Blazers top Kings behind another terrific defensive effort

The Portland Trail Blazers travelled to Sacramento in a back-to-back to face the Kings. The same went for the Kings as they had faced the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Portland Trail Blazers went into Monday night’s preseason game against the Kings in Sacramento trying to sort out their rotation while gaining steam for the regular season. And they did just that.

The Blazers defeated the Kings in Sacramento 97-83 with Jusuf Nurkic leading the team with 16 points and seven rebounds. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum combined for 26 points in support while rookie Justin Jackson logged 16 points for the Kings.

The game started off sluggishly, but the Blazers ultimately grinded out the win. Evan Turner continued his good form with 10 points and 5 rebounds as he looks to have established a sixth man role.

Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless got their second start of the preseason, reinforcing the teams defense. Aminu had a solid night with five points and eight rebounds while Harkless posted seven points and three rebounds.

Rookie Caleb Swanigan didn’t get the start, but still had a productive night, six points and 12 rebounds, as he makes his push for additional minutes and possibly a starting gig.

Terry Stotts noted prior to the game that he is looking to shorten the rotation down the closer we get to the season opener. This includes getting the stars higher workloads and giving those contending for minutes every chance to do so.

3 Takeways

Defensive Mindset
For three straight games the Blazers have held their opponents to 40.2 percent shooting or lower. The Kings shot 39 percent, committed 17 turnovers and only had 26 points in the paint. It seems as if the pressing issue of last season is being addressed. Harkless is an example of defensive consistency needing improvement, and it has helped the team as a whole.

Over the past three games, the Blazers have had a defensive rating of 93.5. Although a small sample size, it is an encouraging sign nonetheless. Stotts has mixed up the defensive scheme pivoting away from his standard conservative scheme to include downs, traps and hedges.

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This is to address the problem of not generating enough turnovers, and to stabilise their defensive consistency issues.

Foul Beast
Nurkic has been quite foul prone during this preseason, including averaging 5.3 personal fouls over the last three contests. Preseason or not, this is a concerning sign. He has committed cheap fouls inside or while setting screens. This aspect along with his weak finishing (44.4 field goal percentage) need to be cleaned up for the regular season.

Rotation Watch
With Nurkic, Aminu, Harkless, McCollum and Lillard getting the start, the rotation may have become clearer. Turner and Pat Connaughton were first off the bench, then Ed Davis and Swanigan were next. Stotts employed a proper rotation for the entire first half, and only utilized those nine. But when Stotts was asked about if he had settled on a rotation, he was coy.

A simple “no” was his response. Davis and Connaughton may be the favourites now, or this could be their final audition. What we do know is that we will find out very soon.

The starters then played the entire third quarter before Zach Collins, Jake Layman and co touched the court in the fourth quarter. With the Blazers playing Phoenix in their season opener, it seems as if this may have been the last game to sort out a rotation.

The team would probably not like to disclose anything to the Suns in their next preseason game. Maccabi Haifa is the last preseason game, and Stotts has mentioned that he will rest players against Maccabi in preparation for the season opener.

Next: Who should be the backup bigs?

Up Next

The Blazers travel to Phoenix on Wednesday night to face the Suns at the Talking Stick Resort Arena. Tip off is at 6 p.m. Pacific Time.