The Portland Trail Blazers, coming off a game that saw career scoring nights from Scoot Henderson and Toumani Camara, were not prepared for the defensive buzzsaw that was the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. Portland started the game off well, led again by Henderson, but once the second units came in for both teams, the Clippers tightened the screws and held the Blazers to only 38 points in the first half.
The Clippers, playing without superstar Kawhi Leonard, were able to switch everything on defense and disrupt whatever the Blazers wanted to do on the offensive end. The Clippers have the 4th-ranked defense in the NBA and it showed against a Blazers team that struggled to hit the three-point shot and was lacking depth.
Deandre Ayton did look more engaged on the offensive end, but most of that was due to Henderson and the team finding him open for lobs and mismatches. Sharpe was able to attack the rim and covert while being fouled, but the most positive takeaway was from Henderson. There was pressure on Scoot to put together back-to-back strong performances and he was able to do that tonight. Dalano Banton played well for the Blazers in the second half to keep the score respectable but it wasn’t enough to close the gap.
Let’s dive into five points of analysis for the game.
MVP of the Game
Valuable players are tough to come by when your team loses by 29 points, but I liked what Scoot Henderson was able to do tonight against a tough Clippers defense. Henderson scored 16 points and 6-14 shooting and dished out 6 assists, but it was the way he controlled the offense and found his teammates that earned him the MVP of the game.
Henderson looked extremely poised every time he had the ball. The Clippers apply a lot of pressure on the ball and fly around the court in order to defend the three-point line. Scoot did a great job in the first quarter finding Ayton for lobs at the rim and threw a dime to Sheadon Sharpe at the 7:23 mark in the first quarter while Sharpe was flying down the court which resulted in an easy layup. The three-point shot was a struggle for Scoot tonight, but the team as a whole only shot 26% from deep. I liked what I saw from Henderson, and against an aggressive defense, that means a lot.
Simons Says Zero
The Blazers defeated the Clippers 106-105 back on October 30th mainly because Anfernee Simons went off for 25 points and carried Portland down the stretch. Tonight, it was a very different story. Simons went 0-9 from the field and attempted zero free throws on his way to a big goose egg.
The Clippers have some of the league’s best on ball defenders in Derek Jones Jr. and Kris Dunn (both former Blazers) so Simons had to know it would be a long night. The part that was hard to swallow was the lack of adjustments. Coach Billups and the Blazers staff never found a way to get arguably their best player going. Simply putting him in a pick and roll wasn’t going to work. Dunn and Jones were able to show long enough in order to recover on defense and never went under a screen. The Blazers need to get better making in game adjustments in order to find ways of scoring when the opposing defense is locked in.
Offensive Rebounding
Portland would end up collecting 14 offensive rebounds for the game, which is slightly above their league average that has them as 6th best in the NBA. The problem is that most of those came in the second half when the game was out of reach. At halftime the team had four offensive rebounds and only 38 points, which means there were a lot of opportunities to collect those boards.
The Clippers suffocated the Blazers and prevented them from getting second chance points, and if Portland aren’t able to clean up the glass then it leaves them with few options to score.
In Transition
The Clippers did two things really well tonight. First they shot 56% from the field and 44% from three-point range. Second, they were looking to run every time they got the rebound or inbounded the ball. I would not go as far to say that LA was cherry picking, but the Blazers never made an effort to get back on defense, so the Clippers continued to abuse them.
Portland was lacking depth tonight, but some of this poor transition defense is simply bad effort. It is easy to say a team is tired, but the Blazers looked disinterested. The team seemed to be getting discouraged by the vice grip defense deployed by the Clippers, but you still have to hustle back on defense and not give up easy baskets. This is what led to the Clippers beating the Blazers 27-9 in fast break points.
Finally Getting Minutes
Towards the end of the third quarter, the Blazers were able to cut the lead to 20 points behind the inspired play of Banton, Kris Murray, and Jabari Walker. These three players have had an up and down season so far, mainly due to the lack of consistent minutes.
Banton was the leading scorer in the game for the Blazers, scoring 14 of is 23 points in the third quarter. Walker reverted back to his last season form, grabbing offensive rebounds, loose balls, and pushing the Clippers big man Ivica Zubac off his favorite spot in the post. Murray continues to play well off the bench, recording 29 minutes and scoring 9 points as well as holding his own on defense. The Blazers bench suffered tonight, but that was more due to the fact that Portland is still without a hand full of rotational players.
What’s Next
The Blazers will face the Houston Rockets on Saturday, January 18 at 7:00 pm, Pacific
