The Portland Trail Blazers get back, stifle the Hornets transition opportunities
Entering this game, the Hornets were ranked first-overall in the NBA in points in transition, with just over 27 per game, per NBA.com.
Charlotte is excellent at not only turning turnovers into points, but also catching teams off guard off of makes as well.
Chauncey Billups and the Blazers knew this and prepared accordingly. Portland limited their turnovers and sped back after both missed and made field goals, making sure that LaMelo Ball didn’t have any full-court assist opportunities.
The Hornets only tallied two points in transition in the first-half. The Blazers effort in getting back and preventing easy points for Charlotte resulted in a seven point half-time lead.
Unfortunately, early in the third quarter, the Blazers committed three bad turnovers, directly resulting to five points for the Hornets.
Portland held Charlotte to just 11 fast break points all night, but their half-court defense really let them down. It’s great to see that Billups is making smart pre-game adjustments and Portland is executing them well, but they have to do a better job of making in-game tweaks as well.