It is not about this match, in which they could have an excuse. It’s about the whole season, about the obvious feeling that in the Trail Blazers they just wait for decisions to arrive in the offices, to change real things in the hard core. The effervescence, if there was any beyond the good words, of the arrival of Chauncey Billups to the bench lasted very little. I insist, yes is that there was. And after losing to the Mavericks in a calamitous way (117-132… and thanks), the Oregon team is 13-20. Seven games from 50%, with only six worst franchises in the entire NBA. If it was the year of looking for the step forward that Terry Stotts resisted … what they have taken is a couple of steps back. And that, at this point in the It was Damian Lillard it was something the Blazers simply couldn’t afford.
This time, yes, they can hide in casualties. CJ McCollum still hasn’t returned after his lung problem and COVID has left the infield rotation with nothing resembling an inside player beyond Larry Nance. But there was Lillard, and Norm Powell and a lot that included Simmons, Little, the aforementioned Nance, Snell … not much, but these are times. So for almost all teams. And the Dallas Mavericks arrived at their court, also devastated by the pandemic and with six players in the protocols, including Luka Doncic. And also Hardaway Jr and Kleber. The situation for the Blazers was very bad, even Billups is isolated, but the visitor invited us to think about scratching a victory, showing at least a fight. They played at home, they had Lillard, Doncic wasn’t there …
But the Blazers proved they don’t have a fight in their guts. Any. They wandered around the track, without a trace of anything resembling a worthy defense (they don’t usually have it with the full staff) and without much interest in rebelling.. Lillard was down to 26 points and 5 assists with a boring 13/14 free throws (only five baskets in play). Norman Powell scored 13 points on 15 shots … The any, a team without soul, without desire. That he saw as a shock the much more energetic and healthy attitude of the Mavs, who do have the courage to stand up to adversity. And that, in your case, they did have pivots: they scored their top points in the paint (68) in more than two years: it was an 8-34 in the first half, a stage in which Kristaps Porzingis had inflated: 24 points, 4 rebounds. The last quarter was mediated (with 94-123) and a final statistic of 34 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Dwight Powell also took advantage of the rival’s inner anemia: 22 points, 9/11 shooting.
But it was not only that: Brandon Knight, in full return to the NBA thanks to the floodgates of the pandemic, scored 18 points. Josh Green went to 10 assists. All red lights for the Blazers, who also did not match Finney-Smith (14 + 9 + 5) and Jalen Brunson’s (14 + 4 + 9) interest in winning. The Mavs (16-17 now) scored 72 points in the first half (53-72) with almost 58% in shots against a very diminished opponent but who did not seem to have anything else, who seems bored with himself and looks apprehensively at Damian Lillard’s mood. Something has to change in Oregon; something It will happen, surely, before the close of the winter market.