Trail Blazers surviving without Robin Lopez, but can it last?

By Bryce Olin | Jan 4, 2015

Without Robin Lopez, the Portland Trail Blazers are 7-2 and still playing well

It’s impossible not to acknowledge that the Trail Blazers are a contender in the Western Conference. It’s okay to think Portland could lose in the playoffs, but they’re no longer the “team everyone wants to play,” and that’s been made even more clear over the last nine games without Lopez.

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Lopez fractured his hand on December 15th against the San Antonio Spurs and has missed the nine games since.

Portland had been 7-1 without Lopez heading into Sunday’s matchup with one of beasts of the East, the Atlanta Hawks, but the Hawks got the better of the Trail Blazers 115-107 in Portland.

In that game, it was very clear that the Trail Blazers missed Lopez, as Al Horford and Paul Millsap combined for 40 points. Chris Kaman, LaMarcus Aldridge, Joel Freeland, and Thomas Robinson struggled to keep the Hawks’ bigs out of the paint and failed to keep Jeff Teague from getting deep into the paint in pick-and-roll and dribble-handoff situations.

Although the Trail Blazers lost to the Hawks on Sunday, I’ve been incredibly surprised by how well they have played without Lopez. Leading up to Sunday’s games, Portland had won four games in a row and were only two games out of first-place in the West. Based on how good the West is again, it would be significant for Portland to hold a lead in the conference in January for the second season in a row.

Even after the loss to the Hawks, the Trail Blazers are still in second-place in the conference. Without one of their top players, best rebounder, best rim protector, and best post-defender for what will be ten games when they take the floor again, Portland fans have to view that as a win in what seemed like a lose-lose scenario.

Well, the Trail Blazers’ good fortune might be running out.

Freeland, who has made the biggest impact in Lopez’s absence, strained his right shoulder against the Hawks and will miss the next two weeks.

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Freeland’s injury is a huge blow to the Trail Blazers because of how well he’d been playing. Over the last five games, Freeland was averaging 5.2 points and 9.8 rebounds. His injury now opens up more playing time for Robinson and Kaman to show what they can do.

As of right now, it doesn’t appear Lopez will be back until January 26th, at the earliest. Hopefully, Freeland’s shoulder injury isn’t as serious as expected and he can return within two weeks. If he can’t, however, the Trail Blazers will likely have a tough test ahead of them. Yet, I think the Blazers can, again, survive an injury to a key big man.

Here is Portland’s schedule over the next two weeks:

Jan. 5: vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Jan. 7: vs. Miami Heat

Jan. 10: vs. Orlando Magic

Jan. 11: @ Los Angeles Lakers

Jan. 14: vs. Los Angeles Clippers

Jan. 16: @ San Antonio Spurs

Jan. 17: @ Memphis Grizzlies

Over that seven-game stretch, I think Portland has a realistic opportunity to go 5-2 and take care of business against the Lakers (x2), Heat, Magic, and Clippers at home before potentially losing to the Spurs and Grizzlies on the road. Both of those teams have dominant interior players that the Trail Blazers will not be able to contain without their two best defensive centers.

So far, Portland has survived with Lopez, even thrived at times, but it’s going to a whole different test over the next two weeks with out Freeland. Hopefully, Damian Lillard and Aldridge can carry the Trail Blazers over that stretch enough to win games with their offense. Their defense is going to have a tough time keeping opponents out of the paint and away from the basket.

We’ll see how they respond.

Next: Joel Freeland: How the Blazers must replace him