The Portland Trail Blazers Live and Die by Their Bench

Last night’s blowout loss against the Utah Jazz proved that the Portland Trail Blazers are a different team when the bench is clicking.

Two days after outscoring the Memphis Grizzlies reserves 44-14 in a 99-92 win, the Portland Trail Blazers bench struggled and played without confidence and energy, with all eight players posting a plus-minus of -5 or worse.

Evan Turner was the only member of the second unit that scored in double figures, stepping up with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists on 6 of 8 shooting in 24 minutes. Meyers Leonard had nine points and three rebounds but the other six players that saw action all finished with five points or less.

The bench combined for 40 points (Turner and Leonard were responsible for 21 of them) while going 16-for-34 from the field but they were outmatched by the Utah reserves.

The Portland second unit has been like Jekyll and Hyde this season. They averaged 40.1 points per game through first 13 games (ninth in the league), they put up just 28.2 points per game over the next 15 contests (second-fewest in the NBA) and then carried the Trail Blazers to impressive wins against the Raptors, Clippers and Grizzlies, while scoring 58, 24 and 44 points respectively.

This unit can be an asset for the Trail Blazers and take over or be an Achilles’ heel, it’s been either very good or very bad, with no middle ground and most importantly with no consistency. This trend of up-and-down performances is concerning and when the reserves struggle it forces the starters, particularly Damian Lillard to try to do too much.

Sometimes you need to look back at recent games to figure out what you did right and try to replicate that success, and the performance of the reserves against the Raptors was flawless and showed a blueprint of what each player has to do so the Trail Blazers can be competitive on any given night.

In that contest, the Portland reserves outscored the Toronto bench 58-26, with four of the five members of the second unit scoring in double figures. Leonard, Turner, Zach Collins, Seth Curry, and Nik Stauskas were the difference in the game, they moved the ball well and played with a lot of energy.

The Trail Blazers can keep up with anyone as long as the bench lives up to their full potential and the upcoming games will be a great opportunity to find more consistency.