The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-101 at Moda Center, a sixth loss in seven games that pushes them to a season-worst 10 games under .500. What played out on Friday night was eerily similar to how the Blazers have consistently failed to capitalize over the last couple weeks, since a rash of injuries and COVID-19 absences left them woefully short-handed.
After trailing by double-digits at intermission, Portland stormed back during a sweet-shooting third quarter to come within four points of the visitors entering the final stanza. Robert Covington and the Blazers cooled off from three as Cleveland got hot, though. Cavs reserve Cedi Osman hit all four of his triples in the fourth quarter, while young stars Darius Garland and Evan Mobley combined for 16 points to help their team pull away from Portland late.
After the game, Chauncey Billups was asked if it's time for the Blazers to “recalibrate” expectations for this season as losses mount and Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum continue to watch from the sideline.
“No. No, I always want to win,” he said. “I'm never gonna re-calibrate that. If I have the chance to win the game I'm gonna try to win, man. Shoot, we've had two or three last-couple possession games late, and then teams kinda pull away. We be right there, though. It's just kind of tough. It's unfortunate and it sucks. But at the end of the day, you can only do what you can do.”
It's easy to chalk up Portland's late-game labors to the absence of its star backcourt. Was it really all that surprising as the depleted Blazers failed to muster efficient offense in winning time against defense-first teams like the Cavaliers and Miami Heat? Their struggles to close-out games date back to tipoff of 2021-22, though.
Portland's -7.4 net rating in the fourth quarter this season is 26th in the league, per NBA.com/stats. But offense hasn't been the problem even amid Lillard's early struggles and so many nights the Blazers have been forced to make do without he and McCollum. Their porous 118.4 defensive rating in the fourth quarter is last in the league by a whopping 4.4 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com/stats, bigger than the gap between the Denver Nuggets' second-to-last mark and the Memphis Grizzlies' 18th-ranked fourth-quarter defense.
Unfortunately for Portland, getting Lillard and McCollum back won't make its late-game defense any stingier. In that vein, adjusting expectations for the season's remainder would be prudent for Billups and his team. There's no trade-deadline deal that will morph the Blazers' defense into respectability.
Unless Lillard is shut down for good or the standings make this team's fate inevitable, though, don't expect Portland to be comfortable with losing any time soon.
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