Blazers Burn Bulls in Energetic Outing

The Portland Trail Blazers entered their Sunday night contest versus the Chicago Bulls losers of five straight, looking like a team on the road to nowhere. The trip took a detour in this game. After a first quarter of all-too-familiar futility, Portland’s bench unit provided a spark in the second quarter that ignited into a full-on flame. When the smoke cleared, Portland ran away from Chicago with a 113-102 victory.

Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 27 points. Five Blazers scored 15 or more points led by Scoot Henderson with 25 and Shaedon Sharpe with 23.

Lightning McQueen

As the star of the Pixar Cars franchise will tell you, there’s no substitute for speed. The Blazers remain committed to playing fast on offense tonight, as they have been over the last few weeks. Two hallmarks typify their approach. Their guards and wings are running down the floor, no walking and little jogging. They also shoot without hesitation. On most plays they work their way into screen action and some kind of penetration fairly quickly too. The energy is nice to see.

There’s a difference between energetic and efficient, though, at least in Portland’s case. Few of the shots are arguable. They just don’t fall enough. The Blazers commit too many turnovers going to the rim and miss too many shots when they get blunted and kick out. The cumulative effect is, “Nice…but too bad about the result,” That can describe a lot of their games lately too.

Not tonight, though. The Bulls don’t play defense much better than the Blazers do. Portland’s persistence led to 47.2% field goal shooting 14 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points, and a massive 62 points in the paint. The fierce, energetic work was more than enough to secure the victory. At the heart of it, they controlled the pace, moving fast while the Bulls bogged down. Add all those blue-collar stats up with a 17-6 transition advantage? Bingo. Win.

First Quarter Defense

Portland’s attack might hurt opponents more if their defense weren’t so darn bad. In the first period Chicago obliterated the perimeter defenders for the Blazers. Zach LaVine started by hitting a three-pointer right in Deni Avdija’s face. That forced Portland to stay tight on him outside, which was like giving him an all-access subway pass into the lane whenever he wished. He took every defender the Blazers threw at him, blowing by them like they were turnstiles. We could criticize Deandre Ayton for not closing out harder at the rim for blocks and stops, but he barely had time. LaVine put on a clinic. His teammates took notice and started driving themselves. The result was a 34-point period that the Blazers had no hope of matching.

Second Quarter Defense

Portland fielded a more switch-worthy lineup against Chicago’s second unit, including Avdija, Toumani Camara, Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and Jabari Walker at various times. With little variation of height and speed, the Blazers were able to keep in front their Chicago counterparts, cutting off penetration without sacrificing their ability to close on three-point attempts. Portland’s mid-height players slowed the Bulls’ offense to a simmer early in the second.

As the quarter came to a close, the Blazers fielded a stellar defensive lineup featuring Avdija, Camara, Henderson, and Jerami Grant. That quartet was good, leaving so little space uncovered that Deandre Ayton’s height in the middle started to pay dividends, shutting off a phone-booth-sized area in the lane. Now Chicago was flustered, missing nearly everything, seeming unable to discern good shots from bad.

When the second period concluded Chicago had but 19 points and the Blazers had pulled even again on the scoreboard after getting blown out in the opening frame. The difference between the first two quarters was stark. There’s no doubt which should be the model for future endeavors.

Scoot Shines Again

Scoot Henderson was one of the stars of Portland’s turn-around. His offense came alive with three-pointers and drives, but even more impressively, he was active and hostile on defense. When Scoot is locked in, playing the game instead of thinking it, he looks really good.

Another developing aspect of Henderson’s game: his ability to draw fouls on the drive. He absorbs contact like a cement mixer. Tonight he earned 8 free throws. His non-scoring stats weren’t bad either: 8 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, only 4 turnovers. Hey hey.

Toumani Key

We talk about switching defense, focus, and activity, often highlighting players like Ayton and Henderson who don’t always defend well but seem to blossom with the right teammates. We should never forget that Toumani Camara is always the right teammate on defense. He is ridiculously sick, getting his hands in the dribble zone of point guards, standing in against the opposing center, and everything in between. Tonight Camara covered every opponent on the floor and found reasonable success against all but LaVine…himself a sick puppy on offense. Portland’s defense, such as it is, doesn’t exist without Camara.

Tonight Camara scored zero points on only three shot attempts and still helped turn this game. All hail our new defensive overlord.

Deni Offense

Deni Avdija continues to look comfortable with the ball in his hands on offense. His third-quarter performance was impressive as he drove the break, hit threes, and passed to teammates inside and outside the lane. The beautiful thing about Deni is that he can do pretty much anything on a given possession: attack forward, pass sideways, shoot, even alley-oop. It may not be enough to strike fear in the hearts of opponents, but it’s enough to keep them guessing. Avdija finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.

Sharpe Off the Bench

Shaedon Sharpe went to the bench tonight, a publicly-admitted critique of his defense by Head Coach Chauncey Billips. Sharpe appeared to get low and stay active defensively when he was in. He’s not got the instincts of Avdija or the hard-nosed commitment of Camara. It’s understandable that, with Sharpe’s athleticism and length, the coach might want more. But Sharpe isn’t the worst defender on the roster. Hopefully effort will lead to a little more precision and get him back on track. At least it was good to see Sharpe playing hard and not hanging his head.

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Boxscore

The Blazers will go coast to coast now, facing the Miami Heat on Tuesday with a 4:30 PM, Pacific start.