In a game that looked like a rock fight compared to the previous shootout, the Portland Trail Blazers beat the New Orleans Pelicans 101-93 in the Moda Center on Thursday night. Damian Lillard led all scorers with 36 points and Enes Kanter put together another double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Zion Williamson was the Pelicans’ top scorer tonight with 26 points and 10 rebounds on the night.
You can find a quarter-by-quarter description of this game in Ryan Rosback’s Instant Recap. After seeing it, here are six observations of the action tonight.
Improved defense effort
The Blazers had a great defensive night! Unlike Tuesday’s game, where they were unable to guard one of the cars on display at Lillard’s car dealership, Portland played with aggression and put the Pelicans to below 40% off the floor and 27% shot from outside. Since the Blazers let teams score 120, as if it was nothing just last week, it was a big improvement.
It was not always perfect. There was still nothing Portland could do to stop Zion, but truly, no one can really stop him. It was honestly a blessing that Brandon Ingram kept trying to start the action instead of Williamson. Otherwise, this paragraph on an improved effort may not exist because Williamson had more than 40. But overall, it was an impressive defensive effort.
Lillard is great, but everyone acted
Damian Lillard put up a fantastic 36-point performance from the previous game tonight. 21 of those points came in the first quarter alone and 26 in the first half. While the second half was not as spectacular, the first half set the tone for how this game would play out. Lillard continues to confirm himself as an MVP candidate.
Lillard had just 10 points in the second half. A team effort lifted Portland above the Pelicans towards the end, specifically on the defensive side. It’s always a pleasure to see a win that is not the result of just being Lillard absolutely dominant, or at least not ‘I have to score 50 points’. It was an ugly win, but it was a team win.
What does CJ McCollum look like?
Well, he’s working on it. It was a difficult night for McCollum. He shot 3-for-16 from the field, with the three buckets all coming out of three. He played hard and it looked like he was not badly hit by his foot, but his shooting was undoubtedly down.
Nevertheless, McCollum looked comfortable enough to shake Jaxson Hayes with a hesitant dribble in the fourth. It’s one of the plays we’ll not see a climax in, but it did tell me that McCollum was working his way back to speed.
This is going to be a difficult road back, especially considering the difficult schedule ahead. The second half of the COVID shortened season is going to be cruel for McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic when they return. How well they acclimatize can very well determine in which direction Portland’s season is going. With a regular appearance of rugby players, both returning stars will be thrown into the deep end.
Does Nassir cool down a bit?
Do you remember in February when we thought Nassir Little was the best shooter who could ever run a basketball court? No? I was the only one who thought that? Okay, cool … well yeah, Little is cooling down a bit. He has never had a large sample size, so it is not entirely surprising that his percentage decreases from the outside after shooting out of three for an entire month. But still, I want to see that he does not miss his only two tries of the night.
But I also do not want his missed tries to distract from the things Little did well tonight. He grabs six boards and gets a steal and a block and plays with his brand name energy. This is what you expect from him; the star shooting was just a bonus.
Few are starting to flatten out, but I still believe the shooting improvements are real.
Speaking of cooling off ….
Gary Trent Jr. do not make shots as before. In this match he has shot only 36% off the field and 32% against three in the last ten games. He scored a single goal for the field this morning on 11 attempts, which was 0-for-6 from three. He still played defensively with energy, but his value will almost always lie in what he does offensively.
Is this going to be the trend of Trent Jr. be? Will he alternate the rest of his career between an absolute flamethrower and stabbing each shot for different pieces? We don’t have to make statements about careers here, but GTJ is the kind of guy who lets the ball fly with reckless abandonment. Such players get cold every now and then. This is probably just a tough series from Trent and he will be back in a rhythm soon. It is not necessary to panic.
DJJ flies everywhere
It was a very fun night of Derrick Jones Jr. A reasonable portion of Portland’s defense performance stems directly from what Jones, Jr.’s. He had a career-high four blocks, as well as two steals, including some impressive defensive series. My personal favorite was when he blocked Ingram on the quick break, recovered and immediately blocked Williamson. It was an excellent series.
Unless he throws a highlight jam, we usually do not hear much from Jones, Jr. He’s a low-use player who handles the tough assignments for a defense that is usually not very good. But on such nights, his hard work is crucial to Portland. He had no one inside, but he made plays when asked and played a big part in Portland’s victory.
Following
Immediate summary
Box count
Next, the Blazers will have a short turnaround, as they welcome the Dallas Mavericks to the Moda Center tomorrow. Tip is set for 19:00 PT.