta be patient. I think today was a good step for him, and it’s about just stacking days and stacking games right now for him.”
