In a game that looked like a rock fight compared to the previous shooting, the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 101-93 at the Moda Center on Thursday night. Damian Lillard led all scorers with 36 points and Enes Kanter made another double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Zion Williamson led the Pelicans tonight with 26 points and 10 rebounds in the night.
You can find a quarter-by-quarter description of this game in Ryan Rosback’s Instant Recap. After you saw this, here are six observations of tonight’s action.
Enhanced defensive effort
The Blazers had a good defensive night! Unlike Tuesday’s game, in which it seemed unable to protect one of the cars on display at the Lillard dealership, Portland played aggressively and kept the Pelicans under 40% from the ground and 27% from the outside. . Considering that the Blazers were letting the teams score 120 as if it were nothing last week, it was a big improvement.
It wasn’t always perfect. There was still nothing Portland could do to stop Zion, but in truth, no one can really stop him. Honestly, it was a blessing that Brandon Ingram kept trying to start the action instead of Williamson. Otherwise, this paragraph about an enhanced effort may not exist because Williamson would be over 40. But overall, it was a truly impressive defensive effort.
Lillard is great, but everyone has raised
Damian Lillard continued his fantastic performance from last night’s game with a 36 point display. 21 of these points occurred only in the first quarter and 26 in the first half. Although the second part was not so spectacular, the first set the tone for how this game would play out. Lillard continues to consolidate himself as a candidate for MVP.
Lillard scored just 10 points in the second half. A team effort lifted Portland above the Pelicans in the end, specifically on the defensive end. It is always a pleasure to see a victory that is not just due to Lillard being absolutely dominant, or at least not, “I have to score 50 points” dominant. It was an ugly victory, but it was a team victory.
How does CJ McCollum look like?
Well, he’s working on it. It was a difficult night for McCollum. He threw 3 out of 16 from the field, with the three buckets all coming from three. He played hard and looked like he was not terribly affected by his foot, but his shot was undoubtedly wrong.
Still, McCollum seemed comfortable enough to shake Jaxson Hayes with a tentative dribble in the room. It is one of those plays that we will not see a highlight because he made a mistake, but it signaled to me that McCollum is returning to the game speed.
It will be a difficult road back, especially considering the difficult timetable that lies ahead. The second half of the shortened COVID season will be brutal for McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic when they return. How well they acclimatize may well determine the direction the Portland season will take. With back-to-backs becoming a regular occurrence, the two returning stars will be launched at rock bottom.
Is Nassir Little getting cold?
Do you remember in February, when we thought Nassir Little was the best sniper that ever appeared on a basketball court? No? Was I the only one who thought that? Okay, cool … well, anyway, Little is getting a little cool. He never had a large sample size to start with, so it’s not entirely surprising that his percentage of outside is dropping after shooting three lights for an entire month. But still, I wish he didn’t miss his only two trios of the night.
But I also don’t want your three lost ones to distract me from the things Little did well tonight. He grabbed six boards and hit and blocked, playing with his trademark energy. This is what you expect from him; the stellar shot was just a bonus.
Little is starting to stabilize, but I still believe that the shooting improvements are real.
Speaking of chilling ….
Gary Trent Jr. is not shooting like he was before. Entering this game, he was shooting only 36% of the field and 32% in three in his last 10 appearances. He made a single field goal tonight in 11 attempts in total, going 0 to 6 in three. He still played with energy defensively, but his value will almost always lie in what he does in the attack.
Will this be the trend for Trent Jr.? Will he alternate between being an absolute flamethrower and stopping each shot for different periods for the rest of his career? We don’t need to make judgments about career paths here, but GTJ is the kind of guy who lets the ball fly with reckless abandon. These players get a cold from time to time. This is probably just a difficult sequence for Trent and he will be back on track soon. There is no need to panic.
DJJ flies anywhere
This was a really fun night for Derrick Jones Jr. A lot of Portland’s defensive achievements derived directly from what Jones, Jr. was doing. He had a four-block career record, along with two steals, including some impressive defensive strings. My personal favorite was when he blocked Ingram on the counterattack, recovered and immediately blocked Williamson. It was an excellent sequence.
Unless he plays a prominent jam, we usually don’t hear much from Jones, Jr. He is an underused player who handles difficult tasks for a defense that is generally not very good. But on nights like this, your hard work is crucial for Portland. He contained no one inside, but made plays when requested and played a big role in Portland’s victory.
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Next, the Blazers will have a brief turnaround as they welcome the Dallas Mavericks to the Moda Center tomorrow. The tip is set for 7:00 pm Pacific time.