Blazers nearly complete gritty comeback in loss to Suns thanks to unexpected hero

Despite a resilient comeback effort, the Portland Trail Blazers lost to the Phoenix Suns, 103-97. The Blazers now fall to 2-5 on the season, which is the second-worst record in the Western Conference ahead of the only winless team remaining, the Utah Jazz.

This game had some similarities from their loss a night before at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder in terms of a promising first half that fell apart in the third quarter. In this game's third quarter, Portland was outscored 44-18. Against the Thunder, the deciding factor was turnovers. The Blazers were much improved this time around in that aspect, only committing six turnovers the entire game, which was by far a season-best for them.

While they did a great job of maximizing possessions, their issue in this matchup was their shooting inefficiency. Portland shot 33.3 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from three. That's not going to cut it against Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and company at home. But the Blazers almost had a miracle finish to pull off an incredible comeback, and one player in particular was largely responsible for their fourth-quarter run.

Dalano Banton was Blazers' unexpected x-factor

This game seemed all but over heading into the fourth quarter with a score of 87-65. Chauncey Billups, whether it was supposed to be desperation/garbage time minutes or strategic, elected to go with an unconventional lineup of Dalano Banton, Anfernee Simons, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, and Jerami Grant toward the end of the game. And those five found a spark together, catalyzed by Banton.

Banton played a vital role in the Blazers almost completing the miracle comeback, finishing with a plus-minus of 18 despite playing just 12 minutes for Portland. Banton finished with 12 points, two assists, one rebound, two steals, and one block on 5-7 shooting from the field and 2-4 shooting from deep. One of those three-point misses came at a significant time, with the Blazers down 99-97 with 30 seconds remaining. It rattled around and out of the cylinder and was as close as you could come to making it without it actually going in.

Although the Blazers didn't come away with the win, there were a lot of positive takeaways from this loss. Portland strung together yet another promising first half against a team with championship aspirations. The Blazers rank as a top-five defensive team in the first half; they have the blueprint and need to find a way to piece it all together to sustain that same intensity for an entire game.

That includes figuring out roles for some of their up-and-coming bench players who have already impacted games so far this season. Previously, it was Rayan Rupert and Kris Murray. But this time around, it was Banton's turn.

This goes to show how deep Portland's roster really is and further emphasizes the need for them to trade some of their established players to open up more minutes.