The Portland Trail Blazers lost their first game of the 2015 NBA Playoffs to a Memphis Grizzlies team that far outplayed them. All-Star point guard Damian Lillard was almost entirely neutralized, scoring just 14 points on 5-21 shooting, while suffering defensive lapses on the other end. He alone is not to blame, but now is the time for critical questioning. What is the number one thing Lillard needs to do differently in order to help the Trail Blazers win?
Brandon Goldner: He needs to make an effort on defense. Nobody’s going to knock the guy if he’s not locking people down, but multiple plays of standing and watching as a hobbled Mike Conley or an all-of-the-sudden All-Star Beno Udrih blow by him? Unacceptable. For all the talk from Lillard on how he was going to “bring it” on defense in this series, what we saw last night was lacking in both ability and effort. The ability you can live without, but you need the effort.
Bryce Olin: Lillard has to finish in traffic and around the basket, or draw defenders and make plays for his teammates. In Game 1, Lillard did neither. Six of his 21 field goal attempts were from beyond the arc, which means Lillard shot 15 times inside the arc. Lillard only made five of those attempts inside the arc and only totaled three assists.
With Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and Kosta Koufos hovering around the hoop, Lillard has to make those bigs commit and then make the right pass, or make his midrange jumpers and floaters. The shots are there, but Lillard has to make them.
Jason Hortsch: Lillard went 0-6 on threes. You can never really just say, “He needs to make those shots,” because he was obviously trying to, but some changes there would help, whether it be positioning, timing, rhythm, etc.
I would also like to see more off-ball movement. This isn’t necessarily specific to Lillard, but the team overall looked very stagnant on offense. Memphis is certainly an elite defensive team, but if everyone is standing around, that makes it too easy to play excellent defense. In Lillard’s case, he is a good enough shooter to bend the defense, so that even if he doesn’t ultimately end up with an open shot, hopefully he allowed someone else to get one. This may even help solve his three-point shooting woes if this type of movement gives him better looks.
Ryan Allison: What doesn’t he need to do differently? I can’t specifically name one thing because it all needs work. Lillard is one of the top ten point guards in the NBA. His performance in last night’s series opener was atrocious. He was 5-21 from the field and couldn’t help the Trail Blazers avoid their worst shooting performance of the season (33.7 percent). Lillard’s role is to be effective on offense in order to take pressure off of LaMarcus Aldridge as well as be effective on defense, which was his ultimate failure last night. He never found his rhythm and I believe it’s because he settled for long jump shots in the first quarter. For Lillard to be effective, he needs to see the ball go through the basket. The Grizzlies are big inside but he needs to penetrate and get a few easy buckets early to help with his confidence.
Casey Baumann: Lillard needs to play better on the defensive end. Specifically, he needs to stay in front of his man more effectively than he did in game one. Though Portland’s defense is designed to funnel dribble penetration toward well-positioned bigs to encourage mid-range jump shots, Lillard often provided too little resistance. Lillard’s field goal defense was actually pretty good in game one, he contested jump shots quite well and forced his assignments into 12.4% shooting under their season averages.
One possession stands out in particular. To end the half, Conley dribbled Lillard into multiple Gasol screens, which he fought over to contest a free-throw line jump shot as the buzzer sounded. It was good, textbook individual defense. But that play was the exception as Lillard repeatedly struggled to recover to his man on screens, allowing Conley, in particular, to go one-on-one against backpedaling frontcourt players leading to multiple and-one finishes in the paint.
Patrick Heath: Lillard needs to find his killer instinct. The swagger we saw from the third year guard at times this season (see December 23rd at OKC) was nowhere to be found during Game 1. Without Wesley Matthews‘ presence on both sides of the ball Lillard will have to make good on his promise to show up defensively as well as find an offensive rhythm if the Blazers have any chance in winning this series. The expectations placed on Lillard are high based on the fact that his only other first round experience was historic, but if he can play at the all-star level he is capable of, Portland might find itself winning in the underdog role for the second straight year.
David MacKay: Lillard needs to focus on getting his teammates involved. The general lack of ball movement that the Trail Blazers exhibited last night started with Lillard trying to shoot himself out of a hole. While he is more of a scoring guard than a facilitator, there needs to be a happy medium where he helps his teammates score when he cannot. Lillard attempted 4.4 more field goals last night (21) than his season average (16.6), simultaneously notching just one assist more (3) than his season low (2). The result was worse looks for him and worse looks for others who were forced to create for themselves a little bit more. Consequently, the Grizzlies (already an elite defensive team) didn’t have to work very hard to get stops.