The Portland Trail Blazers have sure made it interesting. Considering that the season is only 13 games in, it is interesting to note just how many ways the Blazers have won already. There have been blowout wins (Dallas, Chicago), there have been comebacks where Portland had no business winning the game (Charlotte, New Orleans) and there have been the grind-type games (Brooklyn).
Well, this was probably the worst game Portland has played offensively this season. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Boston Celtics Sunday night 94-88 on the road in Boston. The Blazers improve to 10-3 on the season and Boston falls to 4-8.
Like I said above, this was an ugly, ugly game. Turnovers, the offense not even remotely clicking, baskets that should have easily gone in, but somehow found a way not to. First off, let me say that the Celtics are not great. They have a couple promising young players in Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley. They also have Jeff Green (at 28) and Rajon Rondo in the starting lineup to insert some veteran leadership. However, this team is not quite ready to be considered good.
They play in the weak Eastern Conference and have a good coach in Brad Stevens, but really this team still needs more pieces to compete on a nightly basis.
Portland is starting their first extended road trip of the season playing three games in four nights, but it’s a road trip that Portland should sweep. They are playing all eastern teams and all are under .500. But, Boston was first on the list.
The first quarter was cringe-worthy. Portland did not make their first field goal until 7:16 remaining in the first. The interesting and potentially sad part was the fact that Boston was following suit. After “jumping” out to a 7-0 lead over Portland, they did not make a field goal for three minutes. Portland had ample opportunities to either cut the lead or even take the lead as that was how bad Boston was shooting and playing.
Portland shot 31% from the field and 100% from three. Nicolas Batum and Robin Lopez kept the Blazers on life support as they combined for 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting. LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard combined to go 1-for-12 in the first quarter. LA was getting to his spots and shooting shots that he normally does. It was an off night. The only criticism was the fact that he could have decided to shoot closer to the basket. There were a couple of occasions where he seemed to drift farther away before attempting his jump shot. When trying to get out of a shooting slump, not the best strategy.
Boston shot 39% from the field and 33% from three. Rondo led the way with eight points on 4-for-5 shooting. Sullinger provided seven points on 3-for-5 shooting, 1-for-2.
Despite everything going wrong for Portland and the Blazers essentially playing in the mud, they finished the quarter only down by two. Portland, as bad as they played, were able to keep Boston from truly making the game out of reach.
The second quarter was slightly better in terms of offensive firepower. It was like both teams had a broken down car and it was going to be the team who got it to run first that was going to win. Portland shot 41% from the field and went 0-for-5 for three. Again, the looks were there. The ball movement was better, but the biggest problem was the turnovers. Portland committed five in the quarter, which turned into six points for Boston. LA got his points as he finished with seven in the quarter on 3-for-5 shooting.
Chris Kaman provided offensive firepower throughout as he finished with six points on 2-for-4 shooting and three rebounds in the quarter.
Boston shot 42%, but still did not play incredible basketball. In fact, a person could not say that there was a point in this game where decent basketball was played. It was that bad at times.
Again, though, Portland only got outscored by three and took a three-point play by Lillard into the locker room at halftime.
Portland had an electric third quarter. They shot 58% from the field going 11-for-19. LA had eight points on 3-for-6 shooting and contributed four rebounds. Batum finished with four on 2-for-3 shooting. Perhaps the biggest weapon and help the Blazers got was Steve Blake. He had seven points on 3-for-4 shooting, 1-for-2 from three in the quarter. He had a few impressive crossovers on Evan Turner, who people could tell wanted nothing to do with Blake. Again, this was another game where Blake was in the corner and the opposition forgot about him. It happened twice this game.
Boston, however, kept pace shooting 50% from the field led by Brandon Bass who went 3-for-3 with six points.
The biggest blemish on this quarter was again the turnovers. Portland had six, which contributed to four Boston points. It is not necessarily what the turnovers did to Portland this game, but what it could do to them in the future. If this were a team like the Clippers or the Warriors, those turnovers would have been damaging and maybe even lethal. When points are hard to come by and the offense is a no show, turnovers kill any sort of offense a team can muster, especially the ones that are throwaways.
Portland outscored Boston 28-23 and was finally in the lead thanks to closing the quarter well.
Fun stat, from 4:37 in the third until the end, all eight points were scored by Blake and Kaman. Bench. Production.
The fourth quarter saw Boston go on their last run as they got the game to within four on a Sullinger three with 1:30 remaining, but the Blazers were slowly taking the game over. Watching this game, a fan could tell that once the Blazers figured it out or got as much in rhythm as they could that Boston was not going to be able to keep up. Portland shot 47% from the field and 50% from three. Joel Freeland and Kaman combined for eight points on 4-for-7 shooting and Wesley Matthews did most of his damage in the fourth as he had eight points on 3-for-4 shooting, 2-for-3 from three.
Boston, shot an abysmal 26% from the field and just 27% from three. Again, Portland just slowly crawled over them and got the victory.
Portland’s leading scorer was Aldridge who had 20 points on 7-for-21 shooting, 14 rebounds and one block. LA had a rough night shooting wise, but his rebounding and his ability to get to the line (6-for-7) helped him stay effective and relevant. He started the game going 1-for-8. Not a bad ending point. Portland’s starting lineup did not provide its usual scoring prowess. It was the bench that showed up, which tends to be more difficult on the road. The bench combined for 31 points.
Kaman finished with 16 points on 6-for-13 shooting, eight rebounds and one steal. Blake had his best game as a Blazer. He finished with 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting, 1-for-2 from three and had five assists and two rebounds. It was the bench. Dorell Wright played just six minutes but provided four rebounds and a block.
Lillard, even though he had a bad night shooting-wise, provided nine rebounds and four steals along with five assists. All these players are filling the stat sheets.
The biggest problems, again, were the turnovers. Portland finished with 16, while the Celtics only had eight. Boston had 15 fast break points and scored 16 points off of Portland turnovers. Portland did get their assist total up to 20, but this is a team that averages 24.0 a game. The hustle plays and the rebounding go to Portland. They out-rebounded Boston 55-46.
During a season, a team is going to have games like this where the offense is hard to come by and it is just a matter of taking what a team can get. Portland did that well for the most, but could have made their life a lot easier by not turning the ball over and not allowing Boston to get easy buckets. If Boston had been even slightly better or just had a better shooting night, this would be a different conversation.
Next up, Philadelphia. This team is bad, as in not-have-a-win bad. They currently hold the worst record in the NBA at 0-13. They have not won a game yet and there have not been any that have been close. The closest was in Houston where they only lost by one. Portland should have no difficulty winning. The best-case scenario would be to play this team out in the first half so the starters can get rest. Regardless, Portland needs to take care of business and not give this team life. Stay tuned!