Blazers Attack in La La Land in Big Clippers Loss

The Portland Trail Blazers, coming off a game in which Scoot Henderson and Toumani Camara had career-high goals, were not prepared for the defensive buzzsaw that was the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. Portland started the game well, led again by Henderson, but as the second units came in for both teams, the Clippers tightened the screws and held the Blazers to just 38 points in the first half.

The Clippers, playing without superstar Kawhi Leonard, were able to switch things up on defense and disrupt what 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 lacked depth.

Deandre Ayton looked more engaged on the offensive end, but most of that was because Henderson and the team found him open to 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 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 hard to come by when your team is down by 29 points, but I liked what Scoot Henderson was able to do tonight against a tough Clippers defense. Henderson scored 16 points on 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 game’s MVP.

Henderson looked extremely clear whenever he had the ball. The Clippers put a lot of pressure on the ball and fly around the court to defend the three-point line. Scoot did a great job in the first quarter finding Ayton for the lob at the rim and threw a dime to Sheadon Sharpe at the 7:23 mark of the first quarter as Sharpe flew down the lane resulting in an easy layup. The three-point shot was a struggle for Scoot tonight, but the team as a whole shot just 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 Oct. 30, largely because Anfernee Simons went off for 25 points and carried Portland down the stretch. Tonight was a completely different story. Simons went 0-9 from the field and attempted zero free throws en route 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 was going to be a long night. The part that was hard to swallow was the lack of adjustments. Coach Billups and the Blazers staff have never found a way to get their arguably best player going. Just putting him in a pick and roll wasn’t going to work. Dunn and Jones were able to show long enough to recover on defense and never went under a screen. The Blazers need to get better at game adjustments to find ways to score when the opposing defense is locked down.

Offensive rebounding

Portland would end up collecting 14 offensive rebounds for the game, which is slightly above their league average that has them 6th best in the NBA. The problem is that most of them came in the second half when the game was out of reach. At halftime, the team had four offensive rebounds and just 38 points, meaning there were plenty of opportunities to rack up those boards.

The Clippers suffocated the Blazers, preventing them from getting second-chance points, and if Portland is unable to clean up the glass, it leaves them with few opportunities 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 looked to run every time they got the rebound or inbounded the ball. I won’t go so far as to say LA cherry picked, but the Blazers never made an effort to get back on defense, so the Clippers continued to abuse them.

Portland lacked depth tonight, but some of this poor transition defense is simply poor effort. It’s easy to tell a team is tired, but the Blazers looked disinterested. The team seemed to be put off by the Clippers’ vice grip defense, but you still have to get back on defense and not give up easy baskets. That’s what led to the Clippers outscoring 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 after 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 returned to his last season form, grabbing offensive rebounds, loose balls and pushing Clippers big man Ivica Zubac away from his favorite spot in the post. Murray continues to play well off the bench, logging 29 minutes and scoring 9 points as well as holding his own on defense. The Blazers bench suffered tonight, but it was more because Portland still lacks a hand full of rotation players.

What’s next

Box Score

Blazers will meet Houston Rockets Saturday 18 January at 19:00, Pacific