Portland Trail Blazers: There Will Be Even More Pressure on Lillard and McCollum to Thwart Double Teams This Postseason

Last season, the Portland Trail Blazers were swept by the New Orleans Pelicans thanks to their doubling strategy of Rip City’s best guards. Now, there is even more pressure on them this time around to counter.

Remember when the Portland Trail Blazers were swept off the floor by the New Orleans Pelicans in a first round upset. Yeah, me too. How could we forget? The whole affair led many analysts and fans alike to lower their expectations of this club and their ability to perform in the postseason, as they heavily rely on two ball-dominant guards. However, maybe this sweep was less of an indication of Damian Lillard‘s and CJ McCollum‘s playoff ceiling and more of a trial to improve their versatility when defenses clamp down on them.

Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry was the mastermind behind forcing the ball out of each guard’s hands by swarming them with double-teams. Neither could quite figure out how to break the doubles, and they were forced to rely on their teammates around them. Unfortunately, those guys could not make New Orleans pay.

The crushing loss, and the reason for it, has stuck with Lillard ever since he was forced to leave the Smoothie King Center and return to home to watch the playoffs from his couch.

The Athletic’s Jason Quick (subscription required) caught up with Dame before the club played the Pelicans for the final time this season on March 15. Lillard told him:

"“How crazy would I be to go through that type of thing in the playoffs and not come out and expect it, and also not be prepared to show that it’s not going to keep going like that? It was up to me to figure it out.”"

In 2018’s series, Dame knew his opponent would come at him, but he did not expect the ferocity with which they did. Now, after the worst-case scenario, Lillard is more prepared for this aggressive trapping scheme that their next first round opponent is sure to attempt to replicate.

Throughout this season, he has looked calmer in breaking down these types of strategies. He reads whose man is coming towards him, assesses which parts of the floor are open for him to dribble, can split doubles more easily, and is more aware of which teammate is open.

McCollum has also looked solid in aggressively attacking traps, but his improvements have been less pronounced as teams have targeted him slightly less this regular season.

These developments, coupled with Jusuf Nurkic‘s career year, gave the Blazers confidence that they could beat a similar gameplan should they face it again. If a traps was too tough to break, Portland had a reliable big man to go down low to and get buckets in the post.

Of course, that reliable big man is now sidelined with a compound fracture to his left leg. The onus, now, is put more squarely on Rip City’s backcourt tandem to attack defenses and punish them for stealing a page out of Gentry’s book.

Thankfully, the Blazers won’t have to go up against the hounding Jrue Holiday this postseason, as the Pelicans have no chance at returning to the playoffs. But that doesn’t mean the point guard on the other side won’t be dangerous defensively.

Portland could draw a slew of disciplined defenders come this April. The LA Clippers roster bulldog Patrick Beverley; the Utah Jazz boast Ricky Rubio and Joe Ingles with an identity built around defense; the Oklahoma City Thunder regularly blitz ball-handlers with Paul George at the helm.

Of all the possible matchups, the San Antonio Spurs may be the most favorable with a young Derrick White and a more offensively-inclined DeMar DeRozan in their backcourt. However, the Spurs also have Head Coach Gregg Popovich barking orders from the sidelines. Although the cross-positional matchups could be better for Dame and CJ, the legendary coach may bolster his club’s personnel with intelligent gameplanning.

No matter what, the pressure is on Lillard and McCollum to not allow this Blazers team to get beaten in the same way.