The Portland Trail Blazers took on the Phoenix Suns Saturday night, October 23, 2021, looking to notch their first win of the 2021-2022 NBA season. The Suns came into the Moda Center on the tail end of a back-to-back road trip, having just taken down the Los Angeles Lakers, 115-105. While Phoenix was trying to start a winning streak, the Blazers were trying to earn Chauncey Billups his first win as an NBA head coach.
Boy, did they do it in convincing fashion. Portland led by as much as 30 and the game was pretty much decided before the end of the third quarter.
The Blazers wasted the Suns, 134-105, a staple victory over a Phoenix team coming off a Finals appearance and a victory over LeBron James the night before.
Takeaways from the Portland Trail Blazers devastation of the Phoenix Suns
CJ McCollum led the Blazers in scoring for the second game in a row, finishing with 28 points, including five triples on 50 percent from deep.
Damian Lillard bounced back from a poor shooting night against the Sacramento Kings in the Blazers season opener. He tallied 19 points and 8 assists in just under 25 minutes.
Devin Booker was the only Sun to have a good game, finishing with 21 points on 9/19 shooting. Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton were held to a combined 12 points on 45 percent from the floor.
The Portland Trail Blazers will look to ride this high into their next game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, October 25, 2021.
Fast Break Notes:
- The Portland Trail Blazers tried out a five-out lineup with Robert Covington and Larry Nance Jr. stationed in the frontcourt. The offensive payoff seemed to outweigh the lack of size on defense. Portland got multiple open threes and was able to pick up the pace off of defensive rebounds. Look for this lineup to get a lot more run in the future, especially if Portland finds themselves down big and in an offensive rut.
- Norman Powell left the game in the second half with a left knee injury and did not return. The Blazers will likely take this time to give Nassir Little an extended evaluation if Powell misses significant time.
- CJ McCollum extends his hot streak to two games. McCollum notoriously starts seasons on fire and then either runs into injury trouble or wears down over time. If CJ can play this way all season, the Blazers could enter the legitimate contender tier.
- Chauncey Billups took the opportunity to experiment with a big lead, running the five-out lineup and playing Dennis Smith Jr. with the game still in question a little bit, and managed to keep the team motivated and grew the lead.