Portland Trail Blazers survive another cold Damian Lillard game vs Pacers

The Portland Trail Blazers looked to end a three-game skid against a short-handed Indiana Pacers team at home. The Pacers were down two of their most impactful players in Malcolm Brogdon and Jeremy Lamb. Despite going public about a nagging core injury, Damian Lillard played 38 minutes in this one.

In a contest to see which team could fall apart harder, the Pacers barely edged the Blazers out, giving up an untimely run late in the fourth quarter, before ultimately falling to Portland, 106-110.

This wasn’t a game where it was good to prove that the team could win ugly. Portland absolutely deserved to drop this one, with constant stagnations in their offense and lapses in concentration on defense, but were lucky to pull it out and brought their record to 4-5 on the season.

Takeaways from an ugly Portland Trail Blazers win over the Indiana Pacers

Damian Lillard’s abysmal offensive numbers took a big hit after this game, finishing with only four points on a horrid 2-13 shooting. He did continue to show off his passing prowess with 11 assists.

CJ McCollum is back to carrying this team on offense, tallying 27 points on 11-19 from the field, 5-9 from beyond the arc.

T.J. McConnell led the way for Indiana, totaling an efficient 19 points on 62 percent shooting. The small guard continually snaked his way into the paint against an inconsistent Portland defense.

Fast Break Notes:

• Myles Turner heated up in the second half after a slow start, drilling some huge 3-pointers with the game on the line. The Portland Trail Blazers will struggle against stretch-fives with their pick-and-roll coverage this season. Thankfully, the Pacers didn’t take advantage until it was too late.
• Norman Powell and Robert Covington combined for 44 points on 8-14 from deep. With the role players coming into their own and the bench much improved, if this team starts to figure it out defensively and Dame can return to MVP-form, they could make some serious noise.
• Anfernee Simons has continued his hot start to the season, finishing with 18 points and drilled four of his six deep attempts. If it wasn’t for Miles Bridges, he’d have a real shot to be the leading contender for the league’s Most Improved Player award.
• There were two confusing substitutions made in this game by Head Coach Chauncey Billups. With the Blazers up big early, 13-4, and threatening to end this game before it even really got started, coach pulled the starters out halfway through the first quarter and allowed Indiana to claw their way back to just a five-point deficit to end the period. Then, later in the game, Larry Nance Jr. comes in and the Blazers win his minutes by +15 points. Despite that fact, he was subbed out with four minutes left in the half and did not re-enter the game until there was only eight seconds left in the third quarter.