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Jimmy Butler

Portland Trail Blazers

Heat burn Blazers in Portland, 107-98

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda

Tyler Herro had 14 points off the bench while Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo combined for 42 in a solid defensive win for the Miami Heat in Portland.

Damian Lillard was held to 12 points on 3/10 shooting, burying the decent supporting cast of Norman Powell (17 points), CJ McCollum (17), and Enes Kanter (10 on 5/5 from the field).


Photo via Trail Blazers (used with permission)

Photo via Trail Blazers (used with permission)

Jusuf Nurkic made a return to the starting lineup for Portland after missing last night’s game with a minor knee injury, although he was restricted to 25 minutes. Enes Kanter has been putting up historic numbers in his place, and both would miss time in this game.

The Heat were without one of their newest players—Victor Oladipo—who was out with some type of knee problem.

The first quarter was a sloppy one, but the Blazers came out of it with a 31-25 advantage.

The second quarter was ruled by the Heat, though, who took an eight-point lead into halftime. Tyler Herro’s 10 points off the bench complemented Jimmy Butler’s 10 and Bam Adebayo’s 15 well.

Portland has struggled in third quarters this season, and that trend continued tonight. The Heat held a 89-71 lead by the start of the fourth.

A pair of CJ McCollum threes were Portland’s only points from the 6:48 to 2:44 marks in the third. Derrick Jones Jr’s third takeoff of the night was one of the bright spots, while Kanter getting hit in the face and leaving the game was not.

Meanwhile, Dame was struggling. He was only 3/7 by the end of the third, boding bad news for the Blazers. Sure enough, his first three attempts in the final period were all misses, and the Heat soon assumed a 20-point lead.

The bench was in the game with four and a half minutes to go, but they played well against the Heat starters. They were able to whittle the lead to single digits by the end of the game. Final score: 107-98.

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Portland Trail Blazers

Blazers beat Miami Heat, 115-109

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda
Carmelo-Anthony-1.jpeg

On Friday night the Blazers had a game potentially stolen from them against the Utah Jazz. I say potentially because we don’t know what the Jazz would have done with the final nine seconds in the game or what would have happened in overtime.

We should have had the opportunity to find out. It was leaked that Damian Lillard and Terry Stotts would not be fined for talking out against the officials. I’d like to think my text to the commissioner of the league helped that, but I doubt it did.

Tonight the Blazers are back home and facing the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler and former Blazer Meyers Leonard. Andre Iguodala will be suiting up for the Heat tonight in his first game since the NBA Finals last June.

Trevor Ariza gets the Blazers out to a quick 8-3 lead. He’s attacking Duncan Robinson at will. Robinson is not a great defender, he’s strength is shooting the three. Carmelo Anthony gets switched on to Robinson and he bangs him down for an easy basket. Robinson has given up 12 of Miami’s first 14 points to the Blazers.

Damian Lillard hits a three on an ankle-breaking move on Derrick Jones Jr. and gets a three-point play to give the Blazers a seven-point lead. Duncan Robinson and Jones knock down a few threes and the lead is cut down to three just like.

Miami shoots the most threes of any team in the East and they shoot the highest percentage of anyone in the NBA. You would not think that from an Erik Spoelstra led team. Spoelstra is one of the better coaches in the game, so it is to be expected that he would evolve with the players he has.

Sadly, through the first eight minutes, we haven’t seen a lot of Bam Adebayo and Hassan Whiteside banging on each other in the paint. Adebayo made Whiteside expendable and that’s how we ended up with Hassan in Portland. As soon as I type that Whiteside drops a baseline jumper right in Bam’s eye.

Kelly Olynyk, for the most part, has drawn most of Whiteside’s attention on both sides of the court.

Jones shows why he is in the dunk contest this year as he gets a lob from Goran Dragic and dunks all over Wenyen Gabriel. That was so disrespectful in a good way.

The Blazers played one of their best offensive first quarters all season and lead 38-36. Their defense got picked apart by the Heat’s ability to knock down three-pointers from all over. They were 7-15 from three, while Portland was 5-9. Ariza did have 15 points and is making up for getting kicked out of the game against Utah.

Gary Trent Jr. has three fouls early, but he’s still playing the best defense on the perimeter for the Blazers. he had some big steals on Friday against the Jazz. He punked Donovan Mitchell on a couple of those steals Friday night and Mitchell was not happy about it. Trent has a couple of nice buckets tonight. I really do think he’s passed Anfernee Simons. His confidence is through the roof right now. He’s going to be trouble on so many levels come playoff time.

A Jae Crowder three gives the Heat their first lead of the night. I think Crowder is the bigger get from the trade with Memphis. He’s such a white shark out there on the court (I refuse to use pitbull because every pit I know is the sweetest dog in the world) and going to be a great stopper. Pair him with Butler and if Iggy is half the defender he was in the past Miami is going to be tough to beat in the Eastern Conference Playoffs in a couple of months.

Kendrick Nunn is another undrafted guy by the Heat. It seems like half their team is undrafted. Just shows you how good of a coach Spoelstra is.

The game is close and the Heat are shooting pretty well, but the Blazers are playing really good defense for the most part. Hassan Whiteside has three blocks so far in the first half, Trevor Ariza has three steals and Gary Trent Jr. has two. Their rotations have been solid and have contested a lot of the Heat threes. They have allowed some open shots, but less than they normally do.

Gary Trent Jr. is just feeling it. He’s got another three and is the Blazers’ best bench player. He has 13 points off the bench and Ariza has 19 to give the Blazers a 63-60 lead at the half. The Blazers did this without too much for either Dame and CJ. I would like to see Melo light it up in the second half as well.

Damian Lillard hits Carmelo Anthony in the corner for a three. That’s Dame’s fifth assist of the night. Dame is seeing the court better than he ever has in his career. He’s seeing through paper thing creases and getting the ball into places he’s not supposed to for assists. Then his three-point shooting is the just unstoppable right now. He’s got a quick five also in the third period.

I have to think Duncan Robinson is a better defender than he’s showing tonight. I don’t care how well he shoots the three, the amount of points he gives up on the defensive end does not make up for that in any way. The Blazers are attacking and killing him at will on the offensive end.

Dame and CJ have back to back baskets to push the lead up to nine and forcing the Heat to call a timeout. The timeout does not slow down Dame at all and he drills another 30 footer. Blazers are up 86-73.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think Wenyen Gabriel will eventually be a decent role player in this league. You can tell the game is going so fast for him right now. He’s trying to keep up mentally, but pushing himself too much and it’s causing him to make mistakes. When the game slows down for him he will be fine. He’s a good cheap big the Blazers can keep and coach up for a long time.

Dragic kicks out on a three attempt and trips Lillard. Lillard knocks down two free throws and we end the third quarter with the Blazers up 93-83.

Not a great start for the Blazers at the beginning of the fourth. Andre Iguodala forces two turnovers on CJ McCollum and they lead to a Chris Silva dunk and another three by Duncan Robinson. The Blazers’ lead is cut in half in less than a minute.

CJ has been off tonight. He’s not aggressive and he looks tired. Only one more game and he can have a week off.

Blazers are deciding to attack both Iggy and Jae Crowder to start the fourth. Duncan Robinson is on Trevor Ariza and they are not forcing switches on him. Ariza has not scored yet in the second half and I think a quick ISO in the post on Robinson could get him going again. I’m not sure why they are going after Crowder in the past with Carmelo Anthony. Crowder is the wrong guy to ISO.

This attacking of Crowder leads to an offensive foul on Anthony. It’s been way too much ISO in the fourth quarter and this has allowed the Miami Heat to get right back into it. Blazers are only up two after a three from Goran Dragic.

The Blazers do answer back with a three by Gary Trent Jr. He’s 4-6 from three tonight and shooting 70% from the floor overall. Dame then follows it up with a runner and he’s fouled by Iggy. Blazers go up 105-97 with just under five minutes remaining. The last couple of possessions have had a lot of ball movement and the Blazers got an open three and a good runner from Dame.

Terry Stotts is letting Gary Trent Jr. close tonight instead of Melo and this has been a great decision. Trent has played killer defense and his shooting is only matched by Dame at this point. He deserves to start closing out more games.

Damian Lillard drives by Jae Crowder and converts a layup with 25 seconds left to put Portland up 113-108. Crowder shoved him and hit him in the face and no call. Lillard has been getting done dirty by the refs all season long. The dude would be getting 50 a night if he was getting fouls called like he was James Harden.

Miami had four looks at a three to cut the lead to two, but Hassan Whiteside finally gets the rebound for Portland and seals the game and another double-double for the big man on the season.

Damian Lillard had 33, Gary Trent Jr with 22 off the bench, Trevor Ariza had 21, Whiteside with 11 points, 17 boards, and four blocks, Carmelo Anthony had 15, and CJ McCollum at 13. Trent was the only Blazer to score off the bench. He also had four steals.

The Blazers travel to New Orleans on Tuesday night to take on Zion Williamson and the Pelicans.

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Ranking the 2019-20 NBA Small Forwards

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda
Kawhi-Leonard.jpg

These rankings are going to be a little bit different without Kevin Durant sitting at the top. Maybe Kawhi would have knocked him off the top and he could have been number two. We’ll have to see how things shake out next year and if Durant comes back at all for this coming season (doubt it).

30. Troy Brown – Washington Wizards

There have been quite a few Wizards coming in dead last in the rankings here. That’s not a good sign for their season projections. I do think we’ll see a big jump from Mr. Brown this year. I think he has the game to average almost 15 points a game and probably flirt with 7-8 boards a game as well. Would like to see him take the next step defensively as well. He’s got quick hands and decent footwork.

29. Andre Roberson – Oklahoma City Thunder

It’s almost been two years since Roberson has been on a basketball court. His knee pretty much exploded. People say he looks good in his recent scrimmages, but there is no way he’s the lockdown defender he once was when he comes back. He better have worked on that jump shot while he was out.

28. Justin Jackson – Dallas Mavericks

I am not sure what we are going to get out of Jackson this year or even he’ll finish the year as the starter in Dallas. The Mavs have the personnel to run a good three-guard lineup and move Luka Doncic to the three full time.

27. Kelly Oubre Jr. – Phoenix Suns

Inconsistent. That is the one word that you can say about Oubre. He has a ton of potential, but he’s never been able to put the mental game together to match his physical game.

26. OG Anunoby – Toronto Raptors

Poor Anunoby. The man who has been tasked in replacing Kawhi Leonard. Anunoby isn’t a bad player, but he’s not a top-level player at the position. I really like the kid though. He’s a ball of energy. I think he gets to double figures most nights in scoring this year and his defense should be decent.

25. De’Andre Hunter – Atlanta Hawks

I don’t quite know how to rank Hunter yet. He was a little up and down in the preseason (which rookies isn’t). This ultimately might be too low for him. The Hawks are for sure going to be a nightly watch on League Pass though.

24. Kyle Anderson – Memphis Grizzlies

This actually is probably too high for Anderson. He’s a solid defender and after five years his offensive game has never really developed as it should have. He has a ton of skill and potential, but I’m not sure if he’s going to reach it.

23. Glenn Robinson III – Golden State Warriors

This was projected to Alfonzo McKinnie, but he is now no longer with the team and I’m stuck in traffic at the time of this publishing.

22. Nicolas Batum – Charlotte Hornets

We’ve seen a steady decline in Batum over the last few years. He’s probably the best scoring threat outside of Rozier on the Hornets roster. Maybe?

21. Taurean Prince – Brooklyn Nets

Prince will hold down the fort until Durant returns. Again, another guy with a ton of potential and now that he’s got a good point guard in Kyrie he might be able to bring something to the table.

20. Jonathan Isaac – Orlando Magic

Points improved last year for Isaac, but his three-point shooting went down (he took more and therefore missed more) a couple points, but nothing to be worried about there. Isaac should take another jump up in the scoring and also start to become a little bit more of a lockdown defender.

19. Kevin Knox – New York Knicks

Knox should a lot of promise as a rookie, but it’s the Knicks and well. God knows what is going to happen next there. He’ll probably be traded for Gallinari, who will then sign with Denver in July.

18. Tony Snell – Detroit Pistons

As long as Snell keeps this starting job he should average double figures for the Pistons. He showed flashes of good defense last year, hopefully Casey can get a little bit more out of him this year.

17. Andrew Wiggins – Minnesota Timberwolves

I probably should have put Wiggins at #30 to appease the internet basketball community. He can be a good scorer, but he doesn’t care at all about playing defense. He needs to get the mental portion of his game figured out and soon.

16. Otto Porter – Chicago Bulls

I’ve been a fan of Porter since his Georgetown days. Year after year he continues to improve and get better. He should have a career year with the Bulls this year.

15. Brandon Ingram – New Orleans Pelicans

Will Ingram finally live up to being worthy of the #2 pick in the draft in 2016. He’s another person with a ton of potential, but for some reason or another hasn’t put it all together. With Zion being out for a few weeks he’s going to be able to work on his chemistry with Jrue Holiday and hopefully become a solid second option for Nola this year.

14. Rodney Hood – Portland Trail Blazers

I think we get a big season from Hood. After a slow start in Portland (and his career), we should see a big jump in his scoring and in his rebounding this coming season. As the year goes along he’s going to get better and better with Dame and CJ.

13. Will Barton – Denver Nuggets

Barton is this high because of the potential he has. He’s often hurt, but when he plays he’s good. The bad thing here is both Torrey Craig and Michael Porter Jr. are breathing down his neck for PT. If he gets hurt and misses an extended amount of time he’s probably will not get his starting gig back.

12. Cedi Osman – Cleveland Cavaliers

We should see another jump from Osman this coming season. It’s hard not to cheer for this kid.

11. Harrison Barnes – Sacramento Kings

Barnes might have found a home in Sacramento. He’s never lived up to the hype he had coming out of UNC (unfounded if you ask me) and has been ostracized by each fan base that he’s played for. I think he’s finally in a comfortable situation and we should see him post nearly 20 points per game this coming season.

10. Eric Gordon – Houston Rockets

The dude gets buckets. Not sure how many chances he’ll get with both Westbrook and Harden dominating the ball on most possessions, but when he gets the chance he’ll let it fly and knock down threes.

9. Joe Ingles – Utah Jazz

Ingles is one of the better defenders at the position and gets in the head of opponents really well. Look how he destroyed Playoff P two years ago for verification. We could see an uptick in scoring from Joe this year, but his value is guarding the toughest wings in the league.

8. Gordon Hayward – Boston Celtics

Hayward is this high because I think he’s going to have a big bounce back year without Kyrie. He’s going to mesh a lot better with Kemba and play well with both Tatum and Brown. I predict he’ll lead the Celtics in scoring this coming season and play some kinda okay defense.

7. T.J. Warren – Indiana Pacers

Warren is going to get lots of buckets in Indiana this year. While Oladipo is out he’s going to be the main scoring threat for the Pacers. He had some scary good moments in the preseason and I think that will carry over to the regular season. It’ll be interesting to see how he meshes with Oladipo when he returns.

6. Khris Middleton – Milwaukee Bucks

Middleton got paid and I think he’s going to play up to that contract. He should be an All-Star going forward. Middleton should average over 20 points a game this year and play pretty good defense on the perimeter. Giannis will make his job easier in the scoring department.

5. DeMar DeRozan – San Antonio Spurs

It seemed like he had a hard time adjusting to life in San Antonio last year. He still put up numbers, but they were much quieter than they were in Toronto. I watched quite a lot of Spurs games last year and he seemed to disappear for long stretches of time and Pop pulled him in weird moments when you think he’d be on the floor to close out a contest. I think we’ll see him have a big bounce back.

4. Tobias Harris – Philadelphia 76ers

He should be the second scorer for the Sixers this season. With Embiid and Horford holding down the paint he won’t have to worry about battling for too many rebounds and focus more on his defense and scoring.

3. Jimmy Butler – Miami Heat

Probably the second-best two way player in all of the league. After having to share the workload in Minnesota and Philly last year, Butler now has his own team. He’ll be the Heat’s only real scoring option to start the season.

2. LeBron James – Los Angeles Lakers

Man, there has been no better for so long. For the first time ever LeBron looked mortal and the Lakers missed the playoffs because of it. He had to carry a lot last season with some inconsistent teammates. Outside of Anthony Davis things won’t change much, but for the first time ever we could see LeBron embrace a second fiddle status behind Davis.

1. Kawhi Leonard – Los Angeles Clippers

He’s the best two-way player in all of the league. He should be an MVP candidate, but the load management will keep him from being a serious contender.

Other posts in this series:

Ranking the 2019-20 coaches
Ranking the starting centers
Ranking the starting power forwards
Ranking the starting shooting guards
Ranking the starting point guards

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