Watch with me as I break down some of the Portland Trail Blazers’ most compelling games this year. Get on League Pass or scour your D-V-R and follow along.
With no games on the horizon, it’s the perfect time to go and look back at the Portland Trail Blazers’ season. If the 2019-20 campaign eventually resumes, this exercise will aid our collective knowledge and understanding of the team as they finish out their schedule. If the season is ultimately cancelled, this will serve as a way for us to pass the time without any live games. So without further ado, time to watch the first game on the list, which was the third game of the season, with Portland on the road against the Dallas Mavericks (game recommendation from Ryan Gaskin).
First Quarter Analysis: Mavs outscore Blazers 40-25
12:00 left in 1st (defensive possession): Zach Collins with reach-in foul on Kristaps Porzingis. Another issue with Neil Olshey relying so heavily on Collins this year at the Power Forward position is that he commits fouls at a high rate. He was in the 21st and 34th percentile in committing fouls through his first two seasons, per Cleaning the Glass.
11:42 left in 1st (offensive possession): A cross screen leads to a switch and an isolation opportunity for Damian Lillard. With the other four offensive players on the weak-side, Dame has plenty of room to go one-on-one and gets a bucket.
11:05 left in 1st (offensive possession): CJ McCollum misses a contested pull-up from 20 feet with 17 seconds left on the shot clock. These are the sort of shots that make McCollum not quite as efficient during the regular season as he could be.
10:58 left in 1st (defensive possession): Collins and Rodney Hood switch a Delon Wright-Porzingis action. Hood, at a size disadvantage, fronts Porzingis on a post-up. Hassan Whiteside, fearing the high-low pass, helps off his man which leads to a Maxi Kleber made three.
9:53 left in 1st (defensive possession): Whiteside struggles to contain both the ball handler and his man rolling to the rim in the Blazers conservative, drop-back scheme. It’s imperative to not show your hand as the defender until the very last-minute. Whiteside overreacts to the Wright drive, and in trying to scurry back to his man, overcompensates and gives up an easy dunk to Kleber.
9:13 left in 1st (defensive possession): Whiteside helps off the strong-side corner on a Luka Doncic drive. Doncic, one of the best passers in the league, finds Kleber in the corner, who makes the wide-open three.
9:02 left in 1st (offensive possession): Collins sets a solid screen to free Lillard for an open three. Dame misses the good look. Unfortunately, good offense doesn’t always result in a made basket.
8:53 left in 1st (defensive possession): Whiteside shows good recognition, he calls for a switch after Hood is unable to navigate the on-ball screen. Whiteside then contests Doncic and forces a miss.
8:39 left in 1st (defensive possession): Whiteside is forced into a cross-match in transition, he then falls asleep guarding Wright and concedes a blow-by. After the ball is passed around and a shot is put up, Whiteside then stands and watches instead of boxing out, leading to a Porzingis lay-in.
7:30 left in 1st (defensive possession): Rodney Hood displays active hands and good anticipation on a potentially dangerous pass. The steal leads to a transition lay-up for McCollum.
6:49 left in 1st (defensive possession): Collins does a great job of going straight up and utilizing “verticality” on a Doncic transition drive, which forces a miss.
6:40 left in 1st (offensive possession): The advantage of playing Hood at Small Forward is that it provides the team with more creation and shooting. Having three guys that can push and make plays in transition has immense value. He takes advantage of a cross-match opportunity in transition, hitting a pull-up three over Porzingis.
6:28 left in 1st (defensive possession): On the very next possession out of a time-out, one of the disadvantages of Hood at Small Forward is illustrated. He simply is not strong enough to deal with Doncic on the block, and commits a foul after being physically overwhelmed.
6:13 left in 1st (offensive possession): Whiteside, despite having a mismatch, doesn’t use his size advantage on the block. Instead of just putting Dorian Finney-Smith under the rim, he tries to use a finesse, face-up spin move, which leads to a jump-ball. .
5:22 left in 1st (offensive possession): Nice action from Terry Stotts to get Hood into pick-and-roll action going to his strong hand. Hood started on the left side of the floor, ran across the court and caught the ball on the right-wing. This keeps the defense guessing, and allows Hood to attack the defense before it’s fully set-up to contain him.
5:15 left in 1st (substitution): Stotts downsizes to match Dallas’ small ball group, Kent Bazemore checks in for Whiteside. Lillard, McCollum, Bazemore, Hood, and Collins are an incredibly small unit.
5:12 left in 1st (defensive possession): Collins takes a half step towards Doncic to help on pick-and-roll coverage, and gets beat with the lob pass to his assignment, Kleber. Not a lot to complain about defensively, just a terrific pass from Luka.
4:17 left in 1st (offensive possession): C.J. hits a step-back jumper over Kleber. McCollum is one of the best tough shot makers in the league. You can see the value when the offense has a stagnant possession and he can bail the team out late in the shot clock.
3:50 left in 1st (offensive possession): Bazemore with a beautiful pass in transition to find Hood in the corner for an open three. Impressive court awareness as he was surrounded by three defenders.
3:35 left in 1st (defensive possession): Hood gets bailed out after getting blown-by off the dribble by Doncic. Kleber, instead of rolling to the rim and taking advantage of an overload on the left side of the floor, he drifts to the corner. This allowed Hood to get back into the passing lane and force the turnover. You can hear Luka yelling “Come on Maxi!” on the Blazers broadcast after Hood scored on the other end.
2:17 left in 1st (offensive possession): Another good wrap-around pass from Bazemore, Anthony Tolliver just drops the ball. It almost looked like he wanted to make a quick, touch-pass, but changed his mind at the last second.
2:01 left in 1st (defensive possession): Tolliver reacts slowly to help Mario Hezonja on an in bounds play. When a teammate helps you, as Hezonja does on this play, it’s imperative to help-the-helper, and Tolliver doesn’t, which leads to an easy bucket.
1:40 left in 1st (offensive possession): Lillard struggling with his shot early and commits a frustration foul with Dallas in the bonus.
1:30 left in 1st (offensive possession): Hezonja tries to attack Porzingis, gathering the ball just one step inside the free throw line and not getting into the body of the shot blocker. The shot has no chance of going in.
1:19 left in 1st (defensive possession): Good help by Anfernee Simons in transition, he forces Seth Curry to add additional arc on his lay-up attempt. But, with Hezonja cross-matched on Porzingis, failure to block out the Dallas big man leads to an easy put-back.
1:05 left in 1st (offensive possession): Bazemore commits a terrible turnover. He tries to get fancy, attempting a scoop pass with his off-hand no less. The live ball turnover leads to a Curry three.
0:25 left in 1st (defensive possession): Lillard gambles to try to get a steal from behind, Doncic crosses over to avoid it being poked away and finishes with a slam. That’s the capper to a terrible defensive quarter by Portland.