Tomorrow afternoon, the shorthanded Portland Trail Blazers get set for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day duel against the Spurs. Here are three keys that should ensure them a victory.
It’s always going to be difficult trying to classify a team that ranks 25th in defense as “gritty,” but in their own way, that’s exactly what the Portland Trail Blazers are becoming.
All in this week alone, the Blazers have faced deficits of 17, 20, and 16 … and had to rely on defensive grit to prove triumphant in each of them, all the while overcoming injuries and uncertainties.
And that’s the definition of gritty, no?
The day-old adage continues to be proven: regardless of the circumstances, as long as you have No. 0 on the floor, there’s always a chance at a victory.
Tomorrow night, that ideology gets put to the test, as Damian Lillard prepares to lead the Blazers into battle without Jusuf Nurkic and CJ McCollum for the first time since Mar. 27th, 2019, when they play the San Antonio Spurs.
As is normally the case when the Blazers and Spurs play, sentimentality will be at an abnormal high, as Lillard meets his former All-NBA teammate LaMarcus Aldridge. Both the teams are hoping to continue making jumps within the Western Conference, ranking fifth and sixth respectively, as of tonight.
As Lillard seeks to add to his individual greatness on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here are three things the Portland Trail Blazers can do to ensure they leave Monday night with a 9-5 record.
No. 1: “Dig” LaMarcus Aldridge in the post, and make him a passer
LaMarcus Aldridge ranks sixth on this year’s Spurs team in scoring (13.6), and is on pace for his lowest usage since 2009-10 with the Portland Trail Blazers. But make no mistake: his reputation still holds weight.
Despite being a 35-year-old, Aldridge still likely owns credentials atop a scouting report as a feared post-up producer. That much is evidenced on tape this season.
Teams haven’t been so willing to allow him to turn over that right shoulder for his trusty fadeaway, opting to dig on those post plays, or sending weak side help to that shoulder, even if the Spurs try to clear that side for him.
That begins to explain why Aldridge is having the highest assist rate of his career. And while it is true that his teammates are shooting 15-of-30 from deep on passes from him, the likes of Dejounte Murray and DeMar DeRozan aren’t fear-worthy from deep.
The trouble comes in wondering if Portland will be disciplined enough, given their tendency to full-on leave assignments out on an island. In a proper dig — when a help defender rushes at a post player and swipes at the ball without sending the full double team — sometimes the mere presence is enough to get into an offensive player’s mind.
The Aldridge supporter in me hopes it doesn’t happen this way; it would be great to see him put forth a strong performance (in a Blazers win), gain some confidence in a potential “audition” game, and keep that momentum. He should be able to succeed in pick-and-pop situations against Enes Kanter, regardless of what happens in the post.
But if the Blazers want to win this game, perhaps that’s best done by bringing out the best in LaMarcus Aldridge the passer, and not LaMarcus Aldridge the scorer.
No. 2: Turn Damian Lillard’s misses into a source of offense
There are few players in the Association that evoke more fear into opposing defenses than Damian Lillard. Even so, he could have his work cut out, because the Spurs have something in abundance that most other teams don’t in their starting lineup: length.
For what it’s worth: the Spurs’ starting point guard, Dejounte Murray is 6-foot-4, has a 6-foot-10 wingspan, and he pairs that with triple-shot-of-espresso-type energy on the defensive end at all times. Everyone within the starting lineup has a wingspan of 6-foot-9 and up, and because they play well cohesively — they currently have the No. 9-ranked defense — the Spurs can make life difficult for offensive superstars.
In last season’s Spurs-Blazers matchups, the Spurs used both their team defense and length to bother Lillard. As a whole, Lillard scored 76 points over three games … but it took him 67 shots (and 32.8 percent shooting) to get there.
Don’t mistake me for the type to declare a game a “poor performance” just because of field goal percentage. Lillard always impacts games beyond scoring, and last season, the attention he commanded stuck out to me, because of how it opened lanes for second chance points for others.
Portland and San Antonio played three times last season. Both Hassan Whiteside and Skal Labissiere each recorded games in which they corralled six offensive rebounds, taking full advantage of a scrambled Spurs defense because of the attention they paid to Lillard.
It’s sort of similar to what we saw with Allen Iverson during his Philadelphia days. Teams focused their entire defenses on stopping his penetration and scoring, and even if he missed, players like Dikembe Mutombo, Tyrone Hill, and George Lynch could feast on the glass and get their lunch-pail, second-chance buckets.
Portland has the players capable of taking advantage of it. Enes Kanter is rebounding at a career-rate on the offensive glass, and teams as a whole rebound poorly on defense against Portland.
In situations where Lillard gets Murray trying to chase him from behind on a pick-and-roll, and the Spurs have a big try to hold him off, there’s a numbers advantage to be devoured. One just has to hope Portland comes in on an empty stomach.
No. 3: If you can’t win the bench battle … at least keep it close
Watching the San Antonio Spurs is a lot like watching an old-school Scooby-Doo episode. In the same way that you just knew Fred and his gang would solve the mystery by episode’s end, most Spurs games play out under the same predictability.
The plot normally runs like this: the Spurs’ starters dig themselves in a first quarter hole before the second unit — normally Patty Mills, Jakob Poeltl, Rudy Gay, and Devin Vassell — lead the charge in turning that deficit into an advantage by the end of their shift. It’s like clockwork.
Take a look at the Spurs’ on-off numbers year-after-year. There’s a reason why those bench players are always atop the lists. They have excellent chemistry. And that could pose quite the test for a Portland Trail Blazers team in the middle of a roster flux, with two All-Star caliber players out of the lineup.
Interestingly enough, Portland boasts a top-10 scoring offense in 2020-21, even higher than San Antonio’s. But on a points per minute basis, both of them are about the same, the Blazers (2.09) and the Spurs (2.03) upon that upper echelon.
It’s too early into the season to call it a trend, but the Portland Trail Blazers are 5-2 when they win the bench battle, and are 3-3 when they don’t.
They’ve got two players capable of getting 20+ on any given night in Carmelo Anthony and Gary Trent Jr., and players capable of matching Poeltl’s infectious energy in Harry Giles III. With how shorthanded they are, the Blazers are going to need every bit of it.