Hey – the Blazers can play defense!
They really like to fool us, don’t they? But this team is capable of playing defense, and they showed it tonight. It wasn’t all the time, but they looked like they actually cared. For the first time since November 16 (which coincidentally was the last time they played the Wolves), they finally held their opponents to under 60 points in each half and did not sacrifice a 30-point quarter throughout.
And for the first time in a long time, it seemed like they actually had a plan on that end of the floor. Granted, it was a simple one – make Karl-Anthony Towns work for everything and anything with a double team lurking from the nearest man – but at least they had an agenda. They weren’t just content to give up wide open threes only to try and get those points back on the other end.
They forced 10 steals and blocked nine shots as a team tonight. Disregarding their destruction of the Suns last game, you’d have to go all the way back to opening night to see the last time this team nabbed double-digit steals.
Obviously, the Blazers aren’t out of the weeds yet. They’ll still have to prove they can play defense consistently, and against the more prolific three-point shooting teams in the league. Right now, the Wolves rank 22nd in three-point attempts per game (28.9) and shot only 16 tonight.
They still have not proven they can stop a long range attack. But tonight was a step in the right direction.