Trail Blazers fall to Grizzlies 100-86, trail series 0-1
86. 34. 100. 211. Final
The Portland Trail Blazers spent the regular season as one of the league’s better offenses. The Memphis Grizzlies spent it among the league’s best defenses. Playing on the road, the Trail Blazers would need a herculean effort to overcome a Grizzlies team that had swept them 4-0 during the regular season.
The effort they gave was less herculean and more disappointing, as their offense never got clicking and the backcourt defense was thinner than tracing paper. As such, the Grizzlies laughed and rolled their way to the 100-86 win that was not that close.
Memphis leads the series 1-0. The next game will be in Memphis on Wednesday.
Recap
The Trail Blazers settled for a ton of long jumpshots and started 1-9 from the field. Memphis was content to pound inside before their outside shots opened up, and jumped out to a 10-2 lead. Thinking that the cure to poor shooting was more shooting, the Trail Blazers kept firing, and the Grizzlies kept letting them.
As LaMarcus Aldridge began attacking, the dynamic of the game changed a bit. Chris Kaman even offered above-average defense on Marc Gasol; a pleasant surprise if there ever was one. Unfortunately, the game continued slipping in the wrong direction, but the Trail Blazers hung tough. With 1:12 left in the quarter, it was 19-15 Grizzlies. Beno Udrih continued his assault on Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers that started in the regular season, and the lead puffed back to 25-15 to end the quarter.
1st quarter stats:
- Trail Blazers: 6-24, 0-5 from deep
- Grizzlies: 10-22, 1-2 from deep
Nicolas Batum hit the Trail Blazers’ first three to start the second, and the game got a little chippy on both sides. With the Grizzlies up 34-18, it wasn’t feeling like it was going to get much better. Udrih was at this point 6-6 from the field. The only thing the Trail Blazers had going was a handful of offensive rebounds, which allowed them to cut it to 44-35, but the actual shots they took within the flow of what passed for their offense just weren’t falling… and Lillard watching as the Grizzlies blew by him again and again was getting pretty old.
The Trail Blazers were unable to sustain a run, and the Grizzlies pushed the lead out again. Lillard’s defense and body language was atrocious, and there is very little the Trail Blazers can hope for in this series if one of their leaders spends it under a personal rain cloud. The Grizzlies pushed it past 20 at one point and were more than happy to take a 58-39 lead into halftime.
1st through 2nd quarter stats:
- Trail Blazers: 16-50, 1-9 from deep
- Grizzlies: 21-45, 3-5 from deep
- Aldridge: 7-18, 16 points, four rebounds, three blocks
- Lillard: 2-11, five points
Lillard immediately allowed a Mike Conley and-1 to start the second half, then clanked a shot on the other end. There was nothing hopeful or auspicious about this game as the Trail Blazers went down 60-39. Portland’s offense looked about as functional as a washing machine without water. They threw it out of bounds as the Memphis lead climbed to 73-48 on a Zach Randolph jumper. Meyers Leonard hit a three to prevent the Grizzlies’ lead from getting any closer to 30, but the Trail Blazers would need more more than that to get back into the game. Aldridge was blocked and thrown to the ground to end the quarter, the Trail Blazers down 86-62.
1st through 3rd quarter stats:
- Trail Blazers: 25-73, 4-18 from deep
- Grizzlies: 32-64, 3-6 from deep
- Aldridge: 11-26, 27 points, eight rebounds, three blocks
- Lillard: 4-17, nine points
The fourth and final quarter gave more of the same. The Trail Blazers’ offense continued to look confused. There was no movement to speak of, and the time-tested strategy of dumping it to Aldridge was coming up more or less empty. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies continued scoring more than enough to keep their 20-point cushion intact. There was no amount of sporadically-acceptable offense that would save Portland, and they fell 100-86 and trail the series 0-1.
Game stats:
- Trail Blazers: 32-95, 8-26 from deep
- Grizzlies: 39-88, 3-9 from deep
- Aldridge: 13-34, 32 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks
- Lillard: 5-21, 14 points
Players
LaMarcus Aldridge missed a lot of shots, sure. But many of them were right at the rim, and he continued pushing it inside when no other Blazer would. He had his 6th career 30-point playoff game with 32-and-14 with four blocks.
After a point, Damian Lillard didn’t look like he wanted to play, particularly on defense, despite his recent interviews insisting that he was going to bring it on the defensive end. Backup Udrih went for 20-7-7 on 9-14. Injured starter Conley limped around for 16 points on 50% shooting. If this was Dame “bringing it,” then we really don’t want to see him not bring it. He finished with 14-8-3 on 5-21 shooting. If he had dominated offensively, maybe he could get a pass on his defense, but not tonight.
Nicolas Batum shot a respectable 5-12, and he was 3-6 from deep. He finished with 15-7-4 while looking like he actually wanted to be on the court. He tried (or was forced into) guarding Memphis players short and tall, and did about as well as could be expected on all of them. Batum was not the problem tonight.
Robin Lopez has been in a slump, and tonight’s game only deepened it: two points and five rebounds with 0 blocks in 19 minutes, which was far and away the fewest number of minutes he’s played as a Trail Blazer in the playoffs. It’s tough to tell why. Maybe the matchups weren’t right. Maybe the success of Kaman and Leonard played a part. But what can’t be missed is that Lopez’s role has shrunk of late, which would have been inconceivable last year or even earlier this year, when he was glue that held everything together.
Speaking of Chris Kaman and Meyers Leonard, they played quite well: the former had 7-and-6 in 14 minutes, and the latter had 7-9-2 with a steal and two blocks in 16. One consequence of this game may be that Leonard in particular spends more time on the court with Aldridge, if for more offensive punch if nothing else.
C.J. McCollum was 1-8 for two points. Nothing to see here.
Allen Crabbe was perfect from the field in 15 minutes for seven points, a board, two steals, and a turnover.
Steve Blake played only nine minutes and did nothing that showed up in a box score, unless you count missed shots and turnovers.
Joel Freeland and Tim Frazier each got three garbage time minute and didn’t score.
Observations
- Lillard’s lack of adaptation is hurting the Trail Blazers right now. In a play that summed up that sentiment, Lillard let Udrih right past him, then didn’t bother to box Udrih out, who got the rebound to keep the possession alive. Portland will need more from him on both ends if they want to win a game, let alone the series.
- Aldridge was the only one not afraid to mix it up in the paint consistently, but more often than not, the shots weren’t falling.
- Offensive rebounding in the second quarter kept the Trail Blazers alive… or as alive as they were given how badly they were beaten.
- The Trail Blazers faced just one 20-point third-quarter deficit this season. They were down 24 after three tonight.