2 Studs and 2 Duds from Trail Blazers' nail-biting loss to the Pelicans

Stud No. 1: Jerami Grant

According to multiple outlets, Jerami Grant was the Blazers' best player heading into the 2024-25 season. He played like it in their second game, finishing with a game-high 34 points, mainly due to his career-high eight three-pointers made on 17 attempts (47 percent).

Grant only had seven games with 30+ points all of last season, so it was great to see him being so aggressive. He was highly efficient in general, connecting on his 11 of 23 field goal attempts. Grant also recorded six rebounds, one assist, one steals, and three blocks in his 40 minutes of play.

The Pelicans entered the game as the favorite despite being on the road and missing two underrated pieces in Trey Murphy III and Dejounte Murray. But Grant gave the Blazers an excellent chance of coming away with their first win of the season, which will be extremely hard for them to come by to start the season with so many matchups starting off against the stacked Western Conference.

We would have liked to see Grant knockdown shots more consistently throughout the game, as he somewhat disappeared when it mattered most. But that could also be attributed to Simons trying to do too much and force the issue since Grant isn't the type of go-to player that teams would consistently rely on in those situations anyway.