Portland Trail Blazers need Robin Lopez back, like, yesterday
By Bryce Olin
Last Wednesday, the Portland Trail Blazers were 30-8, holding a three-game lead for second place in the West playoff race, and were 11-2 since losing center Robin Lopez to a broken hand on Dec. 15.
Since last Wednesday, the Blazers have lost their last three games, all to, likely, Western Conference playoff teams, the Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs, and Memphis Grizzlies.
The three-game losing streak has tied the Blazers in the loss column with the Grizzlies, but Portland has one more win than Memphis, so they’re still, technically, in second place. The buffer Portland had built over the last three weeks, and basically the entire season, is now gone.
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If there is one common theme of all three losses, it is how badly Portland was exploited on the interior. Without Lopez, the Blazers struggle to defend and rebound for all 48 minutes, like they had been doing all season.
The Blazers have one of the best team defenses in the NBA this season, and a major part of that is Lopez’s back-line defense. Portland is still holding teams under 100 points per game (97.0 PPG, actually), but they gave up more than 100 points in each game of their 3-game skid.
1/14: Los Angeles Clippers
At home against the Clippers, the Blazers played well enough to win the game and had several chances to take control. Damian Lillard was harassed by Chris Paul and was unable to build momentum offensively. Portland only scored 94 points.
Also contributing to the loss, Portland allowed DeAndre Jordan to score 17 points on 8-of-8 shooting and only made him attempt two free throws. Jordan shoots 40 percent from the free throw line. That was the difference in the game.
I’m not saying Lopez would have necessarily stopped Jordan, but he may have been able to impede Jordan’s dunking path a few times and send him to the line two or three times more.
1/16: San Antonio Spurs
Against the Spurs, it wasn’t the interior players scoring the points, but it was dribble penetration off on-ball screens that killed the Blazers.
Patty Mills and Tony Parker were getting into the paint, basically, whenever they wanted and were kicking out to shooters and finishing over the Blazers’ interior players.
Lopez often doesn’t get credit for this, but he’s great at corralling the ball in the pick-and-roll and keeping it on one side of the court. He also is great in help defense and can make it much harder to shoot over him than it is with the other Blazer bigs.
Lopez might not have been able to will the Blazers to victory agains the Spurs, but it was one of many nights where his presence would have changed the flow of the game.
1/17: Memphis Grizzlies
Against Memphis, it was basically a combination of the Spurs game and the Clippers game. The duo of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol combined for 35 points, 23 rebounds, and eight assists.
The Blazers have needed Lopez the whole time he’s been out, but it is really starting to catch up to them now.
Good news, though, Blazers fans! According to Mike Richman of The Oregonian, Lopez got his hard cast off, and he’s now wearing a soft cast, which means his return is coming soon.
He should be back in just a few more weeks. Then, we’ll get to see how good the Blazers actually can be. They were 19-6 (.760) before Lopez got hurt.