After a (perhaps too exciting) win against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday, the Portland Trail Blazers are suddenly within shouting distance of the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference. Tiago Splitter's team is now 8-2 in its past 10 games and it might be peaking at just the right time.
The past two games, specifically, have been won on the back of Jrue Holiday, who has been good all season, but appears to be finishing the year how he started it: by playing great basketball. Holiday has taken over 20 shots in each of those games, the first time as a Blazer he's done that. He's gone 20-43 from the field, scoring 57 points in those two games, with three total free throw attempts.
I don't buy in to the idea of "ethical basketball," but I will admit that it's more aesthetically pleasing to watch a player operate with the clear intention of getting a bucket. That's what we're seeing from the highly aggressive Holiday — he's attacking whoever has the displeasure of standing in his way.
In nine of the 11 games before Tuesday's win against the Clippers, Holiday had scored 15 points or fewer. He wasn't bad in those games, but was playing a little more passively, really trying to embody the team-first point guard role. But in two consecutive huge games, Jrue said team be damned, I'm getting mine... And he got his.
He didn't actually say that, for the record. So please don't quote him on that. But he said it in spirit, and score-first Jrue remains a blast to watch.
Uncle Jrue Holiday has been stellar in two huge Blazers wins
Trading for Jrue Holiday proved to be a brilliant move by Joe Cronin and the rest of the front office pretty much immediately. He was attacking consistently, facilitating for others, and bringing a type of point guard the Blazers haven't employed in many years. Even when he went a little quiet for stretches this year, he was seldom a negative for the team, and now he's fully rounding back into the form he began the year with.
It hasn't been a good two-game stretch for the 35 year-old point guard, it's been a nearly unprecedented one, as Jrue has joined Steph Curry, LeBron James, James Harden, and Kevin Durant as the only 35 year-old or older players to post the stat lines he posted this week.
I keep saying out loud, "The Blazers are going to have a winning record," to see if it feels any less crazy. It doesn't. I still can't quite believe how impressively this roster has rebounded from any strife, and Jrue Holiday's role in that cannot be overstated. He's a winner, and the Blazers have won their two most important games of the year (until the next one, as it goes) because of him.