Portland Trail Blazers fall to the Houston Rockets

The Portland Trail Blazers could not get the job done against the Houston Rockets, losing 111-103.

Well, that was rough. After a near perfect start, the Portland Trail Blazers lost hold of the rope and fell back onto their bad tendencies of little defensive effort and turning the ball over at the inopportune times. They lost to the Houston Rockets, 111-103.

The loss makes the Blazers 15-12, while the Rockets improve to 12-14.

For the first eight or so minutes, the Blazers looked unstoppable. Damian Lillard was making everything, Houston wasn’t guarding anyone, and Portland was keeping the Rockets from doing any damage on offense. They led 27-12.

Then, the Blazers all-bench lineup came in and squandered away the lead, giving up a quick 15-2 run. Although the second-unit was praised early in the season, their production has gone mostly stagnant lately – especially on the road.

Head Coach Terry Stotts is showing signs of knowing this too. He experimented by first playing Jake Layman and then, after just four minutes, reimplemented Seth Curry. He is trying to find someone to get this bench group going, but tonight no one seemed to work.

Layman finished with nothing except a -12 plus-minus. Curry had six points and two very costly turnovers early in the fourth to help Houston push their lead. Meyers Leonard had one assist. Nik Stauskas put up nothing in five minutes. Evan Turner had two points, six assists, and two boards. And Zach Collins finished with five points and five boards.

None of them netted a positive rating.

Directly after a stellar start, the Blazers seemed to fall back into their bad tendencies that got them into a 3-7 stretch. The Rockets’ bench took advantage of the porous defense and 14 turnovers. Gerald Green put up 13, including 3/3 from deep, and Danuel House notched 12 to go along with five rebounds.

Changes to Portland’s rotation may be imminent. Perhaps Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum will see their time staggered once again.

Lillard was the best player on the floor tonight. He put up 34 points, on 4/7 shooting from three. The Rockets could do little to contain him as he consistently drove the lane and split defenders for beautiful finishes at the rim.

Jusuf Nurkic, for what it’s worth, put up a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Al-Farouq Aminu reversed that line with 10 points and 15 boards. McCollum dropped in 22.

But since the bench could do nothing throughout the game, it was all for basically nothing.

Chris Paul finished with a triple-double, 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. James Harden put up 29 and four assists.

A disappointing loss in a forgettable game past the first quarter, the Blazers need to flip on some sort of switch that keeps them from wilting when things get tough early. Otherwise, this will just be the start of another frustrating stretch.

Portland will look to turn it around against the Memphis Grizzlies on December 12 at 5:00 P.S.T.