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Blazers let Game 3 slip away to Lakers, 116-108

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda

Thursday night the Portland Trail Blazers did not show up to play in Game 2 against the Los Angeles Lakers. The whole Blazer team looked tired, disinterested, and like they spent all day before the game drinking of CJ McCollum’s wine. There was zero excuse for their poor effort.

Game 3 started off a lot differently. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were red hot in the first quarter, leading the Blazers to a four point lead in the first, but after that the Lakers chipped away at the Blazers with a big 29 point half by LeBron James, and then the inability to stop Anthony Davis in the third and fourth quarters led them to a 116-108 victory.

Portland was outscored by 15 in the second half until Gary Trent Jr. and CJ made a couple baskets that didn’t really matter.

Blazers had 34 from Lillard, 26 from CJ, and a big 20 from Melo.

LeBron had 38 and Anthony Davis had 29, 25 coming in the second half.

First Quarter Thoughts

Portland’s defense looks a lot more active early. They are forcing the Lakers into bad passes and playing strong in the lane. Anthony Davis isn’t getting easy looks like last game with both Jusuf Nurkic and Hassan Whiteside starting side by side tonight. I have worries about that lineup when they move Davis to the five and have four other shooters on the floor. On Thursday night Terry Stotts did not counter that lineup at all and the Lakers killed Portland from the three point line. Stotts isn’t known for his in game adjustments, but he has to be better at this in Game 3.

Damian Lillard does not look injured at all. He’s got his left index finger taped up to his middle finger. His shot looks so pure tonight. So far it has the perfect arc, perfect rotation, and it’s coming from everywhere on the floor.

Terry Stotts is also making the Blazers run some offense tonight. They aren’t just running high pick and rolls, but there are a lot of back door screens, double screens off the ball, and this has freed up CJ McCollum for easier looking shots. CJ is 3-4 with an early seven points. He’s only averaging 17 for the series, so this is big for Portland.

The Blazers defense tonight is a lot more active. They are helping, but not getting out of position. Lillard has really active hands and he is the one doubling on Anthony Davis. This is making Davis uncomfortable and he’s having issues controlling the ball.

It appears that Stotts does have a strategy with lineups tonight. It looks like Carmelo Anthony is matching LeBron, while when the Lakers move Davis to the five we are seeing a center and four guys who can cover the perimeter. I expected Stotts to make some of these moves tonight, but I didn’t think they’d be this smart. I half expected him to double-down and maybe run a third center out there for some reason.

Portland looked good while all the starters were out there, but when Mario Hezonja came into the game things changed. And not for the better. Portland’s bench only had two points in the combined 14 minutes they were out there in the first quarter.

Lillard had 14 points and Blazes led 29-25 after the first quarter.

Second Quarter Thoughts

Portland and CJ ran an ISO play to start the quarter and to my surprise CJ knocked down a three. He did it again a minute later and CJ has 13 already for the night. The Lakers were playing JR Smith mostly on him to start the quarter, but after eight points in two minutes the Lakers move the younger and more athletic Kyle Kuzma over to CJ. CJ proceeded to miss his next two shots.

LeBron James is looking to control this game with his scoring. He’s attacking all levels of the Blazers defense and has been to the line eight times already. The rest of the Lakers are not making shots at the moment.

James is not letting Gary Trent Jr. guard him on the outside tonight. He’s taking him right to the post every single time tonight. James proceeds to deliver body shot after body shot to Trent. Portland has helped well. Anfernee Simons had a solid steal on a James post up that led to Carmelo Anthony getting his first basket of the night.

Anthony has been playing some good defense tonight. He’s been really good keeping Anthony Davis in check tonight. He’s making Davis do the exact opposite of what he normally wants to do. He’s really getting jammed up tonight.

Portland is pushing the ball a little bit more than normal off Laker misses. This has led to some easier baskets for the Blazers. The latest being a four on two that results in a wide open Damian Lillard letting Anthony Davis wildly fly by him and knocking down a wide open three pointer.

Lillard is also playing inside a little bit more than normal. He’s posted up Alex Caruso a few times already with some solid success. He’s taking a page out of Melo’s playbook and it’s working out. he then attempted to see if Anthony Davis had a pulse and tried to dunk on him like Shawn Kemp did to Alton Lister back in the 90’s.

Davis blocked the dunk, but it was really aggressive and I’m here for it.

We’re shaping up to see a game of superstars. So far only LeBron James is the only one doing anything for the Lakers and CJ and Dame are the only one’s doing anything for the Blazers. All the role players for both teams are not doing anything in their roles.

The Lakers shot 31 (missing 11) free throws compared to the Blazers eight in the half. Haven’t seen this big of a free throw disparity since Game 7 of the 1993 Western Conference Finals.

Third Quarter Thoughts

The Lakers immediately hit a three to open third quarter scoring. LeBron hits another on the next possession and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hits his second of the quarter to give the Lakers a 67-64 lead three and a half minutes into the third quarter.

Jusuf Nurkic showed some aggressiveness on a huge dunk where he was hit multiple times. It should have been an And-1, but since Nurk wasn’t wearing purple jersey it was not a foul. The reffing has been an absolute joke and heavily favored to the Lakers side for the entire series.

LeBron James picked up the fourth foul on Carmelo Anthony early and after that Melo seemed to get really upset. He knocked down a corner three and then hit five straight mid range jumpers to get him 13 quick points in the corner. I don’t think any of his shots hit the net.

Not only is Melo having a solid scoring night, but his passing has been top notch too. He’s had some gorgeous passes that resulted in dunks for both Nurk and Whiteside.

The Lakers are getting Anthony Davis rolling in the third quarter. The Blazers are playing off him because they are scared to even touch him because every time they have they have been called for a foul. They are letting him take uncontested jumpers and he’s hitting them unlike the first half. Going to need some sort of change going into the fourth quarter. They aren’t being as physic
al or switching with him like they did in the first half. That’s what got him out of sorts, and of course the Blazers don’t continue with something that works.

Lillard had a quick eight points in the final minutes of the third quarter to keep the Blazers in it. He kept the lead from being in double-digits. If it wasn’t for him the Lakers would be looking to close things out early in the fourth.

Fourth Quarter Thoughts

Jusuf Nurkic has been absent for most of this game. He came into the fourth with only four points and four rebounds in 23 minutes. He had been a crucial part of the Blazers throughout the seeding games and the play-in against Memphis. Against the Lakers he has been pretty much a non-factor. The Blazers rely on him for rebound, defense, and at least 15 points a game. For whatever reason he hasn’t been able to do that against the past their prime JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard.

The Blazers really do need Nurk to step up for the rest of this series. He’s letting guys guide him out of the lane. They aren’t even pushing him or shoving him. He’s allegedly the Bosnian Beast. He needs to be in there crushing ribs and making things hard on opposing big on both sides of the court.

So far in the fourth he has a big rebound, a changed shot, and two big dunks.

The Lakers continue to get easy baskets in the quarter. Dwight Howard has two dunks and Anthony Davis has another one. Two of the dunks were uncontested.

The Blazers, Nurk especially, continued to let Anthony Davis take wide open 15-20 foot jumpers. He wasn’t hitting any rim on any of the shots. He went from not being able to find the bottom of the net in the first half because the defense was different each time he touched the ball. The second half the Blazers played off his front and let him shoot jumpers which he happily hit.

The game really started to break down in the fourth quarter. Both teams really had a hard time knocking down shots late. They both looked tired and there was a points in the game where only three guys for each team made it across half court. One time it was three on three for about twenty seconds.

The effort from the Blazers in the fourth was just pathetic. They usually bounce back after bad third quarters, but they looked gassed once again. The lack of depth is really starting to get to them.

Next Up

Game 4 is on Monday at 6:00 PM PST.

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Blazers no show in Game 2 against Lakers

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda

The Portland Trail Blazers were riding high after a big game one victory, so high in fact they forgot to show up to play Game 2 on Thursday night. They never were really in the game after the first six minutes of the game.

Anthony Davis dominated and Damian Lillard dislocated his finger.

There’s not much to really say about how bad this one was. Blazers lose 111-88.

First Quarter Thoughts

Everyone knew that LeBron James was going to come and push the offense. That’s exactly what he did. He got a couple of quick baskets and then started looking to get his teammates involved and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope rewarded him by knocking down two three pointers and JaVale McGee had a couple of easy dunks.

Portland played the entire first quarter flat footed on defense and it left them scrambling all over the court to chase shooters. The Lakers were only 2-8 in the quarter on threes, but that could have been a hell of a lot worse. Alex Caruso, Markieff Morris, and Kyle Kuzma each had wide open looks for three.

Carmelo Anthony came out really strong and attacked LeBron James early and often. Melo was only 1-4 in the quarter, but he made James work on defense and put some body shots into LeBron. Those will come in handy later in the game…. maybe. LeBron James is a freak of nature athlete.

In the middle of the quarter Damian Lillard started to heat up. He got eight points in about a minute and a half. The next possession CJ McCollum comes down and dribbles for 23.9 seconds without a pass, and takes a contested 22 footer. This seems to happen a lot. Way too much.

Blazers don’t hit 20 in a quarter for the first time in the restart.

Second Quarter Thoughts

The poor Portland defense has come out again in the second quarter. They are letting the Lakers run a layup line to start the quarter. There is zero rotation and zero help off the high screen and rolls. The Laker bigs aren’t even rolling they are staying stationary and LeBron and Kuzma are taking it right to the basket.

Gary Trent Jr. continues to show why he should be starting next to Damian Lillard next season. He’s picking up LeBron James full court, banging with him, and still able to knock down shots on top of it. He’s turning out to be an unexpected special player. He has the edge to be a top defender in the league and his shot is so pure.

Terry Stotts had some really intriguing lineups. He ran with a three guard and two center lineup against a four guard and a small forward. The Lakers of course killed the Blazers on just about everything they ran on offense.

Outside of Damian Lillard and Gary Trent Jr. no one could do anything for the Blazers on offense.

Then there was Anthony Davis. He has been allowed to go over the back on rebounds on both ends of the court, run into guys and draw fouls that should have been on him. I have lost all respect for the man over the last 12 months plus.

There has been nothing good about this first half.

Third Quarter Thoughts

The third quarter is usually the Blazers worst quarter and it has been no different tonight. This might be the epitome of a bad quarter. Their rotations were slow and non-existant, they couldn’t make a shot from anywhere. They were simply gassed.

Damian Lillard might have broken his left index finger.

Blazers down thirty.

Fourth Quarter Thoughts

This quarter was played by all bench players for the most part. Jaylen Adams and Jaylen Hoard got their first minutes of the restart.

Every Blazer on the active roster scored tonight.

Next Up

Game Three against the Lakers is on Saturday at 5:30 PM on ABC.

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Lillard and Blazers beat the Lakers and refs, 100-93

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda

The Portland Trail Blazers played some of the best basketball through the first eight seeding games. Carmelo Anthony found his old self, Gary Trent Jr. was a superstar in the making. Through the first three quarters the Blazers battled the Lakers and the refs.

Damian Lillard would not let the Blazers fold. He led all scorers with 34.

First Quarter Thoughts

Wenyen Gabriel is getting the start for the injured Zach Collins. Gabriel is not going to be on the floor long, he does have foul trouble issues, but in the minutes that he’s there he will frustrate whoever he is guarding. He’s been under the skin of Anthony Davis early. He’s not giving AD any room to shoot, making hustle blocks, racing out for huge dunks.

He’s done more in four and half minutes than Zach Collins has done in eight games.

He did pick up two quick fouls, but did make a huge impact early in there.

Carmelo Anthony and Damian Lillard got going early too. They were able to take advantage of a terrible Lakers starting backcourt. Lillard and Anthony both took Danny Green, the Lakers best perimeter defender, to task. Baiting him into a three point foul and then Carmelo backing him down into the paint from 28 feet away.

So far both LeBron and Davis have been content to kick the ball out to “shooters” for the Lakers. This is not paying off at all. The Lakers are 0-8 from three in the first ten minutes of the game. Portland continues to switch decently well and force the Lakers into tough shots. The Lakers run a lot of ISO with both AD and LeBron. This is not the game they want to play, they like to get their offense set. Portland is making things very chaotic for the Lakers on offense.

This might be the best quarter of defense the Blazers have played since the restart.

Frank Vogel attempting to put Alex Caruso is just laughable. He doesn’t have the foot speed to stay in front of Dame, so he gave up a couple layups from Dame and then when he played off he gave up a three. Lakers started trapping Lillard toward the sideline. This is going to leave either Carmelo Anthony or Gary Trent Jr. open for a three.

Blazers took a 36-25 lead into the second quarter.

Second Quarter Thoughts

Something to watch throughout the series is who is guarding Carmelo. It doesn’t appear that the Lakers want to put either LeBron James or Anthony Davis on him. Anthony is has scored easily on Danny Green, Kyle Kuzma, and Markieff Morris. Melo did the same back down and turn around move on each play and had the same result.

LeBron James decided to start taking over the game at this point. He started attacking the rim, the Blazers started to collapse all five players around him, so he started finding shooters who then started knocking down shots. The Lakers went on a 13-1 run with all of Portland’s ten points coming from the foul line in the first six minutes of the quarter.

The Lakers are a much better team when LeBron gets everyone else’s confidence up.

Everything slowed down when Dwight Howard tilted the rim. It continued to slow down as Anthony Davis started to get to the line on just about every Laker possession. He had three fouls called against the Blazers by dropping a shoulder into a set Blazer defender. The refs were terrible in the second quarter. If a Blazer breathed on Davis a foul was called, but then he gets away with hitting both Melo and Nurk on shots with nothing called.

This quarter really felt like a Knicks-Bulls battle from the early 90s, but with more foul calls. There have been 47 free throws shot in the first half of this game. The refs got way too whistle happy and did not let a flow develop in the second quarter.

The Blazers did shoot seven more free throws than the Lakers in the half, but it really felt the other way. Both teams both had 16 fouls called on each other too. It was such a hard quarter to watch and follow.

The Blazers need to not let the third quarter slip away from them like always.

Third Quarter Thoughts

CJ McCollum started the third quarter extra aggressive. He really needs to get going in the game and he hit a big three to open up the scoring in the half and then a pull up jumper at a lunging Anthony Davis. He has looked shifty in this quarter, the Lakers can’t stay in front of him this quarter.

The suspect officiating continues. Anthony Davis literally jumped on top of Wenyen Gabriel for an offensive rebound, then jumped on his again as he went back up and Gabriel picked up his fifth foul of the game. The refs are letting Anthony Davis get away with everything this game.

Portland has had excellent ball movement in the quarter. They are moving the ball around and finding open shooters. They haven’t been able to knock down the open shots, but they have moved away from ISO ball. CJ has eleven points in the first eight minutes of the quarter.

This third quarter has not been pretty at all. The Lakers have played down to the Blazers third quarter standards. Through the first nine minutes the Blazers have outscored the Lakers 17-13. Both teams are not shooting well at all and each team is both under ten turnovers for the whole game. The defense has not been great by either team. This is such a weird game so far.

Quarter ends sloppily, but Portland actually won a third quarter. They outscored the Lakers by two, 21-19, and take a 78-75 lead into the fourth quarter.

Again, this was such a weird quarter.

Fourth Quarter Thoughts

The fourth quarter is not starting off much better. The Lakers made their big run when Lillard was on the bench to start the second and they tie the game on a Kuzma corner three. This immediately gets Lillard up off the bench. He got less than five minutes of total rest between the end of the third and checking back in with 10:12 left in the quarter.

The fourth has been all Kyle Kuzma. He’s attacking with abandon and Portland can’t stop him. He gives the Lakers a six point lead with just over eight minutes to play. Portland looks spent and has no answer for anything that the Lakers are doing right now.

With the 11-0 run it looked like the Lakers were ready to put this game away. That is when Damian Lillard hit two straight three pointers to tie the game and CJ a possession later gave the Blazers a 89-87 lead with a gorgeous mid range jumper.

WIth under five minutes left Anthony Davis and LeBron James missed four consecutive free throws that could have given the Lakers the lead.

Damian Lillard hits a 37 foot three to give the Blazers a three point lead with under three minutes left. Melo follows that up with another huge fourth quarter three pointer. Carmelo needs to be re-signed by the Blazers right now for next year. Figure out the roles later. He’s a great fit on this team.

Next Up

Blazers take a 1-0 lead into Thursday (8/20). Tip is just after 6:00 PM PST.

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Damian Lillard drops 51 as Blazers edge Sixers, 124-121

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda

The Blazers are coming off a tough loss to the Los Angeles Clippers yesterday afternoon and have to turn around and take on the Philadelphia 76ers less than 24 hours. Both teams came into the game with three wins a piece. The Sixers will finish somewhere between the four and six seeds in the East.

Portland came into the game fractions of percentage points ahead of both the San Antonio Spurs and the red hot Phoenix Suns. It’d be cliche to say that this is a must win game against Philadelphia but this a must win game against Philadelphia.

The Suns and Spurs both have favorable schedules going forward and the Blazers only have two games left after today. One against a really explosive Dallas team and the last against a depleted, yet dangerous Brooklyn Nets.

With both Simmons and then later Embiid out, the Blazers got a big 124-121 win.

First Quarter Thoughts

Early on we saw the game plan from the Blazers immediately. Lots of high screens from Blazer bigs that freed up Damian Lillard to attack the rim at will. Both Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins did a great job of setting these high screens and then popping to the three point line to draw the defenders. This left Lillard with a wide open path to the basket. This was big in helping the Blazers get an early double digit lead.

One of my big fears was Jusuf Nurkic picking up quick fouls while guarding Joel Embiid. Fears were realized in the first 47 seconds of the game. Nurk picked up two quick fouls and will spend quite a bit of time on the bench. Embiid a few minutes later ended up tweaking his knee or ankle when he crashed into the stanchion.

Without Hassan Whiteside that means that Wenyen Gabriel would get a lot of minutes in the first half. Gabriel is a hustler and wants to earn his spot in the NBA. He did pick up a couple of quick fouls, but did have a steal, a rebound, three points, and played some really solid defense. He took away a couple of easy baskets by the Sixers.

Lillard continued to dominate the Sixers to a tune of 14 points in the quarter. This came without hitting a single three pointer or an outside jumper. He did have two old fashioned three point plays.

Both teams looked tired and played incredibly sloppy throughout the first quarter. The teams had seven combined turnovers while the Blazers shot 12 of 25 and the Sixers shot 6 of 24.

Portland had a 33-19 lead heading into the second.

Dame had about the craziest shot go in that I have ever seen.

Second Quarter Thoughts

The Sixers did not start off the quarter well. They look incredibly lost out there without Ben Simmons. The offense is stagnant and the passing is god awful. Blazers were able to force a total of five steals, two coming from Mario Hezonja. Those two steals led to a layup for Mario and then one where he dished it to the corner to Gary Trent Jr. for another three.

Trent might be the best overall player in Orlando right now.

Philadelphia started running their offense through Josh Richardson and the Blazers 17 point lead quickly dropped to seven with about six minutes left in the quarter. The Blazers helped a lot by taking a lot of jumpers and missing a lot of jumpers. Their offense was totally out of sync with Lillard going to the bench.

Lillard and Carmelo checked back into the game and started attacking the soft interior of the Sixers and once again finding success. Portland pushed the lead back up to 13, but then started to make some really odd offensive choices and their defense became porous. They had no answer for Richardson. For some reason the Blazers stuck with CJ on Richardson and didn’t let Trent have a crack at him. Trent was on Tobias Harris and kept him quiet while he was the main defender.

Carmelo Anthony moved up to 15th on the NBA’s all time leading scoring list. He needs to score 99 more points to pass Tim Duncan for 14th all time.

Portland was outscored 39-34 in the quarter and went into halftime with a 67-58 point lead.

It’s going to be interesting to see if Terry Stotts stays big as the Sixers are more than likely going to go ultra small to start the second half. Al Horford will be at the five and Harris at the four with three guards. Based on Stotts passed I don’t expect him to make any adjustments. He’s going to keep both Nurkic and Collins out there to guard a three point shooting lineup.

Third Quarter Thoughts

Lillard continued his hot shooting. He had a quick seven points in the first five minutes of the quarter, bringing his total to 29 points for the day. And up to this point he was only 1-7 from three to this point. However, he was 8-8 from the free throw line.

Josh Richardson and Tobias Harris continued to knock down buckets. The Sixers started running the Blazers offense against them with Richardson getting or setting high screens and slipping late for open jumpers. If he got covered he’d dump it down to Tobias Harris for an easy basket.

The Sixers managed to come back and tie the game at 86 with about three minutes left in the quarter. Stotts kept CJ McCollum on Josh Richardson throughout the quarter and CJ is one of the worst defenders on a team of horrible defenders.

The Sixers shot 70% for the quarter and outscored the Blazers 34-24 in the quarter. It looks like Gary Trent Jr. has come back down to earth and the only Blazer able to do anything is Dame with some help from Melo. CJ has once again disappeared in a big game.

Fourth Quarter Thoughts

The fourth did not start off well. Mario Hezonja attempted a step-back three on the Blazers first possession. Philadelphia continued to knock down shots and if it wasn’t for Carmelo Anthony the Blazers could have quickly been down by double digits in the first three minutes of the quarter.

The defense has really come off the rails the last two days. They really could use a Trevor Ariza or Rodney Hood for games like this. And CJ McCollum has been absolutely useless on the defensive end all season. He has the ability to score a lot of points, but his inability to guard anyone almost makes his points scored irrelevant.

Richardson continued to make big threes to push the Sixers lead up. Damian Lillard and Carmelo Anthony kept the Blazers close.

WIth just under three minutes to go Lillard goded Richardson into the air on a three, drawing the foul and converting the free throw to put the Blazers up three, 117-114. Lillard had been short on most of his threes on the day and this one got him zeroed back in. The next trip down he knocked down another three to give the Blazers a six point advantage with about two minutes left in the game.

There isn’t a player in the league with a heart bigger than Damian Lillard.

Al Horford was left wide open with 12 seconds left to hit a three to cut the Blazers lead down to a single point, 122-121. The Blazers three point defense has been so bad throughout the year. They really need to address this in the offseason. Give all the money to the best defensive assistant coach out there. It is absolutely inexcusable that this keeps happening.

Their inability to get stops against a bunch of backups two days in a row is everything you need to know about the Blazers defense.

Blazers were lucky to get out with a win.

Next Up

Tuesday August 11th, against the Dallas Mavericks at 3:30 PM PST.

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Zion Williamson and New Orleans Pelicans blow out the Blazers

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda
Damian-Lillard.jpg

The Portland Trail Blazers are on the road for their final two games before All-Star festivities start up this weekend. They are in New Orleans tonight to take on Zion Williamson and tomorrow night in Memphis to take on Ja Morant. The Blazers are battling both teams for the final playoff spot in the West.

Jrue Holiday is also on the Pelicans and he’s been a notorious Blazer killer over the years.

Portland is opening up by attacking the Pelicans inside with Hassan Whiteside. He has scored on both Derrick Favors and Williamson early, add a Trevor Ariza three and the Blazers are off and running quickly in the first few minutes of the first quarter.

Carmelo Anthony hits a couple of mid-range jumpers and his shot might be coming back around. He’s been pretty cold the last few games. It’s good to see him get flowing in the offense early, that’s a good sign for the rest of the game.

Whiteside is on pace to get a double-double here in the first period. He’s eating Williamson and Favors like a King Cake after a hard night on Bourbon Street. It looks like an intentional move to get Whiteside the ball early to take some pressure off both Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum on the perimeter.

Out of nowhere, the Blazers go on a 17-0 as soon as Gary Trent Jr. checks into the game. Dame only has three points so far, but he does have four assists, CJ hit a couple of threes, a few more points by Anthony. And you win the cash prize for the night if you guessed that Wenyen Gabriel would be the first Blazer to score off the bench.

Anfernee Simons is out of the concussion protocol and into the game tonight. He picks up a foul against J.J. Redick. He’s showing some good hustle out there tonight. He’s in passing lanes and making great passes on the offensive end. Caleb Swanigan is everywhere too. He’s getting big tip outs, rebounds, he’s making excellent switches and closeouts.

The amount of contact Lillard takes on drives is really starting to get to him. He’s getting beat up like Shaquille O’Neal in his prime on the way to the basket and the refs are swallowing the whistle. There is no reason that Damian Lillard shouldn’t be going to the line more than he does. Lillard draws more fouls shots on jumpers than he does from contact in the paint. That’s not how it works.

Despite that, the Blazers are up nine, 36-27 at the end of the first period. That was once again another strong first quarter by the Blazers.

Zion Williamson is the only member of the Pelicans that is doing much of anything in the second quarter. He has ten points in the first five minutes of the period, but the Blazers are using a combo of Carmelo Anthony, CJ McCollum, and Hassan Whiteside to keep the lead above ten points for the Blazers. Whiteside is in the middle of four Pelicans, including Zion, and somehow getting the ball.

With the Blazers doing so well with their bench in it allowed Dame to get about seven and a half minutes of game time rest before he checked into the game. He might have gotten more rest had the Pels not going on a 7-0 run.

The Blazers bench is not outscoring the Pelicans bench, but it feels like they are outplaying them.

And at the end of the second turned into a track meet. Lillard had four points, CJ with a three and the Pelicans were knocking down threes and have cut the Blazers down to two at the half, 65-63. The Blazers’ defense fell apart at the end of the half. They had zero answers for Zion Williamson and Jrue Holiday.

I missed why Holiday started the third quarter shooting a technical foul shot. The Pelicans are out and running hard to start the third. Zion Williamson is doing things only he can do, Josh Hart knocks down a three and Terry Stotts is forced to call a timeout in the first four and a half minutes of the quarter.

The Pelicans picked up right where they left off in the second quarter. The Blazers are on their heels defensively and over-rotating. That is if they can even get into a defensive set. The Pelicans have eight fast-break points already in the quarter.

Damian Lillard does not have a three tonight. He has really been close. They have been hard bricks. He’s been attacking the basket more and getting more points in the paint tonight, but he’s not getting the calls that he should be getting.

Zion Williamson is abusing the entire Blazers’ front line in the quarter. He’s sealing off Hassan Whiteside, Trevor Ariza, and Carmelo Anthony and getting easy dunks. He’s got 20 points in the last 10 minutes he’s been on the court. This is the first time I’ve really had a chance to watch him this season, I’ve seen highlights and the dude is just a highlight. He’s as advertised.

And the wheels are coming off. Favors and Holiday both hit Dame in the head on a drive, of course there wasn’t a call. This leads to Lonzo Ball running over CJ and then Redick hitting a three. Pels push the lead up to up over 20 and outscore the Blazers 41-21 in the third and trail by 18 heading into the fourth quarter.

I wish I wasn’t sick so I could drink some wine.

The fourth quarter was played by the Blazers’ backups. Moses Brown and Jaylen Hoard got some extended minutes after being called up from the G-League earlier in the day.

Lillard and CJ each had 20 points, Anthony had 18, Whiteside had 17 and 14.

The Blazers take on the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow at 5 PM.

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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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Blazers beat Los Angeles Lakers in their first game since the death of Kobe Bryant

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda
Damian-Lillard-Kobe-Bryant-scaled.jpeg

For the first time since the death of Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers took the court against the Portland Trail Blazers. Being down in LA in the days after I’ve never seen the city more together and more unified. The love the entire city of Los Angeles, Southern California — hell, the world has shown for Kobe, Gianna, and the other seven people who perished on that mountainside on Sunday.

Kobe Bryant decal on the court at Staples Center.

The city is more lit up than the entire holiday of Christmas. There is more purple and gold all over Los Angeles than a victory parade. Usher did an amazing rendition of “Amazing Grace” as the start of the tribute to Kobe. Spotlights showed brightly on the retired jerseys of #8 and #24 up in the rafters of Staples. Ben Hong then played the background cello as a highlight video of Kobe played.

I don’t know why, but this all feels way to surreal. It’s hard to imagine that Kobe Bryant is gone. I wasn’t a fan of Kobe growing up, but seeing him evolve from an arrogant kid to an amazing father and Oscar winner. Being a Sonics fan and watching him destroy the Sonics over and over again. Like the time he dropped the eight three-pointers (a record at the time) in the middle of his feud with Ray Allen.

It’s time for the game.

The Lakers win the tip and LeBron James takes the 24-second violation to start the game. Damian Lillard took the 8-second violation. There is this weird energy to start the game. The Lakers are definitely off. The building is pretty quiet to boot. I thought things would be a lot more raucous.

A note that Carmelo Anthony did not travel with the team tonight as he is grieving still. Wenyen Gabriel got the start in his stead tonight. He’s playing really hard tonight. I’ve always liked this kid’s game. He will be a solid role player

Lillard and CJ McCollum have started off the game by attacking the middle of the Lakers’ defense. Getting in and around the paint to make some easy baskets to get themselves an early lead. LeBron and Anthony Davis combine for a couple of dunks and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hits a three to give the Lakers a 23-19 lead with just over three minutes left in the first quarter.

Nassir Little checks into the game and hits back to back threes. His shot has really been improving as the season has gone on. I knew he was raw and it’d take a little time for him to adjust to the speed of the game. He’s definitely the starting small forward of the future. He might not be a superstar, but I have a feeling he’s going to be really good.

Anthony Davis has his shot dialed in. He has 18 points in the first quarter. He’s doing this with tears in his eyes.

CJ McCollum knocks down a three and the Blazers have a two-point lead, 38-36 lead after one.

The second quarter has not started well. It’s a lot like the start of the first quarter. Things are off. LeBron James outside of two dunks is not playing like the normal LeBron. He has six assists and is finding Dwight Howard abusing Caleb Swanigan in the paint for two of those.

This second quarter has been pretty painful to watch. The Lakers have thrown no less than seven passes straight to the Blazers in the first half. It’s bad. It’s not like miscommunication either. It seems like they are deliberately passing the Blazers the ball. LeBron has missed a few easy layups too.

Side note: What the hell is Kyle Kuzma doing with his hair?

Now that Damian Lillard is back in the game the Blazers are scoring points again and have retaken the lead at 58-56. A crap call on Trevor Ariza allows Avery Bradley to sink two free throws to give the Lakers a 62-60 lead at the halftime. Blazers did a great job limiting what Anthony Davis did in the second quarter, holding him to only two points.

There was a scary moment just before the half where Davis did block a Damian Lillard shot. Lillard went hard to the ground and looked like his head bounded off the court. Upon replay review, it didn’t, but he did land hard.

Damian Lillard collects himself after a hard shot from Anthony Davis. Photo courtesy of Bruce Ely.

We start the third quarter with a dunk by Hassan Whiteside for a dunk to tie the game at 62 and LeBron answers with a three. Wenyen Gabriel delivers a great hustle play that leads to Damian Lillard tying it up at 65. Man, Staples feels like a, and I’m sorry for saying this, a morgue.

Logo Lillard has shown up in LA, he knocks down two long-range threes to get the Blazers a five-point lead. Mario Hezonja checks in and Terry Stotts puts him on Anthony Davis who scores seven of the next ten points of the game. Danny Green scored the other three thanks to a foul from Hezonja.

I always want Hezonja to be good, he has the talent to be good. We have seen flashes of him being good. He got drafted top five. With about four minutes left in the third, he blows a wide-open layup. Like wide open and the ball wasn’t even remotely close to going in. The Blazers need to find someone to take Mario’s minutes at the deadline.

Maybe we can get a little more Nassir Little.

The refs are off in this quarter. Lillard got fouled hard on three straight possessions, twice going to the basket and he took a charge which was called a block. He then got mad. Like real mad.

How mad?

That’s how mad he got. He then got a four-point play and hit another three to give the Blazers another lead. At this point, he has 23 points in the quarter and 42 for the game. He has erupted since he got the technical foul. The Lakers have resorted to triple-teaming him as soon as he comes across the halfcourt line. This allows for Gary Trent Jr. to get a wide-open shot from 16 feet and the Blazers are the first to 100.

The Blazers take a 103-96 lead into the fourth quarter. The lead should have been bigger, but a dumb play by Swanigan allowed Davis to get a four-point play and Kyle Kuzma (and his stupid hair) is killing the Blazers on the offensive glass.

What we have learned, well should have learned is not to make Damian Lillard mad. My wife says Portland is being a little rude beating up on the Lakers in the game.

Blazers push their lead up to 12 in the first three minutes of the fourth. The Lakers continue to look out of sorts. It’s not like they had been playing all that great before the death of Kobe Bryant.

Pope, Kuzma and LeBron James have cut the lead down to three. Damian Lillard is now back in the game. This is a typical Blazers game this year. They have not been able to sustain leads when Lillard is on the bench. You know the other team is going to make a run when Dame is on the bench. You just hope it’s not too big and Lillard has enough gas to finish out the game.

Hassan Whiteside is having another quiet 22 points, 10 rebounds, and five block night. He’s been so solid for the Blazers this year. He should be the defensive player of the year.

Kyle Kuzma has been a menace all night for the Lakers. He’s been the biggest reason that the Lakers are not down more than twenty in the fourth. Anthony Davis is having a big scoring night, but Kuzma is making all the big rebounds and getting crucial baskets.

The Lakers kept making plays to get themselves back into the game, but the Blazers always had an answer. A Hassan Whiteside fadeaway 15-foot baseline jumper put the Blazers up 125-117 with 52 seconds remaining. Lillard puts the Blazers up 10 with 30 seconds left to seal the win.

Damian Lillard 48 points, 10 boards, and nine assists, Whiteside had 30, 12, and five, CJ had 19, and Gary Trent Jr. had 10 off the bench. Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 37.

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Damian Lillard scores 61 in win over the Golden State Warriors

by Kevin Nesgoda
written by Kevin Nesgoda
Damian-Lillard-scores-61-against-the-Warriors-scaled.jpeg

I hope everyone today took a few minutes to remember Martin Luther King Jr.

The Portland Trail Blazers are back home after two ugly road losses to both the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder. That Damian Lillard shot last April was supposed to have killed OKC and yet OKC seems like one of the most cohesive (not complete) teams in the whole league.

This is the first game without Kent Bazemore this season and CJ McCollum is also out tonight. Nassir Little and Anfernee Simons get the starts tonight in their stead. Trevor Ariza, Wenyen Gabriel, and Caleb Swanigan are not available tonight because apparently the League has not approved the trade yet. That’s cool. The Blazers only needed to shorten their bench by two extra guys tonight. No reason to rush, right?

The bench is only Mario Hezonja, Jaylen Hoard, Gary Trent Jr., and Moses Brown. If your reaction is like this one from Zicky Dice at the end of this video then you have the right reaction.

The Warriors are switching everything and Damion Lee is ending up on Carmelo Anthony. And Melo has made him pay so far in the low post. Melo has a quick six on 3-3 shooting in the first six minutes of the half. Alec Burks has nine points and doesn’t seem to miss and Eric Paschall doesn’t seem to be on fire like he was the last game. He made a nice pass to Lee though. He shows some flashes of being a Draymond Green replacement.

The Blazers look like they could blow out the Warriors at any second, but then they go cold like they always do and instead of a 14 point lead they have a 27-23 lead at the end of the first. D’Angelo Russell is 1-9 to start the game. He shoots at his normal percentage the Blazers are down at the end of the quarter.

Russell hits two threes and the Warriors are off to a 12-0 to start the first two minutes of the second. The Blazers look very flatfooted to start the quarter. The Warriors push it to 20-6 in the quarter and if the Blazers had more than a hot dog and a beer on the bench I’d say empty the bench now and save Dame’s legs for Mavs and Luka Doncic on Thursday night.

Lillard got Lee into a washing machine and got three free throws and Portland seemed poised to begin to make a comeback, but the Warriors had answers every time. Lillard then hit one from somewhere near Klamath Falls. It was literally a single dribble from inside the half-court line. It helped cut the Warriors lead down to four at the half, 57-53.

This was not a good half of basketball.

The start of the third quarter was almost an exact replica of the start of the second quarter. Portland looked flatfooted and the Warriors were getting any shot they wanted from anywhere they wanted. Russell, Paschall, and Burks were doing anything they wanted and Portland wasn’t attempting to stop them.

At this point, Damian Lillard got pretty upset and started making threes from all over the Pacific Northwest. I think he hit one from somewhere up near Prince George. After hitting four in a row the Warriors started to double Dame even when he didn’t have the ball. They attempted to triple-team him when he did.

Sadly, the rest of the Blazers did not help the effort much.

Lillard had 42 at the end of three and it feels like he is going to have 60 and the Blazers lose this one. Which is totally the way the season is going.

Terry Stotts decided to rest Lillard to start the fourth. I thought this was a bad idea for a couple of reasons:
1. The bench sucks.
2. Dame was wicked hot.

You don’t pull the hot hand ever…. Unless your name is Terry Stotts.

Carmelo Anthony and Gary Trent Jr. made some big shots for the Blazers as they cut the Warriors lead down to two and kept the Blazers in the game until Dame checked in with about eight minutes left. Dame immediately came in and hit his eighth and ninth threes of the night to give the Blazers their first lead since early in the second quarter.

D’Angelo Russell would not go quietly into that cold Portland night. He hit a step in three and an acrobatic reverse layup to get the Warriors the lead back.

The Warriors went back to triple-teaming Dame, but it didn’t matter. He got to the bucket and got his 51st point of the evening as the Blazers got the lead back at 110-109. On the ensuing possession, Hassan Whiteside got a big block on Damion Lee, but the Blazers could not get another basket on their end to extend the lead. The Warriors got three offensive rebounds before Paschall put in a wide-open dunk to give the Warriors the lead back.

Alec Burks gave the Warriors a three-point lead off a Gary Trent Jr. foul to put them up 113-110. But Dame hit a three right in the mug of Burks (who played incredible defense on the possession). This tied the game up at 113 and gave Dame 54 points and his 10th three of the night.

And we have free basketball to cover tonight.

Alec Burks and Eric Paschall got two quick mid-range buckets to start the extra period and then Willy Caulie-Stein capitalized 6-0 one with a big dunk forcing Portland to call for a timeout.

Anfernee Simons and Damian Lillard on consecutive possessions hit big threes and tied the game.

Lillard sealed the game late scoring his franchise-record 61st points. Hassan Whiteside had 17 points and 21 rebounds, Anfernee Simons had 16 and hurt his ankle late in the OT, Carmelo had 14, while Gary Trent Jr. had 11 off the bench.

The Blazers have a few nights off before they take on the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.

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