The Portland Trail Blazers ran out of gas on Wednesday night, falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-95. While the loss, the Blazers' fifth in a row, isn't what he had hoped for, head coach Chauncey Billups saw some positive developments despite the end result.

Coach Billups liked the effort

When asked in his postgame press conference if there was anything positive that he could take away from a loss like that, Billups didn't hesitate:

“Always, I mean for me I came in at halftime and I was so encouraged. I think we were down 7 or 8 and I thought we didn't play great but we was in there. We was in there scrapping and fighting…clawing.”

Billups then went on to elaborate on what he saw from his young Blazers team that had him so encouraged:

“Every time they made a run, we found a way to stop the bleeding and get back into it. So, I loved our fight there. I thought we played even in the third quarter, but they jumped out and got away from us in the fourth.”

The Blazers have an extra challenge

After a week-long road trip immediately followed by Wednesday's second of a back-to-back, it's understandable that the Blazers faded down the stretch. Missing Anfernee Simons, Scoot Henderson, and Malcolm Brogdon has left a void in the backcourt. Shaedon Sharpe has been playing heavy-duty minutes – most in the NBA – to try to keep things afloat. Sharpe played only 27 minutes in Wednesday's loss, including a long seven-minute stretch in the first half as Billups tried to get him some rest.

Injuries aside, overseeing a rebuild as Billups is with the Blazers is an exercise in focusing on the fundamentals. There likely won't be a whole lot of wins at the end of the season, and that's okay. The focus should be on reinforcing positive habits, setting a culture, and focusing on improvement from month-to-month, week-to-week, and even game-to-game.

It can be easy for young teams to slip into bad habits. Fans saw it with the ‘process'-era Philadelphia 76ers, as an obvious example. But repeated losing can wear on young teams. It takes time to learn how to win, but how can a team learn to win without winning? That's the challenge that Billups is embracing this season. So when he mentions the way the team fought to end a Cavs run and then played them even in the third, that's the exact kind of thing he needs to point at to keep his players' morale high.

Help is on the way

The good news for the Trail Blazers is that reinforcements should be arriving soon. Center Robert Williams III is out for the year after knee surgery, unfortunately, but 27-year-old rookie Duop Reath has filled in admirably in his absence. Malcolm Brogdon is seemingly day-to-day with his strained hamstring. His veteran presence is sorely missed on the court, especially when he shares the court for extended minutes with the reserves. Scoot Henderson should be recovered in a week or two from his ankle sprain. And Anfernee Simons just had his cast removed and is tracking to be back from his torn thumb ligament next month.

That might help the Trail Blazers win a few more games, but the goals remain the same for Billups: compete, claw, hustle, scrap.

Up next for the Blazers, they host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.