The Portland Trail Blazers dug themselves too big of a hole – twice – and dropped a winnable home game to the Orlando Magic 109-106 at Moda Center.
The Blazers needed to close the first half on a 30-11 run just to draw even with the Magic at the break. Orlando held a nine-point lead entering the final period, and despite a late rally that saw Portland come within one at 107-106, too many unforced errors and mistakes once again proved too costly.
Damian Lillard led all scorers with 30 points. Jusuf Nurkic finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Franz Wagner finished with 29 for the Magic.
Here are three takeaways from Portland’s fourth straight loss and ninth in the past 12 games.
1. Blazers buck the trend
Heading into the matchup with Orlando, Portland was 8-1 against teams with bottom-five defenses and 11-6 against those in the bottom 10. Facing teams allergic to that end of the floor allowed the Blazers to make up for what’s become a nightly barrage of turnovers and poor decisions.
A young Magic team arrived in Portland 25th in the league in defensive rating, which provided a glimmer of hope that this would be the night the Blazers got back in the win column.
Nope.
Despite nearly a half season’s worth of proof that Portland’s best games come against bad defenses, the Blazers only managed to score 106 against an Orlando team that allows more than 114 on average.
2. Even when it goes right, it goes wrong
Portland was averaging nearly 16 turnovers per game before the bout with the Magic. They came out mistakes blazing with seven giveaways in the first quarter and gave up 13 points of those turnovers in the first 12 minutes alone.
That did not bode well for a team whose biggest bugaboo this season has been surrendering possessions to the opposition.
The Blazers ended the night right at their average of 16 turnovers, which led directly to 22 Orlando points. Portland also gave up 48 points in the paint, 18 of which came in the first quarter alone when the Blazers dug themselves a quick hole.
However, Portland outscored the Magic in points off turnovers and points in the paint anyway, which brings us to another major issue that’s plagued the Blazers all season and was a catalyst for the loss – bench production.
The Magic’s second unit outscored Portland’s 19-16. That’s not a dramatic difference (although three points were the final margin of victory for Orlando), but more worrisome is the fact that the Blazers’ bench got off a whopping eight field goal attempts in 44 minutes.
Make up for one mistake, fail to correct another.
3. Portland needs wins and it needs them now
The loss to Orlando was just the first of 10 home games in the Blazers’ next 11. It wasn’t a great start, but Portland still has a chance to make up some ground in the Western Conference standings.
Six of those 11 games are against conference opponents. Three of them are against teams ahead of the Blazers in the standings – two against the Dallas Mavericks and one against the Denver Nuggets. Those games should prove to be an indicator of whether or not this Portland team can improve.
But the Blazers also have three games in four days against the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, and San Antonio Spurs. All three of those are winnable contests against teams near or below Portland at the bottom of the west. Going 3-0 in those matchups will be crucial to making a leap in the conference standings.
Coming out of this homestand with a 7-3 or 6-4 record is doable. But if the Blazers can’t make up ground now, it’s hard to see them grabbing anything other than a spot in the play-in game once the postseason rolls around.