The Portland Trail Blazers continued their losing streak against elite NBA teams tonight, losing to the Phoenix Suns 120-90. The young, impoverished Portland squad couldn’t handle Phoenix, even without star guards Chris Paul and Devin Booker to worry about.
If you missed the action and want to have an idea of how the game goes, you can check out our quarterly summary here. When you’re done, here are a few more observations from the evening.
Mix and blend
Portland’s rotation at this point is like being on an old roller coaster and hearing them shout, “All skates … All skates …” Portland played 10 players in the first period alone and almost everyone got a chance before the game. done. Head coach Chauncey Billups is quite agnostic about playing time. If your name isn’t Anferny Simons, you’re in the Who’s Playing Carousel carousel.
One of the strong developments of this season is the freedom given to Bilap by the complete lack of EXTERNAL expectations and star players. (Obviously, the team still has internal expectations for how to play.) There’s no one on the list who can’t draw. No one is guaranteed playing time. Nothing goes on these games. He can break into pure basketball, style and effort as the Blazers and their players explore the ability of these players to grow.
Revs
The troika remains Portland’s best indicator of success. It is difficult to stay afloat when the threes do not fall. But the revs have become a strong second lifeline. This violation comes to life when the opponent relinquishes the ball and Portland can escape. When they got stuck in the half-field, pfffffttt.
This is not a sustainable recipe for success. However, some of the principles – vigilance and activity, instantly turning the defense into an attack – may fit well into a more balanced attack one day … hopefully?
Move and … Then what?
In addition to their propensity for complacency during long rounds of zone defense, the Blazers are much more active in defense now than with their veteran stars. They are quick on the feet against penetration and almost always help when the ball goes to the bucket. These features were missing to the point of omission two months ago.
Two major problems remain.
First, their help to the edge is not comparable to the speed of closing the arc by three points. Like their predecessors, this lineup seems capable of making one change in defense, but not two. This leaves them open to the old like the hills driving and moving plates. Phoenix trained targets from a distance all night,
Even when they get to the play – which to their credit, they often do inside the rainbow – they are not able to do much there except to force the aforementioned TO, which does not happen so often. They are not large, long or defensively frightening. They have players who could qualify for one of these adjectives, but there is still no one who is all three. That leads to a lot: “That was good in theory, but in practice … oh, good.”
Watford stretching
Thanks to staff colleague Danny Marang for that.
The Blazers let Trendon Watford stretch a bit, not only planning him to finish the games, but allowing him to catch over the free throw line and initiate dribble hands.
Now, if you can just develop a reverse jumper from there …
Simons against the world
We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating. Every shot that Anferni Simons gets must come with a gold star. Opponents catch him like crazy, forcing the ball everywhere, as long as it’s not in his hands. This is a great practice when one day he becomes an option №1 in a better lineup.
That said, it wasn’t the best night for Simons. He scored just 11 points in a 4-10 shot, albeit 3-4 in the arc. He couldn’t get a clean look — or any look, really — under that kind of pressure.
The other side of the coin
Speaking of compositions …
We did nothing last week except praise the additional Portland players. For the most part, they hit and played smart. They still play smart, but these punches do NOT fall. The difference is quite significant.
This is an integral part of the team’s transition. They will look like a promising team some evenings, completely incapable of others. Anyone who thinks the team has enough infrastructure right now or is even close has to wait ten minutes. This impression will change.
The next great Brandon
Guard Brandon Williams had a good offensive night, shooting 5-8 for 14 points in 15 minutes. He was one of the few Blazers to excel in this department. He left the game with a left hip-pointer, which was unfortunate given the circumstances.
Statistics
Here are some significant statistics tonight:
9 out of 11 Blazers players registered a negative plus-minus. The starting lineup ended with negative two-digit numbers, “led” by Simons with -31 and CJ Eleby with -33. That is a lot.
Portland shoots 38.5% of the field. Phoenix hit even 50.0%.
Portland is forcing 16 turns. Hooray! They performed 19. Boo.
Next
Feel free to add your observations to the comments below! With this level of team, it’s free for everyone anyway. Join and have fun!
Boxscore
The Blazers begin a two-game streak against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. The match starts at 17:00, Pacific.