The Clippers punch the Portland Trail Blazers in the mouth

The Portland Trail Blazers tried to start a winning streak against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, October 25, 2021. They came up well short, dropping the game, 116-86.

The Clips were without Kawhi Leonard, as they likely will be for the entirety of the season, and Marcus Morris and the Blazers went into this game missing Norman Powell, sitting with patellar tendinopathy.

The Blazers started off slow and only stalled further as the game wore on. With a full day’s rest and a manageable deficit at halftime down only 14, it was disconcerting to see how quickly Portland pulled the plug. By the end of the third quarter, Los Angeles was leading by 30.

Takeaways from the Portland Trail Blazers embarrassment against the Los Angeles Clippers

Damian Lillard‘s offensive struggles continued as he only tallied 12 points on 4-15 shooting, laying an egg from deep on eight attempts.

CJ McCollum led the Blazers in scoring again with 20 this go-round, but cooled off a little, finishing 44 percent from the field.

Luke Kennard went off for the Clippers with 23 points, hitting eight of his 10 attempts, 6-7 from beyond the arc.

Fast Break Notes:

• Jusuf Nurkic was off today. The entire team was off, but Nurk especially. Passes were slipping out of his hands, he was repeatedly stripped in the paint, and was a second or two late on nearly every rotation. This was supposed to be a career year for the Bosnian Beast, who will be up for a contract extension this summer. He showed off his offensive promise against the Sacramento Kings in game one, played fantastic help defense and shut down Deandre Ayton in game two, but was completely inadequate against the Clips. Let’s hope that this was just an off night.
• Anfernee Simons was one of the few players that performed well for the Blazers. He played with consistent effort and was able to create his own offense when Portland needed a bucket desperately when the game was still in question. The more Simons comes into his own as a creator and multifaceted attacker, the better off the Blazers will be in Norman Powell’s absence.
• With Powell out and Nassir Little moved to the starting lineup, Head Coach Chauncey Billups turned to Dennis Smith Jr. in the first-half for bench minutes. It did not go well. Even though Powell shouldn’t even be playing forward, his absence made Portland’s lack of depth there even more glaring. Snell’s return should mitigate some of that, but the Blazers may need to go bargain bin hunting for additional depth at the three spot soon.