A Weekly Recap of the Trail Blazers Competition
In a matchup that hasn’t had playoff implications in years, this past week saw the second meeting between the Blazers and the Jazz. These two teams could be battling for the chance to be swept by the Warriors – I mean the 8th seed in the West come April. The Nuggets are quietly eyeing the 8th seed as well (despite their six game losing streak) with the emergence of Most Improved/Sixth Man of the Year front runner Will Barton. Heard of him?
Only three games this week and the well rested Blazers took advantage.
Blazers 110 vs. Nuggets 103
Why did we win?
Contributions from everyone sealed the victory. C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe provided most of the scoring, while Mason Plumlee straight stuffed Kenneth Faried on a dunk attempt in the final seconds to put a stamp on it. Al-Farouq Aminu gave one of his best games as a Blazer, scoring 14 points and grabbing nine rebounds to go along with great defense and an awesome highlight.
Improvements?
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Just last week, the Blazers were able to hold Lebron James to 11 points, but this game the Blazers once again let the star go off. Barton was phenomenal, showing the Moda Center the opportunity they let slip away with a 31 point night. As we gameplan, we have to be able to hold scoring threats to the low twenties consistently. Teams become very hard to defend when that happens, as defenses have to adapt to guard the star, which leaves other players open.
What did we learn?
The more Damian Lillard sits out with injury, the better the rest of the team can become. We’re right now giving guys like Maurice Harkless and Tim Frazier very valuable minutes to help them grow and become more reliable as the season progresses. This is going to be clutch if the Blazers are going to make a playoff push.
Jazz 109 vs. Blazers 96
Why did we lose?
Chalk it up to letting the Jazz’ scorers all play well, especially Trey Burke (27 points) and Rodney Hood (+27 plus/minus). The Jazz shot 50% from the field and took care of the ball, only turning it over six times. The Blazers also need more than six points combined from Plumlee and Ed Davis in order to win. Meyers Leonard shooting 5-6 from three helped, but wasn’t enough to pick up the slack.
Improvements?
We will never win if we are held to 14 point quarters like the second quarter Thursday. This can be attributed to the almost unwatchable “shoot a ton of three’s to get us out of it” brand of basketball this team easily falls into. Instead of offense saving us, we need to step it up defensively to turn it around. The Blazers should focus on defensive intensity instead of offensive efficiency, a trait that has made a team like the Warriors as good as they are.
What did we learn?
The Jazz are for real and will be fun to match up against as the season comes to a close and we’re battling for a playoff spot. They played without four of their best players and still shot and played as well as they did. Gotta give respect to them in a small market battling for exposure. This team has had a year to get used to coach Quin Snyder and have done so with great success. The Blazers need to prepare every time they play the Jazz for the rest of the season in order to win the tiebreaker just in case.
Blazers 112 vs. Nuggets 106
Why did we win?
We stopped the people’s champ. After lighting up Portland on Wednesday, Portland took advantage of him playing 50 minutes in an overtime loss to Golden State the night before (holding him to only five points Sunday). We also had another solid shooting night, going for 50.6% from the field and got great bench play from Harkless and Gerald Henderson.
Improvements?
Both aspects of fouling. We need to improve our percentage, after going 68.8% from the charity stripe, but we also committed an astounding 34 fouls this game! Seven Blazers committed at least four fouls, which gave them 48 free throw attempts! Thank god they only made 31 of them. Limit your fouls young Blazers, especially Aminu and Noah Vonleh, who have been known for riding the pine due to foul trouble.
What did we learn?
In what is likely the last game before Lillard comes back, we learned that we’ve got some guys to make a serious playoff push. Crabbe, Leonard and Harkless need to continue their great play as of late once Lillard comes back and shakes up the recent chemistry. Lillard is an all star, and on paper he should come in and make us better, but there is always a small transition once someone that important comes back from missing time.
The Blazers can’t afford a slump right now, especially with our next five games against playoff bound teams.