The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Memphis Grizzlies 98-81 in what was a disturbing and frustrating game. The offense, yet again, betrayed the Blazers tonight as they could not seem to make a single bucket. Memphis is known for their defensive edge, but this seemed to be more on the Blazer end of things rather than Memphis. This loss makes 33-13 on the season, 18-5 at home and 8-6 in January. Hopefully this was just the bad month for Portland this season.

After the Golden State game, Blazer fans were probably thinking it was going to be a fluke. The Blazers were coming home to play against a tough Memphis team, but Portland has shown that their offense can bounce back from poor performances. Unfortunately, the offense did not show up. The Blazers were held to their lowest scoring total in a single game at 81 points. After seeing night in and night out the blazing offense and the high-scoring games, this is uncharted territory. Like in the Golden State game, Portland scored 12 points in the third quarter. In what was their most deadly and effective quarter has turned into their worst enemy in this short stretch.

This game also featured a slow start. The Grizzlies jumped out to a 10-0 lead and held the game firmly from then on. The Blazers would try t0 get back into the game, but they were unable to get consecutive buckets, which is absurd for this team. This game was just the total package. A slow start followed by bad offense, which only magnifies the defensive holes the Blazers have and made this game almost unwatchable. The All-Star break is coming up and the Blazers have played a ton of games up until this point. Fatigue could be a factor. In the Golden State game, it felt more like an off night that an energy effort, but tonight felt like an energy problem. Portland showed up in the fourth quarter defensively, but by then the Grizzlies had an 81-58 lead. That’s right; Portland only had 58 points going into the fourth quarter. Like the Warriors’ game, Portland had opportunities as Memphis went through a couple of drought phases, but could not capitalize.

Another frightening development was the lack of ball movement. It felt as if individual players were trying to get themselves going rather than trying to get other teammates involved. One play comes to mind where Mo Williams drove baseline and had McCollum standing in the corner straight ahead. Portland fans are used to players passing it out to the player for the corner three, but Mo decided to go up with the ball. As you might imagine, he got smothered by Marc Gasol and company and it ended up being a dead play. I do not think this will be a trend, but it was a sign that head coach Terry Stotts and the team need to take a deep breath and rediscover what got them here in the first place.

Look, a lot of things went wrong in this game. This word is used so much for so many different things, but Portland is officially going through another test. This time is different in that their offense has been the issue surprisingly, particularly the three-point shooting. Portland went 4-for-24 from three and shot an abysmal 17%. The three-point shot just has not been there.

Portland went 30-for-87 and shot just 35% from the field. Probably the most positive sign was LaMarcus Aldridge. Two days removed from his worst game of the season he scored 27 points on 11-for-23 shooting and retrieved 16 rebounds. Lillard also showed signs of life as he ended with 16 points on 7-for-16 shooting, 2-for-9 from three and three assists. You have to be encouraged by the bounce-back game from LaMarcus Aldridge. He started out going 6-for-8 in the first quarter and quickly erased the previous game from anyone’s minds.

All you can do is move on. I could keep beating the dead horse, but you get it. The Blazers are going through a rough patch. The interesting bit will be to see how long it lasts. The Blazers will have an extended rest until they take on the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night at the Moda Center. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. PST. The Raptors are the third seed in the eastern conference at the time of this posting. Now, they are only two games over .500, but Kyle Lowry and company have been playing better basketball ever since Rudy Gay got traded to Sacramento (shocker). Can the Blazers get out of this offensive funk? Will they shoot out lights out from three? We shall see. Stay tuned!